This morning we struggled up through the fog of sleep and got our act together so that we could meet John from Child Aid for a trip to another school 2 hours away near Lake Atitlan. John drove us in his Honda SUV up the mountain. They had a computer lab that has not been used in the past year or more, mainly due to viruses and things that were preventing the computers from proper operations. Bless their little pea-picking-hearts but this group was wise enough to cover their computers and monitors to help keep them dust free. They were the best computers we have looked at thus far. In short order we had run a System Care program to clean and defrag and optimize each computer followed by running a virus scanner all around. One computer had over 400 viruses! We have no idea how the viruses were gathered since they are not connected to the Internet. Don also loaded a typing tutor program on each computer which will give them a tool to teach keyboarding.
Each school we have been to have no idea why they want a computer lab. They have no teacher or curriculum for teaching computer skills that would enhance their program. The teachers in general have no idea what a lesson plan is or how it would help guide their teaching. Guatemalan schools are like a step back 30 or 40 years in time. Some teachers know that education is very important but the general population does not and could not care less about education. At any rate, we left this library ready and able to be used by whomever will be teaching computer skills. This school actually looked and sounded like education was taking place. The classrooms were in control (after the teachers were done with their early morning meeting and entered the classrooms).
John had said that the school would provide us with lunch today so we were really surprised at the meal that was served. The school is done by mid-day so the 'school lunch' we had in our minds turned out to be something different. It seems that one woman has a small 'comida' a.k.a. restaurant across the street. Our meal was served to us in the connecting library. It consisted of a bowl of a clear vegetable soup, the always present corn tortillas, fresh and hot, followed by roasted or baked chicken, mixed vegetables done to perfection, and rice, with a bottle of water or if you were brave instant coffee. It was the best 'payment' we have yet received for the work that we do on these computers.
When we were done with the computers there was the two hour trip back to Antigua. It was much more comfortable in Johns car but on the trip down he began to whip around the S-curves and up and down valleys which soon gave my anti-nausea bracelets a run for their money. Don asked how I was doing and I mentioned the growing difficulty and John smoothed out his driving and sea-sickness was averted. We stopped at a shopping mall in Chimal to return a backpack then made our way to Antigua for dinner and the trip to the Bodegona. We have learned that if we eat before we attempt the trip home we do better. The extremely overstuffed buses make the trip home very hard. They pack 3 to a seat and then cramme as many into the isles as possible. Exiting the bus at your desired stop is a trial and a nightmare. I am done by the time we get back to the apartment. We try to be headed home by 3 pm so that the buses are not as full and on those days we cook up a large pot of soup or stew.
