As I walked out the front door, I saw that Fuego was looking rather calm. (Note: this was before I had discovered that he had been falsely accused of being the source of Sunday night's loud noise.) I quickly walked down to the highway and, almost immediately, a chicken bus appeared and stopped to pick me up. It was only partially filled. There were three people in each seat, but the aisle was half empty. I stood for a short while until someone got off and I was able to rest one of my cheeks.
Soon the ayudante came by to collect fares and I experienced the first surprise of the day. I handed him my Q3 (36 cents) fare and he gave me 50 centavos (6 cents) in change. This had never happened before. Could it be that we had moved from being mere gringos to being accepted as part of the community? It's really too early to say. More research is required.
We quickly arrived in La Antigua and I decided to walk to the school. I arrived there at about 9:00 a.m. and buzzed for admission. After identifying myself, the secretary buzzed the new electric lock and I was able to enter. This new lock was one of the first changes instituted by the new director. I guess you could call it her first accomplishment.
After greeting the secretary, I headed up to the library, where I immediately booted the computer I'd already spent so much time on. To my delight and surprise, it actually booted in a reasonable length of time.
For the next two hours I ran about four separate programs, some multiple times, designed to clean different types of malware from computers. In the end I had removed 14 rootkits, 1 worm, 26 spyware programs and numerous virsuses. When finished, the computer worked much more efficiently and even booted from the off state in less than 2 minutes.
About 9:15 a.m., I felt a strange rumble and asked the librarian if that had been an earthquake. She acknowledged that it probably had been. Almost immediately, a much stronger earthquake occurred, later labeled by USGS as 5.4 on the Richter Scale, that made me feel as if I was encased in one of those jello molds that are wiggle when placed on a plate.
Fortunately, there was no damage and no one was injured. This was my second surprise of the day.
At about 11:00 a.m., I had done everything I could do on the library computer for the time being, so I decided to leave for the day. Although only two hours, I had accomplished more that day than I had done in most of the past week. This was my third surprise of the day.
On the walk back, I called my mother in Beaumont, Texas and chatted with her about what we were doing in Guatemala. She even rode with me on a chicken bus for a short time. Soon the ayudante came by to collect tolls and I once again handed him the Q3 that I understood to be the standard fare. Once again I was handed 50 centavos in change. This was my fourth surprise of the day.
Now with the reduced fares I'd had and an additional 10 centavos coin I had found on the ground while waiting for the bus to return to the apartment, I was up a cool Q1.10 (13 cents) for the day. If this trend continues, I can see real wealth on the horizon!
My fifth surprise was that the bus was so empty, that I had an entire seat to myself. Of course, because of that, I took my backpack off and laid down my walking stick. Later, when I started to get off, one of the other passengers hurried to the front of the bus to return my walking stick. This is just another example of how friendly and caring the people of Guatemala have been to this particular gringo.
My sixth surprise of the day was my success in managing to get dropped off right at the road to our apartment. Of course, an alternative explanation could be that they also dropped off another woman at the same time who turned out to be our downstair neighbor's maid. Oh well, it was still a surprise.
Back at the apartment, I had my lunch and eventually decided to take an afternoon nap. Later in the afternoon, thanks to a heads-up from Susan, I manged to call my step-father and wish him a happy 86th. birthday.
Supper, computer maintenance (I've got to take care of our computers, too.), video conferencing with Donna, Nic, Cos and Gia in California, on-line research and blogging took place during the rest of the evening. Tomorrow, we have to take the laundry in, do grocery shopping and begin tackleing the computer lab on the floor above the school library.
