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A High School Computer Lab |
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My friend Nery is working on a project for one of his college computer classes. The project is to create a website for one the high schools in Lerdo. The website will have a number of photographs of various activities at the school. He brought some of the pictures to me to massage with PhotoShop. This is a picture of the school's computer lab. |
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I find this picture interesting for two reasons. First it illustrates the country's commitment to education for the modern world. Computer classes begin in the third grade -- 8 and 9 year old kids. The second reason: note that everyone is wearing a coat. The school, like most homes and businesses, is not heated. Winter heating is not common in México. In this area, air conditioning is common, but not heating. I'm cold as I type this. Here in Lerdo our winters are not killer cold. Freezes are uncommon. Nevertheless, temps in the 40s are still uncomfortable without heat, so everyone has an ample supply of coats and sweaters. We do not have natural gas in this area. We use bottled propane for cooking and hot water, but it would be too costly to heat a house that way. Electrical heating is also out of the question. Electrical rates in México are much higher than in the USA. So warm clothing and good blankets are the way. The last snow was in 1997. The snow was accompanied by a hard freeze. It left many people in a serious way; and it was very destructive to plants. Lerdo is called the Garden City because of its many tree-lined streets. That freeze killed many trees from both the cold and ice loading. It was a sad sight. A few years later a fierce wind storm uprooted more trees. Lerdo still has lots of trees, but nothing like it was before 1997. |
