Normal Day to Where is the Chicken Bus

Friday Morning  March 26

TGIF  to all who pass this way today. We were up with the sun this morning because the day did not start out overcast. The sun is a bit hard to ignore when you have just light fabric covering the windows.  At any rate we are up and fed and ready for what the day may bring. Our only plan at this point is the lunch special at Pollo Campero’s which means we will have to be dressed by then. We lounge around in our sweat suits because it is chilly here early in the morning. It will warm up nicely during the day although if you stand in the shade for too long you begin to get a little chilled.

We are a bit of a pain to the young folk staying here because the whole house is one giant sound chamber. It is concrete and brink construction with no insulation (judging by other construction we see going up). Our young folks are also a pain for us because they like the night life and burning the candle at both ends. They come in extremely late and even when you try very hard to be very quiet it is nearly impossible. Don is a bit like a bull in a china cabinet when he works in the kitchen. Add his whistle to his nearly every waking move and you have noise in motion. Thank heavens he does not whistle when he works on the computer. When he is working on finding grant opportunities he is as quiet as  mouse. He will be well occupied while we are here.

We did check out the other volunteer group Don located here in Xela but they really wanted someone with more time to commit to the project and someone with more Spanish than we have (of course this one is being run out of a Spanish school). It turned out to be a massive number of computers, scattered around in 30 communities. Don decided we really did not need to put that much effort into a project that would not be self sustaining if no one could continue to keep the computers spy ware and bug free. That frees up more time to explore Xela when we get our ‘sea legs’.  I am guessing by next week we will venture out to see what we can see (and I will carry food as well as water).

The Chicken Bus That Wasn’t To Be Found

Another different kind of chicken bus story. We walked to a location not far from the house where we know we can get on a bus to take us to the big grocery - the Hiper Piaz-- ( I will not try to tell you how to say this )  We boarded the bus and took off and while there seemed to be a lot of people in town we didn’t think much about it but went on our merry way. There is no way for information on what is happening in the city to be broadcast so that there would be some rhyme or reason for when things happen. It turns out that Friday is Big Market Day!  That means that several more streets are closed and anyone who has or grows something they want to sell set up a stall and viola! Jack is Your Uncle! They are in business. How you actually shop on these days is over whelming. Maybe part of the problem is that as gringos we have to be security savvy around that many people. We were hungry by the time we reached the mall so we started off by fueling up. We strolled through the mall first just because it was there and to be sure there was no place there that we could find a crutch tip before we went down to the grocery. At the grocery we were looking for a pharmacy to find something to help with a cough that is not really a cough but a spasm and is driving me crazy at night. At first all we saw was Vicks -- the full alcohol version -- that might have knocked me on my butt, however, the pharmacist saw what I was looking for and heard me hacking and he pulled something of the shelf from behind the counter that has no alcohol or sugar so we decided to give it a try. Next we wanted to find a medical supply place that was suppose to be near where we were but after a lot of walking did not find it. The search will continue tomorrow. Our last location to hunt for is a Mennonite bakery where they sell a brown bread, fresh cheese, and even butter. This is a place we had shopped at when we were here last time. Don would like to try the butter but we are afraid we could never get it home and today would be a fine example of that.

Chicken Bus Story -- we were done with our shopping and decided to head back home because my energy level was dropping. Sounds simple when you see or say it that way. Today was not a simple day. On top of all the people prowling around for the Market Day this week's Procession for Lent was going to happen right there also!!!  It was the most noisy, chaotic, nonsensical, difficult situation we have enjoyed in a while. There is street construction to add another twist by changing bus routes. There were lots of buses - just none going our way! Finally someone heard us asking yet another bus if they went our way and pointed out a spot on the other side of the street where we might catch the right bus. Success was a last ours and we headed back stopping to eat our second lunch which was just another light snack but was plenty for the need.

Tonight in our place one of the girls is having friends over to help her celebrate her birthday. She says they will arrive around 7 pm for about an hour or so. Not sure if I buy that because her evenings out last six hours or more into the wee small hours of the morning. Don wants to leave but I am not one to venture out with no destination and no place to be. Does not seem smart to me. The party will just have to take into account a couple of old poots on the premises! Ha! sorta tickles my funny bone.