2 Lessons from the Madina Bus Queue

By Shepherd Yaw Morttey On Sep 8, 2016

The Madina Lorry Station on a rainy afternoon

I have been back in Accra for just 3 days and it has not been a bit boring. I get to go to town whenever there is the need to. This week, I have been helping a friend around Haatso get some stuff done. This requires me to go there almost every day that I need to help. I am quite familiar with the transit here in Accra and I know how to dodge aa the heavy traffic and get the lowest fares on the Trotro as well.

I usually go to Madina from Haatso then board a Trotro from Madina home. This way, I spend just GHS 4.30 getting back home, as well as save time. Yesterday was however different. I got to Madina and met a very long queue. It was quite unusual and I later asked one lady the cause of the rare phenomenon. She explained that one of the roads that leads Spintex to East Legon had been closed for maintenance work. I had to stand in the queue and wait for my turn – as courtesy demands.

I will however share 2 lessons I learnt that evening with you in this blog post.

Patience:
The queue was a very long one and I think it would have taken about four 207 busses to load before I even stood a chance to enter the fifth one. I realized a lot of people could not bear to wait and as a result were leaving the queue to maybe get another bus from somewhere else. I observed that as they left, the queue became shorter and that means I and anyone after them now stood a better chance of entering. Some eventually came back but they were not allowed to “enter the queue”. Rather, they were made to go back to the tail end. I thought: “You were not patient enough, now you have lost your chance”. Patience is a virtue, one that I sometimes do not possess, but I am ready to change that. What about you? Remember, Galatians 5:22.
Opportunities:
Opportunities are sometimes very hard to see. Opportunities are after all just a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something. While in the queue, a 207 bus came into the lorry station. Instead of following the queue and thus allowing passengers to board the bus according to the order in which the queue has been made, the conductor just got out and shouted: “Spintex”. The queue was destroyed at that instance. I saw an opportunity to get into this 207 bus and thus get home earlier. Everyone else who saw this opportunity also was in a matter of seconds struggling with me to enter the bus. After a long struggle which endured within a matter of just under 50 seconds, I was rather uncomfortably seated in the bus. I saw the opportunity, I took it and it paid off.

Transit in Accra is difficult in the evening amidst heavy traffic.

Patience is a virtue; it is very important we possess it in our daily lives but we should not use patience as an excuse to procrastinate (although it has been said sometimes that procrastination leads to productivity). Been patient does not mean a lackadaisical attitude towards tasks that should be done. In fact, we need to determine where and when to be patient. Bottom line, possess the virtue, know how to use it.

When we find opportunities, we should learn to take them. I remember telling a friend recently: “Anything I see bia, I go apply”. It’s better to try at an opportunity than to let it slide by and regret later. Most often than not, opportunities are great chances for progress and advancement in our everyday lives. Find opportunities and take them now.

I have given you the opportunity to leave a comment on this post below. I am patiently waiting to read what you have to say!