The Columbia Opportunity Center
by Connie Burk

The first of May began calmly enough when I met Geronimo Coc at 7 so that he could connect the electricity in the Columbia Opportunity Center. Eight computers were all set up on a big table and ready to go. Geronimo finished by 9 and suddenly, after waiting so many months, I found myself staring at a full-fledged computer lab with power!

As I began plugging everything in, I opened the first computer to install a network card. About then, a neighbor, Raymond Choco, 11, came in and sat down beside me. He looked inside a computer for the first time and said, "It's beautiful." "Yes, it is," I agreed, noticing that I had never thought that before.

Raymond and I continued along, installing cards and cables and, eventually, software programs. I lost him then as he drifted into the world of Mavis Beacon and her typing lessons. Resolutely, he drilled his A, S, D and F keys, then ASA DAF SAD, etc., until he proudly knew his first four letters well. Mavis then treated him to a game, where he was delighted to feed letters to a long-tongued chameleon.

A young mother, Ofelia Coc, came in next. "I want to write some words," she said. I opened Microsoft Word and dictated to her: "Press the D, now E-A-R. Now make a space by pressing that bar. Type C-O-N-N-I-E." I waited for her to find each letter. "Hit this key two times to move down two lines. Have a look. What does it say?" "Dear Connie," she answered, surprised and pleased. "OK," I said. "Write me a letter." She began to write, in earnest.

At 2:30, a few students from the kindergarten class at school wandered in. Since I hadn't loaded any children's software yet, I showed them Microsoft Paint. They were quite excited creating line drawings, not noticing that their mouse skills, clumsy at first, were quickly improving.

All too soon, the school day ended for the rest of the children and a happy chaos developed. I had designed long benches in front of each pair of computers, hoping four small children could fit on each one. Instead, five or six squeezed in, with several more standing behind. Budding artists learned to draw shapes, color them, and erase them. Hungry chameleons wolfed down letters while a passel of adolescent boys huddled around a pinball game as if in a video arcade. A young man quietly and painstakingly wrote three paragraphs about himself, his family, and his village. Several toddlers sat, stood, or bounced on the benches, just content to be part of the excitement. There were cries of "Connie, look what I drawed!" and "Connie, how do I…." and "Connie, I want to…." I happily loaded software and installed speaker systems to meet their requests.

During May and June, the Columbia Opportunity Center computer lab continued to hum with excitement. It was quieter during the day, when a few women would come by, hanging their sleeping babies from the ceiling in cloth slings. Students came over from the primary school in small groups, and young men who hadn't gone on to high school after completing the sixth grade stopped in at lunchtime to practice their typing before heading back to their farms. After school and on weekends, the building was packed with children and high school students eagerly learning new skills.

One day, following instructions, eight children simultaneously installed Encarta's Encyclopedia, opening up a glimpse of the whole world to these K'ekchi' Maya children, many of whom have not traveled farther than twenty miles from their village. The most popular sites early on included a video of a fast-moving cheetah (reminding them of the jaguars that live nearby in the rainforest), a short song sung by Bob Marley (nearly everyone's favorite musician here), and a 360-degree panoramic view of Cleveland Ohio, where I was born. ("Where is your house, Connie? Your river is very dirty!") Until the telecommunications infrastructure is in place for us to connect to the internet - probably next year - the encyclopedia is a great alternative.

The children and I faced issues of sharing, heavy rain, dogs, and noise levels. We tried to deal with problems in a participatory manner, with varying degrees of success. Then, in early July, the issues changed, as I accepted all 25 applicants for a summer student internship program for high school students. I quickly learned that teenagers in Columbia are similar in many ways to teenagers back home. Yikes! The center soon became the village's counterpart to a mall or cinema in the States. After several complaints and lots of advice from parents, adjustments were made. We shortened our hours, banned music CDs, discouraged "loitering," and severely curtailed the use of our digital camera!

The internship program ended up successfully serving about 15 students seriously interested in learning computer skills. Nearly all can type now, thanks to Mavis Beacon, a very popular lady in the Opportunity Center, and they've been taught a variety of software programs. Some have served as teachers for their peers and young children, others have emerged as talented photographers and desktop publishers, and several have learned to assist with IAIA's record keeping (computerized, of course).

The internship program was a very rewarding experience, for the students and for me as well. I am especially proud that we opened the program not only to high school students, but also to several young people in the village who had been unable, primarily for financial reasons, to continue their education beyond the sixth-grade level.
A heartfelt "thank you" to the Gateway Corporation and to the many IAIA donors who helped make the computer lab, the heart of the Columbia Opportunity Center, evolve from dream to reality!

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