Monday in Xela (February 14th)

Second-last stove building day. Im feeling less cough-like all the time. Dr. Bob said that you can leave a 6-day cold run it's course or you can take precautionary measues and medicines and it will only last half a dozen. But the only medicine I really needed was a cough suppressant vand that was only necessary just before bed. (Good thing I had a room to my own at Casa Argentina otherwise I would have kept someone else awake needlessly.)

Today I'm with Marvin (again) and this time with Sarah and Rita. The cookstove is for a single mother so you can see how necessary this work is. Fortunately she is in close proximity to other helpful families so that they do share and share alike.

Often the Mayan masons Marvin, Don Juan and Luis are finished before gringo masons Max and Paul. It does not matter. But then the professional masons are able to help the gringo masons complete their tasks.

It is Valentine's Day so everyone has to make an effort to express their love. Yes, I end up figuring out that an internet cafe has a phone service where I can call Canada for Q1.00 per minute (15cents/minute).

Volunteer lunch may include some heart-shaped cookies and cakes. Lunch is always a collective gathering of how everyone is feeling. The army does march on it's stomach.

Did I mention hot showers? When we were in training at Tom's place in January he indicated that perhaps half of the working crew would get a hot shower and the rest would do with a cold one. As it turns out most people get a hot shower. It gets the dust out of the crevices and makes you believe that eventually you'll get back to your usual health standards.

Since everyone is stirring about not having enough Quetzalas, Tom promises to take us to a sure-fire ATM in a protected mall in the other end of Xela. ATMs were running out of cash all weekend long so this was our chance.  So we all went for Q2000 or more and everyone except Phil got their money. Phil had to wait in the Bank just beside and Tom waited with him so that they could clear his account by phone to Canada. All was well.

So restaurant as such tonight. I was slow in getting organized. So I took it upon myself to finally find a small family Taco Restaurant. And I took out 3 Tacos de Chiriso. Taking a chance or not they were really yummy with a lot of guagimole(?)...with a Moza bock beer chaser.