Sunday. Oh, Want a Busy Day! Part 1

We were told to be ready by 6:30 am.  Yep, that's when they leave for the weekly market day!  This was and still is (we had our third trip to the Market today) by far the most impressive experience.  So to market, to market to buy.... a whole lot of things, but no fat pigs.  However chicken...oh, yes.

But let us get started.  Follow me on this wild ride.  Indeed, it was a wild ride through this immense metropolitan that seem to never end, but must since we could see the faint shapes of mountains all around.

A nice shrine at the entrance

It's really hard to park.

Matthias watch carefully.

Puss and Boots!

Maybe he was looking for this fish.

My breakfast, a blue corn tortilla with chicken, black cinnamon coffee, very sweetened.

She is making the tortillas.  Notice the bucket with the mud on her right...

It's the blue corn dough use for the tortilla!

Behind the peppers are mushrooms.

Quique is holding the week's tomato purchase.  Red tomatoes and green tomatoes for salsa. 

Guacamole 

Limes!  They love limes.

But hey, that's not even $2 each!

This hunk of cheese was about $12.  And it is delicious!

Our First Saturday

Saturday we walk to the nearby Mall.  Walking here is always perilous.  First, the sidewalks.  You better watch your steps!

I tell you!

We call it, Mon Mont Trottoir (My Mount Sidewalk)

We went by yesterday and the hole is twice as big.

But you better watch out a lot more when you go across a street!  I might be a girl from Montreal, and Michel often finds me a little too brave when I go across streets in Wilson, but here, not so.  I tremble as I hold on to Michel's arm and rush across streets.  Traffic is coming fast from three or four different directions, and no one will slow down for pedestrians.  By the way, when Father Paul picked us up from the airport we were amazed at his ability to maneuver through the heavy traffic.   I had never seen anything like this before.  Michel could not imagine being the driver.  

The Mall is huge, and fancy.  It feels like another world.

There is a very nice knitting store called Crochet.  

Daddy is standing on a palisade near Cafe Cielito, the Mexican version of Starbucks.  He is looking at the Church of Our Lady of Grace, where we went for our Sunday Masses obligation.  Actually we attended Mass on Saturday evenings.

And yest we had to go across.

The view from the top

Inside the Church

A bit dark, but I wanted to show you how high the ceiling is

Day two

Don't worry, I will not post about everyday of our stay.  But the first four days are a good example of how many interesting experiences our days have been filled with.

For lunch, remember at 2:00 pm, or later like today at past 2:30, we had a picnic in the spacious backyard.  As a matter of fact no one else has a backyard in the neighborhood. 

A sister coming down the steps that test your trust.  No support for this one piece of cement.  Same thing for the inside steps.

Look Sister Martha without her veil.  She didn't wear it the whole three weeks she was here.  But just wait for further posts on the unveiled personality of Sister Martha.  She is quite a hoot! 

My lunch, the closest thing we've had to American food.  The steak was truly delicious.  The cactus was something to get use to.

Sister Claudia, the only time I saw her with her veil.  She's a hoot too!  She was singing and DOING the chicken dance just before lunch. 

Maybe Daddy needs his glasses to eat his lunch.

Sisters of St Brigid.  I didn't tell them we once had a cow named St Brigid.  I probably wouldn't have been able to anyway. 

Quite exotic.  For us anyway.

They have a woodpile too.  But I don't know why.  There is no heating system whatsoever in the building, although it does get a bit chilly in the winter

Neighbors

We see a bit of the garden.

Late afternoon, Michel and I took a walk.  We went to Superama, which is own by Walmart.  We had our first exposure to this city of contrasts. 

Every house in the neighborhood owns a front gate.

 

I think Emma would like that one.

Or maybe this one.

Daddy wants this door too.  He has a thing for doors, don't you think?

Right around the corner is this children's party place.  They have a huge inflatable play space inside.  On another walk we saw a huge dinosaur piñata in the garbage outside the building.  I know all my grandchildren would like this place.

How about that?



Nice Superama!

Eggs!  Not refrigerated!  Shocked!  You just wait till I post about the following Sunday and our visit to the market, THAT was shocking.



Back home through the little door.  Don't trip.  Oops he did!



Inside the gate.  The building has two wings.  We were on the right (you can't see it), as yesterday (8/3/13) we are now on the third floor on the left. 

 

The chapel is in the tower.  Behind is the right wing.

La Cocina

To be immerse in the language I have been helping a bit in the kitchen, la cocina.  Cooking here is vey labor intensive.  Everything is done from scratch, with very few kitchen gadgets.   Vegetables are cut in minuscule cubes, beans are chucked, cheese is shredded by hand in hundreds of fine threads, and so is the chicken.   It took me an hour to shred a chunk of cheese the size of a cantaloupe. 


Sara is cutting chicken, you better not mess with her.  Not really, she is a very sweet lady.
  

Beni is doing dishes.  I feel very tall when I am in the kitchen.  I am a head taller then most of them.

 





 

Do you notice how they scrub these plates?  They take the same care in wiping them.  No kidding, actually they take longer to wipe them.  I had never seen the dishes done this way.  Boys, take note.

Washing dishes you saw Rosi, Beni's little sister, and Kristi.  Behind Kristi was Jonny.  Drying dishes was Emanuel, and Anayeli. 

Carmelita is grinding peppercorns, she is the Queen of the cocina.

Sara is cooking the chicken.

Beni is cutting carrots in wee cubes to be added to the rice.  Notice the bag?  I cut the onions in very fine slivers.  They were burning my fingers, they had been charred beforehand.  After that my fingers smelled like onions for more then two days!  In the background is Enrique, Quique for short, talking with Carmelita.  He is the head of the household helpers.  When we arrived from the airport with father Paul he greeted us with a live chicken resting on his arm.   

Carmelita cooking on the gas stoves. 

And this is where Daddy spends most of his time, unless he is cutting a tree; more on that later.  The kitchen is on the other side of the wall.

 

Day One in Mexico, in the evening

It's been busy, busy, but it should slow down a bit now for the last few days.  We are now nearly alone in this huge building.  Classes are done, everyone when back to their parish.  As promise here is a brief account of our first evening.

We had dinner in the big dinning room.

Notice that I was sitting at a table with three sisters and three priests.  How joyful!

 

Michel's table was more subdued.

 

 

Nighttime view from the fourth floor.