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If you've traveled to Latin America you've probably seen the prevalence of US school busses performing duties as public transit busses. Its no surprise the school bus is so popular. In an environment that values utilitarian design and durability, the school bus shines above the rest. Entire industries exist around shipping retired school busses from the US to Latin America where they live a second life once again transporting people to and from where ever they want to go.

Some can be given quite the face lift.

We have two school busses serving our El Camino school picking up and dropping off kids each day. The entire bus route is on the rough unpaved roads around the jungle and as such the busses are showing the wear and tear caused by years of transit in these conditions. The newer bus has seen a steady decline in reliability over the past few years. Being approximately ten years old means it was built with the modern complexities of an electronically controlled engine and transmission. Unfortunately we don't have the tools to "plug in" to the bus to diagnose problems, and getting parts for these engines is also a bit of a challenge. In true Honduran fashion of adapting and overcoming the challenge, shops now exist that specialize in removing the modern electronic engine and transmissions from busses and swapping in much older but more reliable (in our conditions) mechanical diesel engines and manual transmissions. This is one option we are considering for our newer bus to make it more reliable.

During the construction of the hospital, two retired Army M35A2s (More commonly known as a "Deuce and a half") were brought down here to help move material during construction. One truck still exists, parked and settling into the ground. Nobody knows when it last ran. The other one was cannibalized for parts and the running gear repurposed. So how do those trucks and school busses come together? The M35A2 was built with a fully mechanical diesel engine and manual transmission. When one of our M35's was cannibalized for parts someone decided to stash the engine and transmission away in one of our shipping containers turned storage bodega. Could this engine have a future in a school bus hauling kids to school? We don't know yet, but there is certainly discussion about the idea.

From serving in wars to serving children.

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