Thanks to my encounter with the Blue Mountains last week, which was mostly delightful, I have a dramatic gash on my left shin from falling. Looking back, I’m not even sure how I got cut up, because it was on a path covered with leaves. But all of a sudden, I was sprawled on the ground and then within seconds, a very strong gentleman hoisted me back to my feet. I had about 15 minutes of acute pain, during which I wasn’t sure I could walk anymore, but I kept going and apparently walked it off.

It looks worse than it is. But this means many people have stopped me to comment on it. This includes both people I know and don’t know. They say: “Ya cut up ya foot!” At first I was confused because I’m wearing shoes, of course, that cover my feet, and anyway, the cut is on my shin. I quickly pieced it together, though. Jamaicans call the entire leg “foot.”

So, I did cut up my foot. It is healing nicely and one man suggested yesterday that I go in the sea a lot. I wish. 

Perhaps this wound is making the coaster wrangler feel sorry for me? I bring you the coaster update now, back by special request. This week, it has been a mostly uneventful ride, almost pleasant, in fact. This is because most mornings this week, the wrangler has guided me onto the bus and yelled “Put her up there!” Up there being the front of the bus where there is a seat. So everyone has to wait while I scramble over one person sitting in the aisle and awkwardly swing my legs and arms about to do so. 

I’ve concluded that the coaster is like a grand-scale human version of Tetris. These little buses have a suggested capacity of 29 people, but this seems less like a bureaucratic prescription and more like a joke. I would say, on average, there are about 50 people on a coaster during rush hour. So you are literally squished body-to-body with people, trying in vain not to pitch forward every time the bus screeches to a halt. The Tetris element comes in because some enterprising person decided to add seats in the aisle- they fold up when someone needs to get by. 

So when someone yells “Bus stop!” way in the back, everybody must get up, fold up their seats and wait for the person to pass as the wrangler yells “Let er off!” It happens surprisingly quickly and efficiently and people are very cordial with each other. People mostly get annoyed with the bus driver as sometimes they don’t feel like stopping or they drive too fast. You’ll know they are annoyed because they will start critiquing the driver out loud, to no one in particular. 

Ah, coaster, I still love you.