Fuse is lit.

The first week is off and away and I couldn't be happier. Predictably, the first week was spent coordinating and performing Peruvian cultural requirements of meeting and greeting everyone involved, having meetings where we all express our unending gratitude but don't make very many firm plans. Week two was the actual work, running around trying to settle schedules, numbers of kids per class, logistics of arrivals and departures from each location, and then the trauma of transferring money from Canada over a weekend. Advice: Don't even try. However we did make it happen and now there are ten computers where before there were none. Today was the inauguration at Villa Maria and the entire school was there with signs and food to celebrate the big day. So although we had to suffer a terrible weekend I see this as a sort of balance, in that now 500 students have a chance to connect to the outside and feel that they are equal to other, better-funded schools in the nicer districts of Lima. I'll happily suffer another weekend of unending bank lines if another 500 people can get the same benefit.

Villa Maria's classes are high-energy if nothing else. Fortunately they have a surprisingly high standard of discipline, which is helped by having their teacher in the room. After three classes, we're all drained but it also motivates me so much to see the spark of understanding. Our kids come in almost afraid to move the mouse because for almost half it's their very first time. Within the first hour, they're able to copy and paste photos into Word and the process for them is magical instead of routine. Never again will I take for granted a series of instructions like "Make a new folder on the desktop and move all the pictures we're using into it." Instead, we start with "This blue space is the desktop. Move the mouse and push the button on the right to see what happens."

Is there a lot to do? Absolutely. Can we do it? We'll try. The designer in me can't help but get excited at the prospect of unsolvable problems.