Saturday, March 27, 2010

March 21

Slept in. Linda was feeling better this morning, although still weak from her ordeal.

We started walking to Parque Central at about 10:10 a.m. to find out what time the next Mass would be. As we arrived at the cathedral, a nun was walking in, so we followed her and attended the 10:30 a.m. Mass.

Compared to Ciudad Vieja, it was undermanned. There were only six altar servers. There was a real organ, however, and the congregation did sing. In fact, it was a sung Mass with the priest and congregation chanting the Mass parts.

Once again, at the sign of peace, everyone in front and behind us wanted to shake the gringos hands. At communion time, it's almost like rush hour in Los Angeles. People get up and go, no matter where they are sitting. It would make a U.S. church usher cringe.

After Mass, we walked over to the nearby Pollo Campero, which isn't as nice as the one in La Antigua. The staff are nice, however. We ordered grilled chicken, which wouldn't be ready for 20 minutes and the manager sent a complimentary plate of papas fritas (french fries) to our table for us to munch on while we waited.

After lunch, we stopped by Dispensa Familiar to pick up some items we needed and headed back to our guest house. We're both feeling the effects of the altitude of Xela. It's about 7,500 feet, so we're taking it easy as we acclimate ourselves to it.

By the way, I read in a local give-away magazine, Xela-Who, that in Europe, Canada or the United States, if we were this high, we'd be walking through snow.

The rest of the day, I worked on my blog and started preparing to apply for another position. This one has a list of ten questions that need to be answered for consideration. Even if I don't get considered, it should be an excellent form of mental exercise.

Tomorrow I'll be meeting with Ariana at Primeros Pasos, the health project I'm going to be doing some grant writing for. It will be interesting to see what kind of financial needs they have and whether I'm able to help them find funding to meet them.