My Man is the Birthday Man!

Today Carl turned 36! Boo!

A few years ago when I was teaching, a few of my students asked me if my husband felt weird having a birthday on Halloween. I said no, that he didn't feel weird or creepy. I thought that was a funny question, and strange how frequently it was asked.

Yesterday everyone was asking me what we were planning to do for Carl's birthday, and I told them we were going on a date, a kid-less evening. And I said to everyone it was fine to wish Carl a Happy 39th, or even 40th birthday. People got a kick out of being given permission to give him a hard time....Carl's only 36 this year.

Last night, the kids and I made cards for Carl and decided that the presents we bought would be too awkward to wrap. Joel bought him a 2L of Coke (his favourite pop), Kezia wanted to buy him a chocolate bar and then we all picked out a picture to hang on the wall. I had bought Carl a really nice kitchen knife before we left for Bolivia, because Carl loves to cook and he's always muttering, "The worst sin in the kitchen is not having good knives!" So I got him a knife, cheezy, but very practical.

At lunch time we had saltenas and rice for lunch. The kids had had WWWWAAAAAYYYY too much junk at school, and so after only eating half of a saltena, they were too full for even cake. We sang happy birthday and Asha and Carl ate cake.

After naps, and recovery from all the sugar, we dropped the kids at Lynn and Laurie's for the evening. Then we walked to the first ring to catch a micro. I was taking Carl to Fridolin's and was excited about spending the evening with him.

The food was great, we ate ourselves right full, and then ordered dessert and coffee. We chatted about life here, I asked Carl about the things that he enjoys and doesn't enjoy, we talked a bit about the kids, a bit about work. We headed off when the last of the chocolate icing from the Rosa Negra was scraped clean from the plate. Hmmmm....I've missed chocolate anything!

We walked along the strip, down past fancy coffee shops, past nice restaurants to the 2nd ring. I was kind of excited, because this is the first time I've taken my camera out to take pictures (I don't want to get robbed holding onto a nice camera). We hopped on a micro, gazed out at all the neat buildings whizzing by and got off just a block from Lynn and Laurie's.

It was really nice to have a date with Carl. We are blessed to have friends who will watch our kids so we can go out.

I'm also very thankful for my wonderful husband. Sure, I'm a bit biased, but he really is a great guy. He's talented in many ways; in the kitchen, with handy building stuff, with public speaking, administration, with the kids or anyone else's kids....I could go on bragging. I hope he had a good day. We wanted to make him feel special and loved and appreciated on his birthday.

We love you Carl!!

The Deal With...Food

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A few weeks ago, I did a post on money and how much things cost here. And it's taken me a while to get back to my promised post on food!

It took us some time to get our bearings straight in regards to getting groceries. First of all, we don't have a vehicle (or a license yet), so we either have to walk, take the micro, or a taxi. And we have a couple of options for shopping.

We have a market that is close by, Los Pozos, that is a large 4 story warehouse building with everything and anything you can imagine (no perishables inside). And on the outside streets, for blocks and blocks around are little vendors that have set up shop in the inside of a garage door, and will sell you everything from diapers, to mops, tomatoes to oil, cheese to chicken, flip flops to sugar, potatoes to bread.

Most markets are open at 4 or 5 in the morning, depending on when the vendors arrive. Apparently if you go to any market at 5 in the morning, it is packed and crazy. Why? Well, all the hired house help is out getting all the food for the day and has to be back in order to prepare breakfast by 6 or 7 in the morning. You can get the best deals for produce earlier in the morning and also the day before the new produce is scheduled to arrive. I paid 2Bs (about 14 cents) for a watermelon, only because I bought it at 8:30 a.m. and it was on Monday, the day before the fresh stuff comes in.

For the most part, when we head to the market, we take a cloth shopping bag and walk the 7 blocks to the market. There we just wander on the sidewalks, past all the little tiendas on one side, and past all the sellers of produce that have set up on the outside edge of the sidewalk. It's pretty crowded and you need to make sure that you keep a close hand on your money.

If you see something you want, you ask how much it is for a kilo or for a certain number and then the vendor will tell you. If the price is right, you buy, they put your flour, sugar, eggs, milk bags (remember those from the 70's?), etc. into a plastic bag, you give them your money, and then you keep shopping. If you aren't happy with the price, you just walk around and see if anyone else is selling it for less.

The whole market thing can be quite time consuming. In the last 2 weeks, I've discovered two bigger markets as compared to Los Pozos. Nueva Feria is the best place for household stuff, electronics, shoes etc. (all is new). Cumavi is the place to go for used things (the market is really a bunch of stalls covered in tarps in the middle of a field. And the place I went this week with my Spanish teacher, Shirley, was Mercado Abasto, where all the produce trucks from the countryside bring in the freshest produce. That place is huge and kind of crazy, but it has the cheapest and best produce in the city. And thankfully the micro that goes by our house, goes right to that market. However, I probably would take a taxi home with all my stuff, it's just a bit easier that way.

When we get home from the market, all the produce needs to be soaked in an iodine and/or bleach solution. That's to kill any of the bacteria etc. that might be on them. You soak everything in large bowls for about 20 minutes, and then you rinse them with clean water. Then we put stuff in the fridge or in the wire basket.

To get bread, I walk 3 blocks to the bread shop and buy fresh little sweet, or cheezy, or salty buns. You have to get there between 2:30 when the bread is just out of the oven, and 4:30 when everything is gone because people come to buy for supper. Today, Carl went at 5:00, not expecting much, but managed to bring home 8 or so buns for supper.

So we buy all our produce, most everything like oil, vinegar, diapers, flip flops, electronic stuff, household stuff at the market. I haven't quite gotten brave enough to buy raw meat hanging on the hooks on the open air. I feel a bit better buying that in the supermarket.

Then there's the supermarket. One is 6 blocks away, and again, we have to walk and take our cloth shopping bag. That's where I buy our meat, cheese, processed stuff like crackers or jello. I'm sure I could find everything in the market besides the meat and cheese, but sometimes if I happen to be at the supermarket, I'd rather just pick that stuff up. The prices are more expensive considering it is more convenient.

We also purchase a few things from local people here. We get some of our milk and eggs from Felipe, who is a national worker and has a farm. Nati makes peanut buttter, so we buy hers and there's a lady at the bible study whose neighbour makes tortillas. Talk about buying local!

The first few weeks here, it was quite frustrating. It was difficult to find the basic things we needed for cooking. To add to that, we don't have a vehicle and don't have the luxury of shopping to stock up. We have to head to the market at least every 5 days. And when you aren't sure where you are going (because the market is many blocks long and many blocks wide) it's hard to continue to wander around looking for that last thing on your shopping list. Plus, language for me has been a bit of a hindrance, so that adds extra time trying to communicate!

But on the most part, we are getting used to the whole buying experience here. I feel confident enough to venture out on my own and buy whatever we need (I haven't gotten brave enough to take a child with me though). And if anything, we are given opportunities to buy local, to exchange money with the person that grew my food, even if it does take longer, the buying experience certainly isn't dull here!

Fun Pics

I decided to make a little slideshow of the kids, just a few shots of them doing their favorite things.

Weird, Eh?

A few days ago, Carl had made arroz con leche (rice with milk) and Joel suggested we cut up some bananas to go on top. Joel went outside to where the bananas are hung to ripen, grabbed a few and came back in. As we were opening a particular one, we saw the most peculiar thing......if it hadn't been grown on our own yard, I would have wondered what kind of genetic modification is going on with our food!

I've never seen anything like this before, have you?

It's the Little Things

Over the last little while as we've settled more into our new home, we've begun to miss a few things. One of the first things I started to miss was sour cream (which is kind of weird because this country produces a lot of dairy products). When we make our famous brownies, we miss quality cocoa. Carl misses good coffee; I know, kind of weird being in South America!

But in reality, we can make due with instant coffee, when you trade for bananas in your yard, fresh oranges, papaya, watermelon, strawberries, apples....and many other cool South America fruit.

Sometimes, however, it's not that the things you miss are all that important, but what it is is that you miss the familiarity of home.

So a few days ago, when we were in the large Fidalga, I stumbled on a couple of things that reminded me of home. There were a few North American hair products, I found some Hellman's mayonnaise (though I didn't buy it because we don't eat that!), I noticed there were a few games that were in English, but the funniest thing, or maybe the most comforting, was an English book on Canadian Christmas Traditions. It was hilarious to find something like that in the grocery store. I wondered if some Swedish guy living in Arizona compiled this book and could only get it published in South America, where not a lot of Canadians are in the market for a book on regional Canuck Christmas activities.

As I stood there, I glanced up and thought for a second that I was in the tidied Big Lots in Fresno. It was all around a weird experience. I knew I was in Santa Cruz but with the book in my hand, I could have been in Zellers in Winnipeg.

The experience didn't really make me feel homesick, it just reminded me that this world is really a small place, you're never really far from home, and it's in the little things that remind you of that.

Today was the Day

And now she's walking.....

What a Weekend!

Like I said on our sidebar, there's never a dull moment in our lives here. And this weekend was no exception.

On Saturday morning, Laurie and I ventured off to the amazing market of Nueva Feria. Now this place is HUGE and the only reason why we didn't get swallowed up into the maze of people and products, is because Laurie knows Spanish pretty well to get us out!

We left around 8:30 on the micro and landed right in the middle of this market. I need to explain what this place is like. It's similar to a huge hockey arena that has been converted into many little crafter's stations. Have you ever been to a crafters fair? It's sort of like that. The whole place is divided into aisles and each 4 foot store front is piled high about 8 feet up with stuff. There's just enough room in the middle for a person to stand between it all and make change for you. And it's not just one hockey arena with stuff, it's like FOUR! plus all the vendors that are on the outside, selling their stuff at the perimeter of the building out of garage doors. And that's just one building because there are THREE MORE like that.

It's pretty overwhelming and it's a wonder that we found what we were looking for. Well, sort of. It was fun to squeeze through the crowds, trying to reach up for stuff, trying to get out your money without dropping it, or having it stolen (hence the lack of pictures, because it is definitely a place you don't take your camera). We found things like wrapping paper, a blender, towels, an iron, some shampoo, we looked at fridges just for fun, we bought a ball, gazed at the miles and miles of clothes, I tried to buy just 4 glasses (no, I don't want 12!)....we bought until we ran out of money and room in our bags. Then we went outside into the plastics area...environmentalists beware! It was crazy the amount of plastics there were.

We asked a security guard how to find a 22 micro, but he didn't know. So we walked out to the street, which looked exactly and nothing like the one we had gotten off on when we came, and hoped to find a bus home. We asked another vendor, who was selling on the side of the street, and she wasn't sure which one we should take. But we found one that said the street where we wanted to go, and so we hopped on. The micro driver asked us where we were going, Laurie told him and he just looked at us....he knew that we were headed out towards the outskirts and two gringo ladies probably don't want to be heading there. We rode for a bit on the crowded micro before we realized that we were going the wrong way. So we yelled, Pare! got off and tried to figure out where we were.

It was kind of fun being lost together, because at least you're together. Laurie said that we would tell Juana and Nati about getting lost and they would have a good laugh at us! An old shopkeeper told us which bus to take, we crossed the road, and hopped on another micro heading into the downtown area. Yeah! We made it home in good time before lunch. What a fun adventure!

Later that evening, we went to Lynn and Laurie's for supper, and it was a great time for visiting and eating. We had the tastiest ground nut stew and we stayed to visit and play until the kids got tired.

On Sunday, we had gotten an invitation from Carmen, the receptionist here at the office, to come to her church and then spend the day with her and her family. Her husband, Pablo, two sons, and her came to pick us up for church. We enjoyed the service in the little Baptist church. I especially appreciated the power point which made it easier to follow the sermon. Kezia happily went into the crowded Sunday School class, but Joel decided just to stay with us. Asha went into the nursery, until they ran out of crackers for her, and then she wanted out! After the service, they served chicha de arroz, which is a cold sweet drink, and Joel loved it so much he had 3 glasses. It was cute hearing him walk around trying to say, Quiero Mas Por Favor to all the generous ladies.

For lunch, we met up with Carmen's extended family, a bunch of brothers and sisters, their spouses, her dad, and all her nieces and nephews at a food court with a play structure. I was surprised how good the food was, and thrilled that the kids had a place to play. After we ate, a number of us ladies went downstairs to the grocery store and looked around. I asked questions about certain products, which were better than others, if you could buy some at our local store. I didn't realize until I was there how beneficial it was for me to walk around in a store with local ladies. Carl and I have been feeling disappointed that a home stay with a family (where you live with a local family for 2 months) wasn't arranged for us, and realized we don't have anyone local to show us around. So this time in the grocery store with Carmen and her sisters was invaluable.

After lunch, we headed to Carmen and Pablo's house and the kids played in the kiddie pool. They had a blast! Asha had no intentions of going to bed with a pool around. So we sat outside, visited, dozed in our chairs, and watched the kids, it was great. Towards the end of the afternoon, Carl parked himself in front of the television with a few of the men and watched Santa Cruz's soccer team, Blooming play. He was so happy to have the opportunity to watch t.v., and a soccer game to boot! I accompanied some of the ladies with all the kids to the park across the street. I sat with Carmen's sister and managed to have a bit of a conversation about work, family, children, language. I think it one of my first conversations in Spanish (now what I mean, where she was doing most of the talking!) where it was about more than just day to day happenings and it was refreshing.

The best part of the visit for me was making homemade empanadas. Carmen, her two sisters, her two aunties, three nieces, Kezia, and I made about 50 empanadas con queso. Kezia was thrilled to be able to use the little roller to flatten out the dough. I attempted to twist and pinch the edges to look as nice as Pilar's, but mine turned out pretty ugly. The ladies laughed and told me that I could present it to my husband as a love offering. Ha Ha!

We all, about 20 of us, sat around in the living room, on chairs, on ledges, or stood and had empanadas and sweet coffee for dinner. It was very good. But it was getting close to 7 o'clock and it was time for us to go home. As we left, we made our rounds kissing everyone (Kezia LOVES this part of meeting people) and thanking everyone for their hospitality. Pablo and Carmen drove us back home and we thanked them profusely for the visit. It meant so much to be invited to someone's home and to experience a day with family.