Anytime I have to take a trotro, which is very often, I look out for ones with enough room for my long legs. Now, that is not always possible especially when I am in a hurry or they aren`t just available.
Some have more than enough room to accommodate my legs. Some make me fold my legs like a cloth haha. It’s worse for my brothers who are much taller than I am.
Generally, people are nice and willing to sacrifice some comfort to give me enough. I can’t really recall ever having someone upset that my legs took too much room than each of us paid for.
However, the story seems to be different for plus size people I meet in trotros. People are either angry or laugh about it which makes them uncomfortable. Sometimes, some utterances break into a fight.
On one occasion, the plus size guy was so embarrassed that he went to squeeze himself into the front seat immediately the passenger got down.
Some also try to “help” their fellow passengers by tilting their body, apologising or making fun of the whole situation. One day, l was squished between 3 plus size women. One of them looked at me and said “we’ll soon get down and you’ll be free. We both laughed and that was it.
On another occasion, a plus size guy joined me at the back of a taxi and there was no more room. Yet, the driver picked a 3rd passenger. My hands were stuck in one position to the extent that I could not even take out my purse to pay the driver. Realising this, he tried raising himself up and stayed that way, all the while trying to engage me in a conversation to “lighten up” the awkward situation.
Whether long legs or plus size or just anyone carrying more load than okay for one person to carry in the kind of public transport we have in Ghana for the everyday Ghanaian, no one should feel entitled. Give me more room because I am tall or plus size or carrying more load. However, very few Ghanaians can afford to just take a taxi every day because they have long legs or are plus size or have more load for their commute.
Therefore, perhaps, we can give one another grace. Those of us taking up more space, should not try to fight or argue with everyone or bully others for our own comfort. The rest of us too should try to empathise with those “gifted with extra”.
Grace is what we all need. Bearing in mind that it is but a short trip and we might never meet again.
Till we have better transport systems that consider physical differences even for PLWD, let’s try to give up some comfort sometimes. We are each other’s keeper.
