What I need is a burro

Well, today's big excitement involved carting all the stuff I cleared off the field up the hill to the Cerro Basura, aka compost pile. Which is why I need a burro.

Before I explain my weekend, I need to explain the concept (and practical applications) of the chicken bus. So called because apparently they occasionally have live, caged chickens on the roof. These are old school busses, driven from the States to Guatemala, painted in rediculous ways, and used as public transit. They are almost without fail driven by maniacs, and then there's another maniac who hangs out the door yelling at things. They are always full to capacity. This means three adults plus or minus a couple kids in every seat. (I remember complaining about having to seat three-to-a-seat on busses in elementary school, when everyone was a lot smaller) Then there are often a couple people standing in the aisles, and the yelling-maniac comes through collecting peoples' money. Add to this Guatemalan roads (think the Angeles Crest Highway, or more so), and the aforementioned maniacal bus driver, and you get a full body workout trying to stay on the seat.

So on saturday I rode one of these for about three hours, here to Xela. The interesting thing was that in Chimaltenango a Mennonite farmer from Ontario got on and sat next to me. Turns out he knows students at AMBS. Weird, weird. Small world.

Had fun in Xela, wandering around a bit. Met Kat, went for really good dinner, to our hotel, which had REAL HOT WATER. Another explaination. Nobody has real hot water here. Lukewarm showers are provided by small electrical heaters attached to the showerhead. Side effect being if you touch them, they shock you. So the hot water and good beds were a real treat.

We met her friend who, turns out, had big plans. So we went to a restaurant/bar place, and people kept coming in and coming in, all apparently friends of this one girl. It was good fun. Food, drinks, dancing, etc.

Sunday afternoon I came back to San Lucas. Been there all week, working...nothing that makes good reading.

Although, i recently realized that the most advanced farm tool I'0ve used is a wheelbarrow. Makes ya wonder what all those brilliant engineers are wasting their time on that they can't come up with cheap efficient farm tools that are slightly more advanced than the iron age.