The Little Muslim Bus

 

In America, school buses exceeding thirteen years of service are condemned and no longer allowed for public school use. But, as a private entity, we are allowed to use the bus but had to change the colour. A few minutes from where we lived in Paulsboro, was a yard where these condemned buses awaits prospective buyers. At that time, all we had was a seven seater van and about twenty students, so out of necessity, we went to the yard and before long were the proud owners of a mini school bus for a mere USD 500. Changing the colour of the bus proved to be a financial challenge at that time, so off to my favourite haunt "Walmart" to look for solutions. Armed with a spray paint nozzle, masks and cans of "army green" paint, Aimen went to work and single-handedly spray painted the entire bus. The kids loved the bus. Since it was green, they nicknamed it "The Little Muslim Bus".

The stalwart bus certainly did its part in reforming our kids. It bussed them to different masjids crossing numerous state lines for Friday prayers, it took them to faraway places like Connecticut, Catskill-upstate New York, Atlantic City, Virginia, Pennsylvania and fun places like Six Flags Theme Park and the beach. Apart from that, it also dutifully ferried them to silat demos to prestigious universities like John Hopkins and George Washington.

The bus hardly gave us any problems but one weekend, we came out of "Walmart" really late and the bus stalled and won't budge. Aqil, one of the kid's dad came in his little beady car to bail us out but ohhhhhhh, it would take him all night to ferry all 15 of us back and forth to Paulsboro. The kids were getting restless, so we did what we always do in times like that - zikir...a few kick starts later, the bus came alive, much to all our delight, and took us all the way home.

I missed that bus. It certainly outdid itself, given its age. Sadly, when we decided to go home for good, we had to sell it. I hope that the new owner would appreciate and take care our beloved little Muslim Bus...