Soraya Keiser
At 5:15 a.m. Checha Taj pulled up next to my team in his brightly blue and white colored camioneta. Lit up with blue LED lights in the dark morning light, it was an overload for the senses. Majo, Bryson and I all quickly climbed up into the bus and held on as Taj released the clutch and started his route through the cobblestone streets of Antigua.
Taj was used to waking up at 3 a.m. every morning for his job and was already very friendly and chatty. I, however, was not. And waking up in the dark to walk along the uneven sidewalks of Antigua under the light of a very dim moon had proven to be quite difficult for me, a person who typically needs at least eight hours of sleep to function properly.
So I sat in the front row of the bus, a little apprehensive, as Majo chatted with Taj and Bryson snapped photos. I was apprehensive about how the story would unfold, how safe the ride would be and how I was supposed to write down my observations as my hand kept getting bumped by every rock in the road.
Then people started getting on board. Cesar, Taj’s son, was first. He hopped on the side of the bus before it had completely stopped, grabbing handles on each side of the open door and swinging himself onto the step. As the brocha or helper for this bus, he hung off the side of the bus and started calling out Guate! Guate!
People waiting at street corners looked up from their phones or quiet conversations and hurried to hop onto the bus before it quickly went on its way. Taj would stop completely if a big group got onto the bus. If it was just one, he was often moving before the person was fully in the bus.
Just from these first 10 minutes on the bus, I learned that so many different people use the camioneta to get around. There was a middle-aged man going to find work in the city. An old woman with a basket full of produce to sell. A dad dropping his elementary school-aged daughter off at school. More and more people began to fill the seats, and soon, they were full. People began to stand in the aisle, holding onto the tops of chairs and bars hanging from the ceiling.
They were just going through the motions of a typical Thursday morning. And at this moment I realized that although this moment was new and exciting for me, it was extremely monotonous for most of the people on the bus with me. Monotonous for Taj. Monotonous for Cesar. Monotonous for their passengers.
And this made me see Guatemala differently. It wasn’t this exotic, crazy place that I was visiting for just a short portion of my life. It was a real place full of real people just living their daily lives. This shift in perspective shifted my perspective of the story as well. I didn’t want to sensationalize this moment. I just wanted to tell it like I was seeing it in order to do justice to the people I shared that ride with.