Sharing is Caring

I spent a lot of time on buses the last week and a half, making a trip to visit my old training community and then making a trip up to the other corner of Costa Rica, to Dos Rios de Upala, helping out another volunteer with a project in his site. All this time on the bus reminded me of a most annoying aspect of bus rides in developing countries. For comparison, I'll never forget when Danthemanstan and I were riding a train in South Korea, enjoying an animated conversation and we were told by the train attendant to please talk in lower voices so as to allow other passengers to sleep. Well, that's most certainly not the case in Costa Rica. Instead, many a Costa Rican likes to share his music with the rest of the bus. I am unwilling to accept the excuse that someone with enough money to buy or rent a phone that plays music and has speakers can't afford head phones. So, I attribute it simply to poor manners. I said developing countries earlier, because this was a dominant trend in China as well, and I feel like I've encountered it in some other countries. My buddy Dave and I always used to joke in China that the people blasting music were just sharing music, looking out for the greater good. 


Having never had the audacity to play music out loud in an enclosed public space with no escape (a bus), I can't begin to understand the thought process. From what I've seen, any cell phone that has radio or music playing capabilities comes with headphones. To a certain extent I'll accept the "I forgot my headphones" claim, but there's really no way that this many people are forgetting their headphones this often. I generally think the thinking behind playing music out loud on a bus is in fact non-existent. The people doing this aren't people that were ever taught to think about others and how they might feel. Why so negative about these music sharers, you might ask. Mostly because music sharers aren't generally offering up choice music. Instead, it's usually reggaeton or some other highly mechanized dance music that I'm not very attracted to. Even when it's good music, if my bus plan was to sleep or read, it's still quite annoying. 


While I know that most readers back home aren't riding buses on a very frequent basis, some might use the metro fairly often, and that's a fairly good comparison, although, you're usually not on the metro for three or four hours. So, instead, perhaps try sitting on the couch for a couple of hours, and invite the nearest neighbor kid to come play her favorite type of music out loud next to you for the entire time. Welcome to bus rides in Costa Rica. Well, that's too far, welcome to one out of every three or four bus rides in Costa Rica. The other ones usually just involve a baby's elbow in your side or two old guys next to you talking incessantly about the price of truck tires.