The Bus Again

All my cool Sudanese experiences are on the bus. That's what I get for going to an American school.

See, every time somebody gets off the bus, you have to move back and fill up their seat. One morning going to school, I had to get up and let people off, and then move back, about 5 times. For our bus ride, that means every other minute.

Finally, I ended up on the very back row, next to a local girl about my age, dressed in her school uniform (powder-blue fatigues and a white shawl over her hair). It's kind of unusual to see girls traveling by themselves on the bus.

She turned to me and said, in accentless English, "What's your name?" Which pretty much blew me away. I mean, people are always saying things like that to us, but just to practice. Not actually trying to start a conversation. And not sounding so fluent.

So we had this whole little conversation, riding the bus together to school. Her dad was at university in England or Scotland for several years, and so her whole family lived there while he studied. Now they're back in Khartoum.

When I got off, she said, "Okay, have a nice day!"