Sunday afternoon

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Sun March 5, 2006


Today I decided to go for a walk with my camera and look for interesting things to take pictures of. When I got to the town square, there was a parade in progress, with military band, and different organizations - a health clinic, boys and girls groups, and women’s groups. When I returned I told Thijs, and he said they do that every Sunday- it’s a patriotic thing.

When I finished watching the parade, I walked to the market and wandered around looking for a couple of T-shirts. I thought it was going to be colder here than it is, and I needed a couple of things so I don’t have to keep washing my few articles of clothing. The first shirt I asked about was 32 soles! That’s about $10, and it’s not outrageous by American standards, , but I was surprised it was so high. At the next stall I asked and it was 22 soles for essentially the same thing. But I am pinching pennies, so I walked to the scruffier looking places, with shirts piled high, and finally got one for 5 soles, which is something under $2. Not the best quality but it’s fine. I could only find basically 2 kinds of clothing for women- size 2-4 for the younger set ( t shirts with slogans like “hot”, and “sexy one”, and then the rest of it was really frumpy looking short sleeved acrylic sweaters for us older women. They seemed to have the worst of the American culture there- the clothing that nobody else would buy, so they export it to South America!! Really, there weren’t many choices. So I started looking at the men’s T shirts figuring I could roll up the sleeves and tuck the tails in, and the sales girl came up to me and said to me as if I were some kind of idiot- “ That’s the men’s clothing you know.” I guess clothing wise, I’m not going to fit in here very well. The younger women wear low slung jeans or nylon running pants. I guess I’ll have to get a pair of running pants, because I don’t think those low slung jeans would look so great on a chubby 50-yr old!!! Getting less chubby all the time though!

I got my laundry back, and I asked Thijs how much I owed, and he said 5.20. I said 5.20 US dollars? He laughed and said , no it was 5 soles 20 centimos, which is about $1.60! So I got all my laundry done for $1.60. I think I won’t do my own any more!

I came home and was starving. I cooked some ground meat I got yesterday, with tomatoes, green peppers, onions and lots of garlic salt. When we went to buy the meat yesterday, I was trying to explain to Roxana that I wanted ground beef, but the closest I could get was “carne” ground up. Carne is meat, but no specific kind. I guess it’s like “mystery meet! It was very lean when I cooked it-I think it was kind of a mix. Anyway, eaten with a little rice it wasn’t too bad. I also bought some apples yesterday, and I was pretty excited about that. I peeled and quartered them, thinking it would make my Ramen noodles look a little less pathetic, and I bit into it and it was AWFUL. Bitter and soft, yccchhhh. So I guess I will try and make some applesauce. Maybe if I add a lot of sugar……….

I know, more food stories, sorry.

I was really happy yesterday to get my computer online!! No wireless yet, but my own connection in the apartment. Now I don’t have to wait for the office computer to be available. Plus I can do things more easily with my computer, like post photos, mostly just because it’s familiar to me. I am also happy that the internet phone thing seems to be working really well. Now when I feel lonesome, I just dial somebody up!!

That’s all for now. Enjoy the new photos-
I love and miss every body, Kathy

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