Chicken Bus Stories

From Sarah and Mat in Guatemala:

I cannot even begin to count the number of interesting things that take place on camionetas. When a U.S. school bus is sent to Latin America, decked out in brilliant colors and decals (outlines of voluptuous naked women, cartoon characters, the face of Jesus), and turned into public transportation, well, all sorts of ridiculous things occur. Every PCV has dozens of strange stories. Mat and I have our fair share: Mat has had his butt soaked by vomit when he was puked on by a car-sick kid, who was then smacked around by another stranger that had received some of the projected fluid in his bag; while trying to store my giant camping backpack filled with food in the rack above the seats, the bus driver came to an abrupt stop, sending my pack onto the heads of two unsuspecting indigenous women and me to the floor – to add to my humiliation someone we know from our town and happen to work with witnessed the whole thing; we have experienced being squished into compromising positions against strangers or being used as pillows by the person sitting next to us; we have seen all sorts of animals – cats, chickens, turkeys, ducks; we have been ripped off by ayudantes trying to make an extra buck from the gringos. The thing is that the camioneta experience is completely normal to us now. I’m hardly ever surprised by what happens anymore.

I bet they’ve never had a bare, wet nipple rub against their thigh though…