Shout or You Miss Your Stop

You are in a small van with fourteen other people. There is no bell. There is no screen with the name of the next stop. The driver does not have a list, and nobody is going to help you.

Uko kwenye gari dogo pamoja na watu wengine kumi na wanne. Hakuna kengele. Hakuna skrini yenye jina la kituo kinachofuata. Dereva hana orodha, na hakuna atakayekusaidia.

This is a shared bus, and in many countries it works the same way. It leaves when it is full. It stops where somebody asks it to stop. Your job is to say something out loud before your street goes past the window.

Hii ni basi la pamoja, na katika nchi nyingi hufanya kazi vivyo hivyo. Huondoka likijaa. Husimama pale mtu anapoomba lisimame. Kazi yako ni kusema kwa sauti kabla barabara yako haijapita dirishani.

You only need two or three words. You say the name of the corner, or you simply say: here is good, please. If you wait until you can see your own door, you are already too late. Say it early, say it loudly, and say it again if nobody hears you the first time. The woman next to you will repeat it for you if you look lost. That happens more often than you would think.

Unahitaji maneno mawili au matatu tu. Unasema jina la kona, au unasema tu: "hapa ni sawa, tafadhali." Ukisubiri mpaka uone mlango wako mwenyewe, tayari umechelewa. Sema mapema, sema kwa sauti, na sema tena kama hakuna aliyekusikia mara ya kwanza. Mwanamke aliyeko karibu nawe atakusema tena kama unaonekana umechanganyikiwa. Hilo hutokea mara nyingi kuliko unavyofikiri.