Day 4 - San Marcos School Live Video Chat

Day 4 of The Learning Cycle - Mayan Myseries San Marcos School, Belize – LIVE Video Feed between San Marcos Village and Hudson Middle School

The biggest day of the trip and I am beyond nervous. As nervous as any of the pro cycling races I have ever done. The live video feed between the schools is the only thing that I need to go right during our time here. The rest we can make work, but not this… Last night I tried a test run with the satellite Internet terminal. Nothing. No connection. Ugh. This is going to be an expensive flop. $35/min and a $2000 session that is PRE-PAID! My email and Facebook keep alerting me of messages from parents about how much their kids are going to enjoy this. Cool. The pressure is building. I finally have my wife call the company and help troubleshoot. Seems good. I’m feeling much better and go to bed.

Wake up to a BOOM at 4:50am. A huge thunderstorm hits us. Torrential down pour and thunder so loud that my ears hurt. This satellite Internet session is not going to happen. There will be no signal with this weather. I email my wife to let the schools know about the storm. Maybe it will let up by 8:00am… The rain gets worse. 4 inches in two hours. Then, miraculously, it stops and the sun comes out. It 7:30am . We have time! This could work!

We drive to the school and look for the teacher and his class. He is gone today to take a test in town. What!? He just told us yesterday that he would be here and was looking forward to the video chat. Welcome to Belize. Love this country, but appointments are more of a suggestion than a commitment. We quickly organize the class and try to prepare them for the circus that is about to happen. They have no idea what we are talking about. Something about satellites, video, kids from the US, ect…. The expressions that they give us are like we are teaching them about astrophysics. I think they get the gist and we are off. I turn the satellite on. Check! Connection? Check! Google hangout? Check! Wow, there is the Hudson Middle School looking back at us! It works! I can not believe it! We are off. After the intro, the kids ask each other questions. “What is your favorite food?” ”What do you do for fun?” “How big is your family?” Great interaction. Our 25 minutes are up and I end the session. No more money to go over. The added minutes cost $45/min. Not today. The Mayan students loved it! They want to do it again next week. I told them maybe. We pack up the equipment, say our goodbyes, and drive off to the enjoy the drive to the next stop. I can breathe again!