Seeking first to understand others, then to be understood is a principle fostered by Stephen Covey as habit 5 in his book titled 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It is important to work on one's own competencies such that regardless of the prevailing circumstance, you are able to deliver.
I have learnt a couple of lessons from observing people’s behaviors while commuting to work other than reading eBooks. It has been a couple of months that I got Sylvia’s buy-in for us to use the booked fixed rate bus rides run by Swvl. Every morning, we share the same pick-up location a few miles from the flat we live, thereafter, each of us takes a different route and bus to our respective workplaces.
Having ridden the same bus chauffeured by the same driver, Stan, the regular passengers, grew fond of him. Personally, I made arrangements with Stan that he picks Sylvia and I every morning along the Southern bypass, an undesignated pick-up location (based on Swvl app). Stan agreed perhaps because it did not have any cost implication given that each morning the bus had to use the same route on its way from Karen. More so, I thought, our acquaintance may have obliged Stan to accept my request. A fortnight early, he had asked me to lend him money to purchase diesel for the Toyota coaster having unsuccessfully attempted to reach his boss over the phone. I didn’t mind to lend him given that the amount he was requesting was commensurate to my round trip bus fare for the subsequent 2 days. I could book my rides with him in advance. Today, I called Stan at about 6.00am which was our agreed time for pick up along bypass. It was Enock who answered the call, explaining that he would be our designated driver and that he had already arrived at the designated 6.15am pick up location which was few miles ahead. It then occurred to us that Stan had mentioned the previous day that he was bereaved. However, he had not given any indication that a new driver would be assigned to take care of his job. We made alternative arrangements to catch the bus at the designated pick up location.
The morning was drizzling cold, the red volcanic dirt road that connects to the bypass was soaked with intermittent overnight rain and it was muddy. On arrival, we found out that Enock had lied. I sheltered from the drizzles and chilly, moist blows of the wind by standing under the canopy of a nearby building as Sylvia hopped across shallow pools of water on the potholes, zigzagging her way to the waiting bus that would take her route. A couple of minutes later, the bus I was waiting for pulled over, Enock was just on time. A middle-aged woman dressed in dira and I quickly boarded the bus. Enock fumbled with the phone barely managing to check us in as he called out Grace’s name and my name from the mobile app as he received instruction from another handset cradled between his ear and shoulder. He was new on the job, he apologized. Grace indirectly asked for the new driver’s name arguing that Stan did not indicate we would have a new driver.
The sense of her entitlement for information on the change of a PSV driver she was used to was palpable in her statement.
The new driver introduced himself and requested for help in identifying subsequent pick-up locations in case the app failed to guide him appropriately. I offered to navigate him pro bono and took the co-driver’s seat.
A few miles down the highway, the bus pulled over to pick a disgruntled passenger. According to her, she expected the bus to have picked her up by half past six and not seven o’clock.
The driver checked her in and apologized for the delay. I felt like she needed to cut the new driver some slack, it’s not easy driving, receiving/making calls and checking-in passengers for the first time. We were all running late as traffic snarl-up caught up with us a few road diversions towards Kangemi and at the usual traffic bottleneck on the junctions of Westlands Redhill road link, Waiyaki way, and James Gichuru road. Enock expected to pick some passengers along the way. Unfortunately, some had opted to catch another bus to avoid running late, this was understandable.
Understanding someone doesn’t necessarily mean agreeing with them!
