El Comite

The phrase ¨go with the flow¨was created for days like these. I awoke at 7am to confront my rite of passage as a newbie in Central American: a bout of stomach illness. Fortunately this only lasted a few hours. I was supposed to meet up with M a little after 2, to go to the central office of the Comite, but she was coming on the city bus (which I did not know) and did not arrive until 330. You know me, a bit of a nervous nelly. I had already called a cab by the time she showed up so we took it together and arrived at 4 (serendipitous, because my meeting with the Director, LP, had been moved to 4 earlier that day after it took like 11 phone calls to get through.)
At the office we connected with President C, who had brought some forms from ASORGUA for LP to sign. I got to sit and discuss details with LP for a bit, he´s a very sweet man. Afterward, M left and I took the bus with President C to the ASORGUA building in Zone 10, which was an interesting experience. The buses are old American School buses painted red or blue, with handrailson the ceiling for standers. Always packed to the gils. People are very stoic, just sitting and not talking (unless they´re pushing through the crowd to get off). President C knows some ASL and can use some speech, so we got to talks about a lot of things. I got a more in depth tour of the ASORGUA office upon arrival and chatted it up at a snail´s pace in GSL-Spanish Pidgin.
As the only hearing person, M´s role of making calls for Deafies on their cell phones was thrust upon me. A man I´d never met put a cell phone in my hand and I had no idea what he wanted, but realized someone was on the line already. It was his daughter, calling to wish him a happy birthday, hoping there was a hearing person in the vicinity to interpret. Then Pres C gave me his phone to call M, who was to call a cab for the 5 of us going back to Zona 11.She then called Pres Cback, Pres C handed me the phone, M said a cab was on its way, and I signed it sloppily to the others. Whew! At least I got home having gained some experience with the logistical ways of this city.