I feel that life experiences make us who we are. Not only do they give us knowledge, they also give us perspective and insight. (This might be perspective that I could have done without.)
Time: Late Fall, around 7:00pm
Place: Crowded streets of Valencia, Venezuela
Who: Two Mormon Missionaries (including me)
What: "BUS RIDE OF TERROR"
Disclaimer: this is a little long, so if you don't want to read it, don't start (cause it gets awesome)!
After an uneventful preparation day, my companion and I head out of our apartment to catch a bus to our area. Making our way through the crowded sidewalks in rush hour foot traffic; we reach the Bolivar Avenue and anxiously wait for a bus that will take us roughly five miles to a quieter area of town.
As a bus approaches we push ourselves into the crowd and hope to get a spot to at least stand in the aisle. The bus is now packed to overflowing, literally people hanging out the door. (I have been in Venezuela for nearly a year and a half now so I am completely used to this very typical scene.) The bus makes even more stops and everyone packs together even tighter in order make room.
By now we are nearly on top of the people who were lucky enough to get a seat. It smells funny, it's hot, and we don't have much personal space... at all. The bus roars down the avenue, music blasting, people chatting, the money collector yelling at people waiting on the street, and then... it happens.
Two people in the back row stand up and urgently tell us to take their seats and to get down. As they rush to the front of the bus, they tell everyone to get down and begin closing the heavily tinted windows as they go. (What on earth is going on?!?!?)
All of the sudden the bus is nearly silent, the front doors and all the windows are shut and there are only five people standing and each one of them has a pistol. Everyone else on the bus is crouching either in the aisle or their seat. In a flurry of confusion the robbers begin snatching bags, searching pockets, removing jewlery, taking belts, pulling off shoes, whatever they could grab.
"What are we going to do?!?!" I asked my companion.
"Maybe I can take them out!" he says. (He was in the Air Force before the mission)
"Are you CRAZY, there are Five of them and one of you" (because i'm not going to be any help, i'm about to pee my pants). With some firmness, I convinced him to stay in his seat and do whatever they asked "so no one gets hurt."
By this time we have generously donated: our bags with all of our teaching material, our scriptures, our wallets (with our drivers licenses) all our spare change, our name tags, and our belts. At least we still had our clothes... for a minute.
As the ring leader was yelling, telling everyone to stay down, he made his way straight down the aisle to the back row, and stopped. I was kind of relieved because I had nothing more for him to take. He stood me up and searched all my empty pockets and yelled in my face, "Da me todo!!!" (give me everything).
I lifted my head and tried to look confused and asked, "Que?" (what) the whole time knowing what he meant, but hoping I wouldn't have to.
I had barely gotten my question out when he yelled, "NO ME MIRAS!" (don't look at me), and slapped me HARD across my left cheek and began to tug on my shirt and tie. "DA ME TODO!!!" he yelled again.
I sat down, my face burning, completely bewildered and said to my companion, "They want everything! We can't get undressed on a city bus!!!!"
"We've got to", he urged me. "So no one gets hurt." (now he was talking sense into me)
I reluctantly removed my tie, which was quickly snatched by the greedy hands that had just slapped me. As I began to unbutton my shirt we were motioned to scoot to the corner. I noticed that about a third of the bus was now... not wearing much... just their undies. "What is going on?" I thought. By this point, nearly 10 to 20 minutes had gone by.
As I scooted next to the window, I could see that the bus had gotten on the freeway and was now speeding out of town. Where are they taking us and when will this be over...
...to be continued...
