Just Call Me Conductor

Sometimes I wonder how people here perceive me.
I am a white girl living in a country that is:

"82% black, 13% mixed black and European, 5% European and East Indian, and trace of Arawak/Carib"

What I am saying is, I stand out. It isn't so unusual in the corner of the country where I live by the University, there are lots of students there. And it isn't even very unusual downtown in St. Geroge's because there are always white tourists coming in on cruise ships and docking their million dollar yacht in the Port.

But for example when I volunteer at PAM which is much off the beaten path, I sometimes wonder what people must think about who this little white girl thinks she is chillin' in the back of a reggage bus. 

Maybe people don't wonder at all.

But on Tuesday I got to be conductor of the reggae bus!
The reggae buses, or city buses are 16/20/24+ passenger vans. The size depends and depending on how many people are willing to pay $2.50, they will cram all customers in nooks and crannies in the van. 

As I got into the bus I took the second to last seat which is where the conductor usually sits. The conductor is the one who makes change, opens and closes the door, yells at people to get in, and sometimes tells the driver where the next passenger wants to get off.

(And as the conductor got out to give me his seat he saw a girl needing to get on, some how conjured a squishy seat pad, and threw it in a cranny between the wall and a chair and that was her seat!)

So when we got going I realized that being next to the door, it was my obligation to figure out how to open the door (sometimes a complicated process) and get out so whoever wanted off could get out. I got the hang of it and it didn't take me long to want to start making change and calling to passerbys!

Unfortunately as the bus emptied I no longer needed to open the door but it was fun while it lasted. Maybe next time I can prove myself worthy to take a bigger role in the reggage bus. And people can scratch their head at the white girl reggage bus conductor.