My schedule solidifies

Thanks to a couple meetings this week, my schedule has solidified so that I'm busy every weekday morning. I'll be working one day a week in Totonicapán, teaching computer skills to workers in the county school district office. Two days a week, I'll be helping out a 4th grade teacher at Escuela de la Calle, an elementary school for poor and working kids in Quetzaltenango. Another two days a week, I will be traveling to Olintepeque (all of these places are spelled just like they sound) to teach computer lessons in a very small rural school.

I went to NUFED, the school in Olintepeque, today for the first time. First I had to wake up, which was a little tough because I had drunk quite a bit of wine the night before with my landlords and some of their friends. But I did eventually get out of bed and into the shower, and went to the center of Quetzaltenango, where I was scheduled to meet Iojana at 7 a.m. so that she could show me how to take public transportation to the school.

When I knocked on the door of the meeting place, a man across the street began talking to me. I turned to him as he said, "All I know is that I'm supposed to pick up an American who knocks on the door." We agreed that he must mean me, and we introduced ourselves. Jorge was in his late 50s or early 60s, with some silver dental work and a bit of scruff on his face. We turned away from the door and started walking, and he surprised me when he said, "I have my motorcycle."

I have never ridden a motorcycle. In my Peace Corps days, I knew that any volunteer who was caught on a motorcycle would be instantly sent home. Motorcycles, I have been taught throughout my life, are incredibly dangerous things that should never be ridden. Especially in a city like Xela, where traffic is insane and everyone operates on a faint knowledge of right-of-way laws as they cross blind intersections, getting on a motorcycle seemed to be suicide.

Well today I rode a motorcycle, and I didn't die. The ride was about 25 minutes, and I have to admit it was pretty cool. And let me dash anyone's hopes for my safety; I was not wearing a helmet.

So many things happend at the school, and my internet time is nearly up, so I'll have to save more for another day. But this school should be fun, and I'm moving up from my previous developing country computer lab, because instead of having Windows 98 on all the computers and only one computer for every three students, I now have computers running Windows 2000 and a computer for every student. Very exciting stuff.