viernes, 26 de enero de 2007

Chicken Buses and Human Rights

Our trip to the Friday Market at San Francisco El Alto was my first encounter with the infamous chicken bus. A chicken bus is a regular school bus that was retired/condemned in the US decades ago. They all emit clouds of black smog, which is the primary reason Xela is so poluted and they're nearly all painted in wild colors. Their racks on the top are usually loaded down with goods being transported to various markets. True to its name, today's bus did in fact have a basket of chickens accompanying us on our way home, although these lucky chickens were on racks above our heads, and not strapped to the outside. Chicken buses are dirt cheap, it was only $0.50 for an hour trip, but they're quite uncomfortable as they are never never full. They will easily fit 115 people (we counted) on a bus that says it maxes out at 55. They also very rarely come to a complete stop. The guy who collects money jumps out as the bus slows down, rushes everyone on the bus, pushing the slow moving/elderly onto the bus, and then hops on himself at the last second as the bus is pulling away. I'm really not looking forward to spending 3 hours on a chicken bus tomorrow morning on the way to Pana, but for under $3, I'll take it.

Thursday I started working with the Human Rights organization down here. It's really interesting... we had a conference with a couple men from a nearby community who are having problems with the municipal leaders. I got to help create the game plan on what to do about it, and if they stick to schedule (which is a huge if down here) I think it'll be fairly effective and I'll get to see the whole thing through. I'm really not sure why they want my input and advice though, it's not like I have any experience, but they seem really excited about having me there, and getting me involved, and they're wanting me to go with them to visit the communities and everything, which I'm really excited about. The school is trying to talk me into being their coordinator again, and they're pretty insistent even though I told them I'm really not interested. They said to take a week to see what kind of commitment the Human Rights is going to be, and then see if I can schedule them both.

Plans for tonight include a salsa lesson, dinner at an Indian restaurant with everyone from my Spanish school, and Omar's concert at the Brooklyn Cafe, then we're off bright and early tomorrow morning to visit Panajachel at Lake Atitlan.

2 comentarios:

MSS dijo...

Sounds like you're stumbling into the experiences you wanted to gain. IJM will be calling befor you know it:).

Holly dijo...

Wow Amanda, it seems like you are getting a great deal of experience over there and exciting times! Yay for that! BTW...you would be proud of the Harding students. Friday night at a concert in the Benson tons of students flooded the stage to shake their thing, it was definately Harding's version of a riot! I think we might get a lecture tomorrow in chapel! Miss ya!