Today, since Linda still wasn't feeling good, I ended up going into La Antigua on my own. Since it was laundry day, I hauled a laundry bag with me to drop off at the lavandaria we use and used in 2007, when we were last in La Antigua.
I didn't have to wait long for a chicken bus to appear and the ayudante grabbed my laundry bag and put it under the dash as I found my seat. When he came by to collect the fare, I once again handed over Q3 (36 cents), but this time I got no change. Maybe my theory of being accepted is incorrect. Obviously, more research is needed.
When I arrived in La Antigua and started to exit the bus, the ayudante grabbed my laundry and handed it to me once I was off the bus. I've seen this with others who bring large objects on the bus that are stowed in the front, but it was the first time it had happened to me. Very considerate, it was. (Sounds like Yoda, doesn't it?)
In no time, I walked over to our lavandaria, dropped off the laundry and arranged to pick it up around 3:00 p.m. I then walked across town to Socorro School enjoying the beautiful weather. I didn't see any snow or ice anywhere.
I arrived at the school around 9:30 a.m., rang the buzzer and was quickly admitted. Waving at the school secretary, I headed to the library. Once there, I booted the library computer. After logging in, it was up and running in less than 2 minutes. Not really believing that I had really solved its problems, I ran several programs that reported that there was no malware present.
I did have one problem that I wanted to work on. The computer has Microsoft Office 2003 installed on it. When I first tried to use it, it insisted that it needed to complete the installation process. I tried several things to deal with this irritation, but to no avail. Unfortunately, there is no installation disk for this or any computer I've yet to work on and without one, it will probably be impossible to deal with this issue. One possibility would be to install Open Office, but that would probably introduce its own set of issues.
About noon, I decided that I had done all I could do for the day with this particular computer. I do have a lab of about 20 computers on the floor above the library, but I'll probably have to work there afternoons when there aren't any students aren't in school.
It took me about a half hour to walk across town to Pollo Campero, where I had lunch, since they offer free Internet access. I ordered lunch and unpacked my netbook, which I had with me. I needed to do some grocery shopping at the Bodegona, but didn't want to be hauling around groceries until it was time to pick up our laundry.
After about an hour, I went by the Dispensa Familiar to get my second weekly infusion of cash. I then walked over to the Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española and studied Spanish for about an hour. I then went to the Bodegona to pick up the things on my shopping list. After checking out, I headed over to the lavandaria to find that our laundry was just about packed in our laundry bag. After paying for our laundry, I lugged it and my groceries over to where the buses heading back to the apartment load.
The first bus to appear was an Esmeralda heading for Dueña and I decided to take it. Once again, my laundry was placed in the front of the bus under the dash. This time, when the ayudante came by collecting fares, I received 50 centavos change for the Q3 I handed him. Go figure! Obviously more research is needed.
I got off at the intersection and lugged my groceries and laundry the length of the cemetery to the road leading up to our apartment. It was a little after 4:00 p.m. and I was tired.
We had an early dinner of scrambled eggs with onion and güisquil (pronounced: “weeskeel”), which is related to the cucumber and the squash. Here's a link to more information on güisquil: http://revuemag.com/2009/09/guisquil/ . I believe that I provided this link earlier in my blog, but you must not have been paying attention or I wouldn't be providing it again.
Our evening was spent watching a movie on television, doing on-line research, testing Edubuntu and video chatting twice with Donna, Nic, Cos and Gia. Nic and Gia got their hair cut today and we were able to check back to see the results.
Tomorrow we're joining a local expat group for breakfast at Cafe Condessa, which is on the west side of Parque Central. It will be interesting to meet them and find out why they moved to Guatemala and what keeps them here.
