After that, Barrett took us on a tour of the village. First we stopped by the amphitheater.
Then we stopped by one of the family houses.
These houses are built around a large family room, where nightly meetings called Family Time are held.
There are also bedrooms the brothers or sisters share.
A new effort has been launched to get Internet-connected computers into each family house, so that students don't have to make the long trek up to the High School to use a computer lab at night.
Outside, there is a pair of cement wash basins and lines for clothes to be hung up. On wash day, the lawns are also covered with clothes drying in the sun.
In the little valley between the houses and the dining hall is the sports complex. There is a football (i.e., soccer) field, and a basketball court.
The dining hall, like the amphitheater, is one of the few places in the village where all of the students can gather together at once.
It also has a stage, flanked by the murals painted at Stand Up and Be Counted.
Beneath the dining hall is a large cellar and a kitchen with ginormous soup kettles.
While we were in the dining hall, we had a meeting with Barrett to talk about our plans for the week. The CMU students, who are here for ten weeks, joined us later, and then we all met with JC, the village director.
After the meeting, I went on a tour of problematic wifi spots in the residence area with Al and Jack, the long-term IT volunteer. This took us past the new Steve Jobs house.
We found a few antennae which had drooped, and this fine example of how not to install high-power electronics devices.
After planning how to take care of the issues we found, we attended a meeting of the IT club.
It was a looooooong first day.
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