Today was the day that we would be going to Chimaltenango to see what we could do with the computer lab at the Melotto School. We were sure that we had enough time to get to La Antigua, when we walked to the nearby road. While we were waiting for a chicken bus, a woman came down our lane in an SUV. She asked if we were going to La Antigua. We said we were and she invited us to climb in her vehicle. Her 5 year old daughter was sitting in the front seat wearing her school uniform. As we drove down the highway, the mother informed us that we would need to stop by her daughter's colegio, as today was the first day of the new school year. It was also the daughter's first day of school, so mother had to escort her to her classroom. After the mother returned, she resumed our trip until we were on the outside edge of La Antigua. As we entered the far edge of the town, she informed us that we could pick up a bus to the downtown area along the road, but she had to make a turn to go to work. We got out and walked the short distance to the parada (bus stop) and soon a bus arrived to take us the remaining way into La Antigua. We were about 25 minutes late and Kristen, who would be going with us to the Melotto School, was just about ready to leave without us when we arrived.
We walked to the chicken bus staging area behind the mercado and learned what bus we would need to take for the first part of our journey. Finding one, we boarded and began the trip that would take us to where the road we were on crossed the Pan American highway. There we would get off and find another bus to take us the short 3 kilometer distance to the road that led to the school. We learned that most bus drivers don't want to deal with short distance riders, but soon found a bus that would take us.
We got off at the road leading to the school and walked the short distance to the school gate, where the grounds keeper admitted us. The Melotto School is a small, private Catholic school that primarily serves poor children in the surrounding area. Although they had almost 450 students enrolled last year, the world-wide recession has reduced or eliminated much of the money sent home by Guatemalan workers in the U.S. This year, there are only about 320 students enrolled.
Once on the school grounds, we were greeted by students and staff who saw us. Once we entered the school office, we were quickly greeted by the school principal, who is a Catholic nun. Naturally, we had to visit with her for a short time, during which she asked if we would like some coffee. Linda and Kristen accepted, but I was provided tea. When the beverages were brought in, there were three cups filled with water, a jar of instant coffee and a tea bag. Linda make her cup of coffee only to discover that the water was cold. Kristen and I just drank the water.
After we had visited for a time, the principal escorted us to the room where the computers were located and I went to work. For the most part, the computers were muy viejo (very old). Two were running Windows 98 and three were running Windows XP. I started by defragging the hard drives, which seemed to help a bit. After a while, Kristen told us that the previous principal had been fired. Before he left, he had announced that anything that had been obtained for the school while he was in charge, was his! After seeing the state of the computers we were working with and noting that several had come from Germany, Kristen surmised that someone, perhaps the former principal, had made off with the newer computers and left the junk behind. Can you imagine anyone so low that they would steal items intended for children? On the other hand, the former president of Guatemala has been charged with diverting funds for a variety of projects, including libraries, into his personal accounts. Evidently there will be an attempt to try him for those diversions.
Before we left the school, we looked at the newly updated library that Kristen had created. They have a computer program to keep track of their books and Linda is going to enter the student information into the database for them.
After leaving the school, we walked about 1 kilometer to a small restaurant for lunch. After lunch, we boarded another chicken bus for the remaining distance to the cross road, where we would head back to La Antigua. After reaching the cross road, we quickly found another bus heading our direction, but we would be making a short stop at Child Aid's storage area, on the grounds of a school along our route. Kristen had asked me to check out a computer she had been issued. It was one of 40 that Child Aid had received from a U.S. non-profit. The school is on the site of a former military base. One of the provisions of the 1995 Peace Accords that ended the 36 year civil war was that most of the military bases would be converted to civilian use, such as schools.
We got off at the school and walked to the storage area, a former military barracks. Once we started setting up Kristen's computer, we discovered that we didn't have power cords for the tower or the monitor. Digging in a junk box and a closet remedied that problem. That was when we discovered our second problem. The only working electrical outlet in the building was ungrounded and we only had one ungrounded adapter. I suggested to Kristen that she pick up a power strip so that we could try again tomorrow.
Being unable to do anything more there, we walked back to the road and quickly boarded another chicken bus heading for La Antigua. Linda compared that trip to Disneyland's Space Mountain in daylight! It was quite a ride, but we arrived in La Antigua safe and sound.
Before returning to our apartment, we stopped by the Bodegana (a warehouse grocery/department store) and picked up a larger pot to make soup and some things to make a lunch for our trip tomorrow. Since it was close to 5:00 p.m., we decided to have dinner at Pollo Campero, the Guatemalan version of KFC. We had grilled chicken, Caesar salad (or so they said), corn tortillas and a Pepsi Light (Diet).
Supper over, we headed for the chicken bus staging area, found a bus heading our direction and held on tight. For the first time, I was able to convince a driver to let us out at the end of the cemetery. It took some convincing, but I was successful and we walked the short distance to our apartment.
Once home, we fired up our computers and had a video chat with Donna, Syd, Nic, Cos and Gia, while we fixed the soup for tomorrow night's dinner. Tomorrow our day will begin at about 5:00 a.m., so that we can meet Kristen at 6:45 a.m., so that we can board a 7:00 a.m. bus, because she has an early morning meeting to attend at the school. Otherwise, we will have to make the trip back to Melotto School on our own and I'm not sure we're up to it yet.
