Kim and  I, both new teachers teachers at the Escuela Makarios (Hi, nice to meet you!) just have to share a quick story about our last gua gua experience. For those of you who don’t know… a gua gua is a form of public transportation here. It’s like a bus, but they cram in way too many people inside, which provides many hysterical experiences for everyone. Most everyone on staff (and those who have visited the DR) have a funny story or two about a gua gua experience, but after Kim and I shared this story, everyone agreed our topped them all. Wow.

So, Kim and I waited 25 minutes for this gua gua, which is incredibly abnormal. We hopped into the gua gua to find a 90 year-old Haitian woman arguing violently with the Cobrador (the man who takes the money from passengers). We figured out she wanted her 5 pesos back, and the Cobrador was probably lying trying to cheat her out of her change. Kim and I watched her put her whole body into shoving him, grabbing his arms, pushing him around, and yelling at him in her slurred Creole. Kim and I were then shoved further into the gua gua and found ourselves directly behind another Haitian woman in her twenties leaning back with her legs wide open. She was sweating bullets and moaning. That’s right… SHE WAS IN LABOR! Can you imagine being in labor and having to take a public gua gua with 25 other people to the hospital?! Anyways, the Cobrador let a few more passengers off and the fight between him and the old lady got heated… as he turned away to help a passenger out of the gua gua, she turned and BIT him right in the back. She left quite a mark, and she never got her change. Kim and I were dropped off (laughing hysterically!) at the next stop, hoping the Cobrador would receive the same medical attention as the woman in labor.

Laughing still, Kim and Lauren (the new profesoras…)