This is the location of that computer lab with sixteen computers that we were told "no functiona." I was intrigued by the challenge, since I could think of no good reason for all sixteen computers to fail at the same time.
The trip to Las Canoas took about two hours and covered some very rugged and beautiful terrain. We arrived around 9:00 a.m. and after formally being welcomed by the director and her staff, who were in a staff meeting, we were led to the school computer lab. There we found the sixteen computers we had been told about.
I started by booting the first computer and was amazed to find that it worked! like most school computers I have seen in Guatemala, there isn't enough memory to waste with useless frills so I make some simple changes to reduce memory usage. I then loaded my favorite optimization utility, Advance SystemCare 3, which is both free and effective in enhancing computer performance. It cleans up a lot of junk, removes spyware, cleans up the registry, eliminates junk files, optimizes the system, defrags the hard drive and cooks supper. O.K., it doesn't really cook supper, but it's still a great utility. When it was done, I uninstalled a number of obsolete and useless programs and installed Avast, which is an excellent and free antivirus program. As a final flourish, I installed a neat typing tutor program that is designed for the Spanish keyboard, which is what is used in Latin America. This process was repeated on each computer in the lab that would boot.
In the end, we had fourteen computers that were operating significantly better than they had prior to our arrival. One computer had almost 400 viruses removed. Quite a few had severely fragmented hard drives. Only two computers and three monitors were non-functioning and the computers can probably be used for spare parts.
While we were finishing up, the school treated us to a most delicious meal prepared by the owner of a local comedor. I really wish we were close enough to eat at her comedor on a frequent basis, the meal was that good.
I had been led to believe that the public schools in Guatemala were rather backwards in their approach to education and that only the private schools were doing a good job in preparing their students for their future lives.
Now, I only have experience with three schools in Guatemala and I admit that, for purposes of research, my data set is much too small, but both Linda and I were impressed with the education that we saw going on at the Las Canoas School.
They are definitely doing an excellent job with the limited resources they have available.
The trip back took about two and a half hours, since John needed to stop at a shopping mall in Chimaltenango. Once again, we passed some fantistic scenery on our way.
We arrived back in La Antigua around 4:00 p.m. and decided to have dinner prior to doing a grocery run at the Bodegona and Dispensa Familiar. Once that was done, we headed to our favorite bus stop and took the first bus heading to Alotenango.
Lately, the chicken bus drivers have been stuffing their bus to excess capacity. At one point this morning, there were three people hanging out the front door (not us). Coming back this afternoon, every seat was filled with three passengers, the aisle was packed and even the front of the bus was filled with passengers. Nevertheless, the driver did deliver us to the road leading to our apartment and gave us time to squeeze out from the middle of the bus. We're thinking that we may have to start returning home at an earlier hour, say 3:00 p.m., to avoid this problem. It's getting so bad that the locals are starting to complain.
Tomorrow we return to Socorro School to finish up our work with the library computer. I was having a problem uninstalling an obsolete antivirus program the last time we were there and ran into the same problem on four computers at the Las Canoas School. Fortunately, I had a copy of Puppy Linux with me, so I booted it on each computer with the problem, used it to access the hard drive and changed the name of the subdirectory the obsolete antivirus program resided in. When I rebooted Windows, the program couldn't load and I was able to install the up-to-date antivirus program I had brought with me. I'm looking forward to trying this same trick on the library computer.
You might ask why I would need to use such tricks on these computers. Why didn't I just do a simple update? The answer is quite simple. None of these school have had Internet access. Without it, it's impossible to do an on-line update and alternative tactics have to be employed.
