bus accident

Saved by the hair on my little chin chin!
On Friday I was heading for my amazing birthday weekend which was to start with fabulous grilled cheese at Rachel’s house. Being the amazing school system that Samoa has, my classes were cancelled for Friday for tests, singing and sports. I had an awesome lesson planned, but I guess that’s fa’aSamoa!
Since there were no classes for me to teach, and I had already probably doubled the teaching hours I was supposed to do, I decided to go off for an adventure. It was either going to be to see the amazing sports day for the kolisi kids, or send in paperwork to the Peace Corps office that was already overdue from not having internet.
My desire to be responsible won and I headed to Salelologa to use the internet. Since I was not going to be in school I decided that I would be prompt with my visit to the city and head there early. I left my house at 5:45 to ensure that I did not miss the bus at all. Of course with my luck with busses, I had to wait a long time. After about 45 minutes, in which I got to talk to a lot of the girls headed to the games to participate in netball (still not sure what exactly that game is) and volleyball. The busses towards the event were packed with children crammed in there worse than a can of eleni (or I guess most people would say sardines…)
I have been on my share of busses that were four to a seat with people standing, but this was taking it to a new extreme! There were so many people on these busses that it was hard to imagine!
So there I was waiting for the pink bus to come when a teacher from Sagone pulls up to offer me a ride. I gladly accept and off we were on our ride to Salelologa.
Little did I know that that teacher saved me from a car accident.
I don’t know if the bus drivers from the north shore aren’t used to the roads on my side of the island or if they were just tired. But they were riding on the wrong side of the road worse than normal! Our car had to swerve off the road a few times in order to avoid an accident. That should have been my warning that something was about to happen.
I made it to the city and did my computer business before heading on the bus to Rachel’s.
I was beginning to hear rumors of a bus crash. But did not hear all the details until later. (Not that I still know all the deltails.) But the pink bus that I was supposed to be on collided with a bus from the north shore. The busses were driving too close to each other and touched going at a fast speed. (35 miles per hour can be considered fast for some people!)
The major problem with this is that it can get hot on busses, especially crowded ones, so some people lean out the windows. There can be arms, heads and other body parts out of the windows. Sadly at least one person was leaning their arm outside the window, and lost their arm.
In my life I have just missed being at a lot of scary events, and I am happy this is another one that I missed.