Hounded...

After eighteen hours overnight on a cramped bus, i’ve finally reached Fresno. Now after having in total spent at least two whole days on Greyhound buses in total over the course of three different trips and three different routes (and most probably with more trips to come as well, both here and once i get to school), i think myself qualified enough to offer these words of advice to anyone who’s thinking of taking it – be prepared.

Now, i’m not shooting down the company or something like that (though i must admit there have been times, particularly last year when i felt very much like doing that), it’s just that especially for me identifying myself as a Singaporean coming to America and counting myself as one more familiar than the average S’porean Joe (or in the name of contextualization, Ah Seng) as to what this country is all about, every time i take a Greyhound trip i come into contact with a whole different image of America, perhaps a more realistic one if you’d allow me to say so.

Greyhound is generally not the mode of transportation that out-of-the-country tourists would take to get from city to city in America – not when there are options more in line with their higher price range, like tourist coaches or domestic flights. This same price range probably also applies to the average middle class American too (and boy is the middle class in America a big one...). Rather, it’s the mode of choice for hmm, how do i put it, some of the more colourful characters in American society. Although i took the Greyhound several years before, last year’s trip was a real eye opener for me – to see firsthand an aspect of society here which you by and large don’t get to see in Singapore, no matter how much you may attempt to familiarize yourself with it.

I don’t mean to criticize or judge (though admittedly there are points in time when that does happen) but rather, especially from the point of view of a Christian in another country, how do i react to the whole situation? This is especially so since i perhaps have a pre-conceived notion of America as a so-called rich and developed country – which makes it all the more hard to reconcile this notion with the stark reality that presents itself to me every time i take the bus. I have to admit that the general behaviour of many of the people that i encounter shocks me – i shan’t elaborate, but it’s troubling on many levels, one of them being that i simply can’t relate to such people and therefore to show love to them as Christ would is just whoa… It’s reached the stage whereby i am very reticent to take the bus unless absolutely necessary – particularly if it involves long hours and overnight travel. Of course, that’s where we need grace, but surely we have to ponder upon the issue more than just to that level right?

This comes in the light of having heard much and also seeing for myself during my limited time here about homelessness and poverty here – and how at least in the IVCF in the northwest Oregon area i’ve been told that a main motivating factor for students to join is that of social action – which therefore forms a much more substantial part of their ministry than it does back home (yes i am aware of the ad-hoc comm…). Then here am i, not even being very aware of the situation back in Singapore, let alone in other places like here. Well, i know for certain that in my time ahead here i’ll come into contact with much more of this less-publicized facet of American society – perhaps this is God’s way of culture-shocking me into changing the way i look at others…