Author: ehokoda

The biggest critical incidence I have experienced in Guatemala has been my journey on the chicken bus. I have heard a couple explanations for this name: that actual chickens are transported on the bus from time-to-time and that people are packed onto the bus like chickens. While I cannot attest to the former, I can certainly confirm the latter.

At this point I would call myself somewhat of a seasoned veteran, as I take the bus each day from my host family’s house in Alotenango to my Spanish school in Antigua and back (a 25-30 minute ride each way). However, I remember my first time on the chicken bus vividly. It was the morning after I had arrived to my host family very late the night before. My host mom walked me to the busy street in front of the apartment complex where I lived and showed me where to stand before heading back inside. I knew what the buses looked like from my last trip to Guate (they are retired school buses from the U.S. which are painted vibrant colors and decked out to resemble almost an amusement park ride) and my host mom had told me they cost 5 quetzales (about 0.75 cents). There were no established bus stops but she told me that a bus would come every 15 minutes or so.

Unfortunately on my first trip I didn’t realize that I had to flag down the bus to get it to stop. I believe 1-2 buses passed by before one finally noticed me waiting and pulled over for me to get on. A man hanging out the door called for me to enter (who I would later learn is the “co-piloto” or “ayudante”). When I entered the bus I assumed like in the U.S. there would be a terminal to pay in the front but I didn’t see any place for payment or a ticket and the driver didn’t acknowledge me and started driving while I was still walking up the steps. I grabbed the railing to maintain my balance and turned towards the back of the bus to look for a seat. Surprisingly I was met with about 50 pairs of eyes staring back at me. The bus was full the the brim. Each row was so full that the aisle in between had completely disappeared. I tried to contain my shock and squeezed behind the driver gripping to the rail. Even more to my surprise, several more passengers boarded in subsequent stops, pushing past me and towards the back to fill in spaces that I couldn’t see but apparently existed.

About halfway through the ride, the ayudante made his way through the entire bus, squeezing in between the passengers packed like, well, like chickens. He somehow knew who had paid already and who had not and reached out expectantly for 5 quetzales from each person, expertly keeping the bills in a crisp stack in order in one hand while gripping the ceiling rail and pulling himself with force through the crowd.

Chicken bus chofers and ayudantes operate privately and are not part of an official public transit system in Guatemala, yet the fill this gap for daily commuters who don’t have a car or moto. While there are occasional inefficiencies in the system for riders (overpacked buses, irregular schedules, and manic driving), the chofers and ayudantes are in the business of making the most profit out of each ride and the fuller the buss the fuller their wallets. While Guatemalan’s accept the system, there is a noticeable effort by most folks to practice politeness, make room, share space, hold babies and backs for one another and offer help in calling for a stop. Riding the bus is a community effort and everyone recognizes it.

While I have occasionally felt overheated, anxious, squished, and stressed on the chicken bus, I find comfort in remembering that all of the passengers, like me, are just trying to get to their homes, schools, and jobs. While certainly less comfortable than riding the bus in my hometown of Seattle, I have enjoyed getting into the rhythm of the chicken bus and feeling more and more like a local each day picking up little things each time to improve the experience like having exactly 5 quetzales so the ayudante doesn’t have to ruffle through his bills for change, using the overhead rack for my backpack when there is room to sit underneath and keep an eye on it, staying towards the front on my ride home since my stop is one of the first ones, and more.

It is a strange yet comforting feeling to return to a familiar, yet foreign place. The first time I stepped foot in Guatemala was only earlier this year, on Christmas Day. I jumped on the opportunity to use my winter break free time and funding from the Keough School of Global Affairs to spend three weeks in Antigua, Guatemala studying Spanish. Since I left Guatemala in January I finished up my first year of graduate school and completed eight weeks of fieldwork and research in Nigeria. Being back for the second time in one year feels like a renewed opportunity to dive deeply into the language learning. With my coursework and fieldwork behind me and nothing hanging over my head or other responsibilities to tend to, I am excited to hone my focus on Spanish, and just Spanish.

Learning a new language independently has been an arduous task. I am grateful for the resources and opportunities I have found at Notre Dame to continue my Spanish learning journey which has largely been on pause since 2018 when I took my last formal language class in undergrad. With these opportunities at my finger tips I have felt compelled and responsible to utilize them and recommit to my language goals which have previously always been easy to find an excuse for or a reason to postpone.

As a U.S. citizen with a family who has been in the U.S. for generations on both sides, learning a language beyond English was unnecessary and even devalued in my family, school, and community. I never took formal language classes until middle school during which Spanish was the only option and classes took place for only an hour 2-3 times per week. This of course, did not set me up for success in high school where I chose to continue Spanish study over French (the only other option) and completed the necessary three years to graduate before ending my study senior year. At this age I, regrettably, didn’t see the value of learning Spanish and really struggled with the subject which made it harder to enjoy and easy to move beyond without looking back once I had completed my required coursework. Similarly, in college, I had to take through elementary Spanish III to graduate and essentially reviewed the same material I had learned in high school. After “learning” Spanish since age 11, almost a decade later I could barely hold a basic conversation, read a children’s book, or write a postcard.

Frustrated by the time I had sunken into this skill with very little to show for it and a renewed passion for intercultural understanding and exchange fueled by extensive educational travel and coursework I was privileged to partake in during college, I decided that I wasn’t ready to give up on learning Spanish just yet. As my interest in and passion for global studies grew, I realized how important language was in my pursuit to better understand the world and other cultures. I longed to move past the piecemeal, poor education I received in school and launch into immersive study that could provide me with lasting language acquisition and fluency. So, I applied to and was accepted to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay. I was excited for my Spanish learning journey to take root in Paraguay and bear fruit. When the pandemic hit and the program was halted, my concerns were focused more immediately on finding a different job in the U.S. and pivoting my career while my Spanish learning prospects fell away as yet another untimely casualty of COVID.

Enrolling in the Keough School of Global Affairs as a Masters of Global Affairs candidate has been a dream come true for multiple reasons, including giving my Spanish learning goals a new lease on life. My time in Guatemala earlier this year was transformative and helped launch me into continuing my studies at Notre Dame in Intermediate Spanish II last semester and receiving the SLA grant to return to Guatemala this summer. As someone who is always doing a million things at once, trying to allot time in my busy schedule for Spanish study on my own has been very difficult and my experience with immersive study in Guatemala earlier this year confirmed for me the success of this method and necessity of full-immersion for lasting and meaningful acquisition of the language. I hope that this experience will not only help me level up my speaking and listening skills, but also boost my confidence so that I can continue using Spanish in the U.S. with my Spanish speaking friends and colleagues outside of formal educational settings.

My failure to achieve Spanish fluency has been a chip on my shoulder since middle school and the road has been full of barriers including my own self-doubt and poor mindset, unhelpful pedagogies and bad teachers, lack of time and resources, and more. This summer I’ll be focusing on 1:1 daily private lessons and living with a host family in order to commit my full time and effort to developing fluency. I hope I am able to take advantage of this opportunity and time to be as intentional and committed to Spanish as possible during this next month.