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| Mercado Casa Amarela |
So up and out early to Carrefour for groceries (averages about a half hour in the taxi,though Saturday morning was definitely faster than on a Friday evening), then back to sanitize the produce with Agua Sanitaria, clean up the place, and fix dinner (at 1:00, their choice) for our neighbors the Benevides. I thought I had time to organize some things first but I was wrong, we ran out of time so they had plain instead of garlic bread, we forgot entirely to serve the melon, but they did like the lasagna soup. I found that lasagna noodles here are smaller, thinner, and cook much faster. And there isn't even a word for "simmer" - you can "boil without high heat." (And actually, Jose was really enjoying putting the cashew cream on his bread instead of the soup). I guess I haven't totally adjusted to adding time for the fact that everything is just more complicated and slower to do here.
We had a good time, the daughters speak some English and I mangled some Portuguese.
Then Sister Chambers and I headed out. We had planned for several weeks to find a chance to go to Kinitos for chocolate chips and stop by Aguas dos Frios on the way back. Well, we also were told there is another place to buy things for better prices than Bag Gourmet that is in the area and the taxi driver showed us it was within walking distance. So after exploring the Kinitos Festas (party store) quite thoroughly, and carrying a kilo bag of chips each, we walked a very interesting street to the Mercado Casa Amarela.
The street was full of little shops of all sorts (usually the whole front is just open to outside) with many playing loud music, and crowds of people and the usual variety of surfaces and traffic. We passed by the food part before we realized, skirting quite a pile of garbage, and went into the interesting open-air building. There weren't many places open and they were selling things like purses rather than food, though at the back was a place where I bought some almond flour. We went out the other side and found the food area. Covered with multiple tarps for a roof that must help keep the hot sun off but by evening was holding in the heat and humidity. They had some really beautiful produce and it was interesting to see men sitting there shelling beans, they had fava beans and some they said were "green beans" though I've never seen what we call green beans get that big. We didn't want to haul stuff so we didn't do much buying. They said they even deliver though I'm not sure how that would work when its like a big farmer's market with so many sellers. Maybe you pay and they just take your things from you and send them via a buddy with a motorcycle.
We ended up stopping at WalMart for Sister Chambers and realized we had too much stuff to carry into another store, so we gave up once again on Aguas dos Frios. It was still late enough for Durk to call and see if we were lost.
Monday was officially starting our first week without back-up, and in the middle of the night I realized I had no recollection of how to create and print some things I needed for finishing arriving missionary packets, but thankfully Sister Bell is super organized and I searched her files until I found "passcard" under "arriving" and then could take off running. Run-on sentence is fitting, right?
We had three missionaries here waiting for visas for the Dominican Republic whose visas came through, we had two of them set last week but another got added, so I was getting things ready for them to leave. Then we had one elder not get a visa for here so he got crossed off this batch of arrivals, and another did get a visa for here and can come now, but the computer doesn't seem to agree with the airline itinerary that he is coming so we can't access all his info. In other words, we get some information plenty early and can be prepared, but it always changes.
English Connect class is starting to gel, somewhat. The best part is that someone was able to buy some of the books for students, found them at the little temple distribution store. This Thursday we moved into a room with a big table which is helpful (and now my whiteboard cleaning is moot since there is a blackboard - I see another Atacado trip in my future for colored chalk, Durk found a "bigger" 1/2 inch piece). The class is too big but we assume the attrition rate will be high as they realize how much work they have to keep putting in. Next Saturday evening we start level two, but will have to skip the very next week because of general conference.
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| You'd think, from this view, that it would be easy to spot, but our Uber driver did about five u-turns, I think. |
Friday we went to the Italian restaurant we missed last week, La Tratoria. The Temple missionaries liked it so much they were all in favor of returning. They did learn to bring little flashlights so they could read the menu! It was really good, everyone kept commenting on how the food had flavor. Much food here is rather lacking in it. Though the GARLIC bread had enough garlic for an army. We will go there again, though its not my preference to have only one big plate of one thing so I might ask about whether they would do half portions of two things.. (The bread was ordered separately, I didn't even see it on the menu.) I saw no salad or anything like unto it on the menu at all, but many types of pasta and lovely sauces. Its common here for the sauce to be sort of tomato water so this is a big deal. The restaurant opens at 6:00 p.m., we are always the strange early eaters.
And of course since we were in the area, we walked to the big WalMart and shopped before taking a taxi home. It makes for a long evening but saves a lot of time and trouble another day. Still no more frozen sweet corn, maybe one day it will show up again.
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| One of the kinds that are usually really good, I think the name on the signs has varied, sometimes Chinese, sometimes Japanese, so I guess its an "Asian melon" |
BIG NEWS we have hot water in the shower again. The "new" chuveiro didn't last long with our bad water, first it clogged up (so "needles" of water took on a fairly literal meaning), which Durk fixed, then it died anyway, going from slightly warming to no effect. Now that our water is better we expect the current one to last longer. I think they should sell a mini-chuveiro for hot water at the sink for dishwashing.
Oh, food notes this week: thanks to Sister Chambers we have found the secret to getting the good bananas, they are nanika ones, you don't want the ones that start with d or t. Going by looks was not working but now we can ask by name or look on signs.
Garlic "sauce" in a squeeze bottle is pretty strong, could probably sub for garlic powder.
There do exist canned tomatoes, always plum tomatoes in juice.
Once in a while people find Campbells cream soups, I haven't looked but I hear excitement from others.
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| with the office elders off to lunch, this is the view from my desk to Elder Merrell's -through the window of the financial office. |
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