day 15 of 19: bus adventure

The boys and I went on an adventure today. (Sidenote: Kim went to La Ceiba, the nearest city, with a friend, Joelle, to stay overnight and explore the city.) We all boarded the "chicken bus" at 10:30 this morning. I'm not sure why they call it that but it might be because they pack in so many people. Or it might be because people hall chicks on the bus to their houses and full-size chickens on the bus to sell them. We got on the bus at the hospital and were planning to get off at a town called Lis Lis to go to the local school to talk with teachers who know no English (oh, did I mention I know very little Spanish, pretty much none). Two other guys from the hospital helped me try to figure out where the Lis Lis stop was but we were just giving it our best guess. We got off and stopped at the pulperia (snack shop/store in someone's house) to get the boys a snack before the school. I was told by Dr. Don that we could throw a rock to the school. Well, we couldn't see it but kept walking. The further we walked the more concerned I got. I just thought, the worst that could happen is that we will not find the school and just catch the next bus in an hour back to the hospital. We kept walking and starting hearing kids singing and reciting and we followed the sound. We found the school and tried to communicate to the teachers there. This was a three building school for about 30-50 kids; much larger than the typical one room/building schools. We were on a mission to show a Christian powerpoint presentation to teach English so that the teachers and kids can use the 6 presentations any time they want. The school has almost nothing. Most schools are lucky if they have textbooks. This school was just given 17 computers, paid for by the government. This is more than a small miracle. It is a huge leap to go from textbook shortage to computer surplus. I was told they would need training on turning them on and how to use them but I found a computer technician that supposedly works among a few of the schools. We were unsuccessful at getting the presentation to work, which is good to know and we are working to fix it. All of this was attempted communication between my lack of Spanish and their lack of English. It was quite comical in hindsight. I thought the teacher may have offered us a ride home but wasn't sure. We waited around and were able to get a ride in a truck and avoid the bus home. I wasn't sure if we would have to walk part of the way because the teacher did not live as far as we needed to go. God was truly with us and we were dropped off at the gate of the hospital. I was happy to be back home safely.