10/13/11 Running Errands & The Open Air Market

Breakfast- YUM!

J and the rooster

Boys looking at the rooster out our bedroom window

Turns out we did get a storm! Kris said he woke up around midnight and it was raining and then again at 3am and it was really dumping! Aaron woke up bright eyed at 6am! Their bedroom faces the sun rise so as soon as the sky started getting light, he was up and ready! By 6:45am all of us were up and moving (which is HUGE for Kris, but he did go to sleep at 9pm last night). The day dawned cloudy and cool thanks to the rain overnight. The neighbors across the street have a rooster and Jonathan spent some time “conversing” with the rooster from our deck. He was pretty excited that he could crow at the rooster and then the rooster would crow back. We had our first breakfast in the new apartment. We could make oatmeal thanks to having a microwave! 

We saw two geckos in the house today. One was super tiny and the other was about 5 inches long. They scurried away and we happily stayed out of their way so that they could eat any other bugs that might wander in. We also saw 3 big iguanas on the house next door. They hung around for most of the day on the cinderblocks there. Two birds on the same cinderblock wall started pecking at a gecko that was about 1 ft long. The gecko high-tailed it out of there and into a small hole in the wall. 

Here’s a fun factoid- I hung our clothes on the clothesline last night and by this morning they were dry! It’s warm enough here overnight to dry the clothes, even with having a pretty good storm! I was totally surprised by that. 

School is in session!

We also had a few hours of school today! We have one table on our deck and it’s certainly used for all purposes. Jonathan was so excited to have school, Aaron even joined in too. They love using the manipulatives:  the counting bears, pattern blocks, and linking cubes.

Kris spent some time setting up a workstation in the living room. He brought a monitor from home and realized that he left the power cord at home! He brought two backpacks full of computer gear and not one monitor power cord to be found! 

Time to get some fruit

Do you see those HUGE avocados?!?!?

Purple Bell Peppers!

After lunch we went to San Ignacio to the open air market. There were 6-10 booths set up with fruit, vegetables, meat, and other random items. We were desperate for fruit. We were told later that Saturday is the best day to go to the market and to get there early for the best choices. The meat guy told us that he is there at 6am and that the ground beef sells out first (which is what we wanted to buy). But he did have some steak which we bought for $4BZ/lb, so $2US/lb… the beef here is really lean because it is grass fed. So we bought 3lbs. We also bought 2lb of white potatoes (they sold “dirty” ones and “clean” (had been washed) ones… the dirty ones were cheaper, only .50/lb US. Bananas were 10 for $1/BZ, or 0.50US for 10! We got a pineapple for $1.50US!!! We picked up 2lb of yellow onions for  $0.75US/lb. Tomatoes were also $0.75US/lb, a big papaya was 0.50US. Bell pepper was pretty pricey at $1.88/lb US. Kris snagged some cilantro for .50US/lb… the biggest avocado I’ve ever seen was 0.75US! It’s not ripe yet but a few days on our counter and it will be ready to eat! I was also excited to find eggs!! We paid $1.88 for 30 eggs. When we got to the car, Kris said that the gal had shorted us some change… but then tonight after talking to Abel and Ruth they told us that she charged us for the egg tray to carry them in. If we bring the tray back or bring our own bag to carry the eggs in then we’ll get them for less. Ahh the things we learn after the fact! All said and done, we spent $16.25US at the open air market. 

Open Air Market Finds

 Then we went on a treasure hunt. We wanted to find a fan to put in the boys’ room for Aaron. Jonathan’s bed is directly under the ceiling fan but Aaron is across the room and since we want to run the a/c as little as possible he needed a fan at the foot of his bed to keep him cool (he woke up last night sweaty and all upset, so I turned their a/c on for a while). We stopped at two shops that had fans out front. One guy wanted $20US for a standing fan. Kris offered him $15, he passed. So Kris went to the second shop just a couple doors down and across the street and that fan was $20US too but he talked the lady down to $17.50. Next on the list was the-oh-so- important power cord. This proved to be more elusive. We’d seen a couple computer shops as we’d been driving around but it’s hard to remember exactly where these little shops are, especially in the downtown area. Three stops and three stores later Kris had a new power cord that only cost us $2.50US. He’s a happy camper now. 

Food from Anthony's grocery store

Our last stop of the afternoon was a grocery store. We went to Anthony’s in Santa Elena. One downside fo the two markets we've visited is that not all the item are marked with prices, so it can take a long time to find things and ask for prices. Today I kept sending Kris up to the front of the store with items to ask the price. Finally he just came back with one of the store employees and we had him tell us the prices of the meat section. We picked up some foil, yogurt, a loaf of bread (0.50US), some pasta, 1 lb ground beef $1.98US, 1 lb ground chicken and 3 chicken breasts (the chicken was 2.25US/lb) and 3lb of breakfast sausage. We spent $20.03US there. I think my meal planning will certainly look differently here. Back home I used to plan out meals for a month at a time. Here it will be more like a few days at a time. Right now I’ve got a big crock pot of beans going (Ruth lent me her crock pot, she said it’s the best way to cook the beans without heating up the whole house for hours while you boil them on the stove). Abel and Ruth told us about a different grocery store to go to, they say it is better organized and at least .50 cheaper than the other stores. So we'll try that one tomorrow.. we're on the hunt for a can opener! We needed some kitchen knives too, but when we asked Ruth where to buy some she just went downstairs and brought us two large chef's knives and a steak knife. She said that they have many knives and they were happy to share!

Kris took our market finds and made some awesome steak fajitas for dinner. Yum! And I didn’t have to cook! Which was good because Aaron’s coping skills were non existant (since he’d been up since 6am) and his balance also suffers when he’s that tired so he kept hurting himself and falling apart over every little thing and he just kept asking me “please hold me for a long time,” which I eagerly did. During dinner on the deck we saw lots of lightning! The boys thought it was really cool! It was pretty far away so I don’t think we’ll get rain tonight, but I’m far from an expert on Belizean weather. I’m just so thankful that it was much cooler today. We had the house opened up for most of the day and there was a great breeze throughout the morning. Abel and his brother-in-law installed the washer on our deck tonight! I can't wait to do laundry tomorrow! I can't remember the last time I was so excited to do laundry!! (no sooner did I finish this post and it started dumping rain!)