Finally, a chicken bus appeared and two riders exited. Three riders (Linda, myself and another woman) boarded and had to stand, since every seat was filled to capacity. Most of that trip was made standing in the aisle holding on for dear life. We soon arrived in La Antigua and quickly walked to the boarding area for the bus to Panajachel, which would drop us off in Chimaltenango. Although we were there early, it soon arrived and we loaded. Departing around 7:00 a.m., we were walking towards the entrance gate of the school by 8:15 a.m.
Today's task was simple. We needed to determine which, if any, computers had any potential use for the school. We also need to reassemble the dead units, so that they could be removed for recycling more easily. We finally determined that there were three computers with potential use remaining and possibly four. Although I once again tried to install two Linux educational distributions (complete Linux installation package) on the two systems running XP, neither had the memory to make it work. The other two systems, running Windows 98, lacked sufficient memory to do an alternative installation of the educational software. While we worked, we enjoyed hearing and seeing the students (preschool - third grade) singing, learning and playing. We especially enjoyed watching the preschoolers and kindergarten students participating in physical education. They were learning how to play basket ball, but it looked like the teacher was herding chickens.
We finished up for the day and headed out to the highway to catch the bus for La Antigua returning from Panajachel. We were concerned that they wouldn't stop, since the last time we rode back with them, they returned to La Antigua by a route that was different from their morning route. The driver and ayudante seemed to think that we would want to go back by the morning route, so they told us that they wouldn't pick us up. We decided to convince them to pick us up by making a sign with bold letters that said, "La Antigua." As it happened, the bus we wanted was stopped by the police (no idea what the problem was) just down the road from where we were waiting to meet it. We didn't even realize that it was our bus. Nevertheless, we were standing there with our sign when they came by and they stopped so that we could load. There were several English speaking riders who were quite amused at how we used our sign to get the bus to stop.
We were back in La Antigua by 2:30 p.m. and decided to stop by Pollo Campero for a personal size salad. Because of the problems with vegetables you can't peel, we've gone to Pollo Campero to satisfy our urge for salad. For only Q10 ($1.20), we get a side salad much like you would get at a U.S. fast food restaurant. We've done this a number of times since we arrived and have had no problems (you know what I mean). After our snack break, we went to the Bodegana to buy some items we needed and get some cash, since Guatemala is primarily a cash society. We then went to the mercado to replenish our supply of fruits and vegetables and find two small folding paraguas (umbrellas), since the Bodegana only had full sized models. Since it was almost 4:00 p.m. and we had eaten lunch at 11:00 a.m., we decided to celebrate the first (weekly) anniversary of our second arrival in Guatemala with a Big & Tasty combo meal at McDonalds. I don't know what is different about this sandwich, but I love the Guatemalan version. The U.S. version tastes like cardboard.
It was sprinkling lightly when we left McDonalds, but not enough to get our new umbrellas wet. When we got to the street where we catch our bus home, there was a chicken bus heading for Dueñas almost ready to leave and it was actually half empty and that was with no more than two people per seat. It wasn't until we were underway that I realized that I had achieved one of my life goals. Back in 2007 and on this trip, I've seen a bus named Esmeralda and wondered where it went. I planned to ride it some day just to find out. Well, now I know and have ridden on it. Now I'll have to find a new life goal.
We left the bus where the road to Dueñas split off from the road to our apartment. We quickly ran to the huge monument that serves as the marker for the cemetery and the adjacent fúbal field. It's actually a good combination, as the player's ancestors are always there to cheer them on.
Since it was still raining lightly, we opened up our new umbrellas and walked the short distance downhill to the road to our apartment. We were quickly back in our apartment and soon afterwards it began to rain more heavily. After a video chat with Donna, Nic and the twins in California and Robyn and Nathan in Texas, we began another vegetable soup for tomorrow's supper and washed a few items to tide us over until we can do our laundry.
Tonight's entertainment will be the latest Indiana Jones movie about the crystal skulls. It will be in English with Spanish subtitles. It's a silly movie, but fun never the less. Tomorrow we up at 5:00 a.m. for perhaps our final trip to Melotto School. How I wish that they still had those more powerful computers that were stolen from them. We could have left them with some truly powerful educational tools.
