Beinvinedos Escuela de la Montana

Sunday, Feb 6, 2011

We are at the mountain school. At 5:30 this evening we were taken to meet the families with whom we’ll be dining for the next week. Jeff and I are assigned to Maria and Jorge. Jorge works here at the school and is in charge of the garden. I imagine we’ll find a lot to talk about. We’ll be living at the school, but will take all our meals with our family.

This morning was our last meal with Violeta and her parents and she cooked up quite a spread for us. Chorizo and another type of sausage, eggs with tomatoes and onions, black beans and tortillas. I started my packing last night because it always seems like it takes us longer to pack than we think. Sure enough, this morning as Violeta was getting breakfast ready, she asked if we could put some of our photos on to her thumb drive, so Jeff said sure. Of course that meant he had to transfer them from the chip to our laptop, then resize them to export for her. And he discovered a virus on her thumbdrive. When he started to explain that he couldn’t fix it without connecting to the internet, Violeta pulled out a new router that she’s been meaning to install. So Jeff ended up installing that for her, which was pretty impressive given the instructions were in Spanish. All this took up the time we had planned to use for packing, so in the end we were a little rushed and panicky.

Violeta called a taxi for us and the guy told her he would be there in 5 minutes. Fifteen minutes later he showed up. And then two blocks after leaving Violeta’s house, he stopped for gas. Incredible. We were trying to meet up with some of the other students who were also on their way to the Mountain School, but when we got there, we didn’t see them, so we just got on the bus headed toward the Ecuela de Montana and waited for it to fill up so we could leave. After 5 or 10 minutes we saw the girls walking toward us, so we ended up traveling together after all.

When the bus pulled out, it was not yet full and the driver crept along the streets in first gear looking to add fares. Before long, the bus was full, but that didn’t stop them from jamming folks on. I really thought I had been on some full buses, but nothing so far can top this. By the time we got to the mountain school, there had to be over 80 people on that bus – probably more. We were sitting 6 or 8 across in the back, and they really pack them in at the front, so I couldn’t even hazard a guess at the total number. Eventually, people just had to stand, and then they were standing so thickly down the center, that the ayudante had to climb on the backs of the seats in order to work his way forward collecting fares. Several days ago I commented to Jeff that, although they may think otherwise, the laws of physics are NOT suspended in Guatemala. Today I think I was proven wrong. Two things CAN occupy the same space at the same time. In addition to the crush of humanity, we had on the roof two large baskets of live chickens and ducks. It was truly breathtaking.

It was pretty entertaining to the other passengers when we had to get off. Jeff had put our two daypacks and the mandolin up on the overhead shelf and then we moved back a few more seats. That meant that as we were moving, he had to try to shove his way through the packed bus to collect them and then pass them back to me and return the way he came. We exited through the back door and by that time the ayudante had our bags down from the roof. Charlie was still trying to get out the back door when the bus began to move away. Thank God she was still completely on the bus and managed to hang on. We hollered and the driver stopped, so she got off safely, but was a bit shook up about it.

Things are never dull on Guatemalan public transportation!