Neighboring Market

ABC

Tooling around town today I had so much fun! Baby in the back seat and me at the wheel we went to the post office, Office Max, church, the bank and finally Border’s. And wouldn’t you know it was my favorite kind of weather today: rain! (I am not trying to be sarcastic. I am really having a fun-filled day!)

My original goal in popping into Borders was to find a Willa Cather book. Thanks to the “pleasant, efficient, friendly, quick service with a smile” mentioned in my previous post that mission was accomplished in under 5 minutes. About an hour later I was headed to the check out. Quite honestly I would have stayed longer but the wiggly twenty pounds of drooly goo goo baby that I had on my hip was doing a number on my back. Also in my rush to get behind the wheel I hadn’t eaten all day and I had a hankering for a nice BIG bowl of cereal and milk.

As I was in the section of literature marked “C” my eyes wandered over to the “Bs” and I found a book that I had been meaning to read for quite some time so I picked it up. Then another in the “Cs” caught my eye and a fun idea dawned on me.

I would get 3 classics for me and 3 classics for the kids with authors whose last names start with A, B and C that I had never read before. Rainy days put me in the mood for my favorite genre: classics.

Here is what I ended up walking out of the door with:

(Ladies for me)
Austen, Jane “Pride and Prejudice”
Bronte, Emily “Wuthering Heights”
Cather, Willa “My Antonia”

(Gents for the kiddos)
Andersen, Hans Christian “Fairy Tales”
Barrie, J.M. “Peter Pan”
Carroll, Lewis “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass”

In case you wanted to know, book stores are another one of my favorite things.

“Un poco de todo”

Here in Bolivia when you say, “Un poco de todo” it means: a little bit of everything, usually in reference to a friendly chat with someone. This blog entry has a little bit of everything. I have often thought of doing a whole entry in Spanish to see what kind of response I would get; maybe sometime, not today.

(First topic)
Home school

Home schooling your children is a very foreign concept here. It is met with varied responses, as is surely the case in any country. I have to be wise when answering inquiries about the nature of the way we are educating our children. I am so grateful for the Holy Spirit; that He guides me in both pleasant and uncomfortable encounters. The funniest argument that I have heard here in Bolivia (pro-public education) is that the principal reason I should put my kids in a normal school is so that they can learn the traditional dances of the country. That was the best he could do! I chuckled. Some people are indifferent, others rude, others confused, others critical, others try to act like they understand, others think it is a great thing. As for me, the reason I do it is because I have peace that it is what I am supposed to be doing right now.

(New topic)
Relevant Jesus

We were out to dinner with a few couples from church. Out of the blue the discussion abruptly went to the new people who were coming to church. The church building is located next to a market. Usually lower class people work in the market. So the parents who work Sunday morning send their kids to Sunday school at our church. It was fine, actually fabulous, to us. But there were some people concerned about the influence that “those” kids were having on their own. The parents we were dining with were concerned about hygiene, language and social standards. First I expressed to them that it is the parent’s responsibility to train their child for brushes with influences from the world. Those coming not only from the people at church but also at school, on the TV and in the movies they watch and finally with family and friends. Then I tried a different approach. I explained some of the habits that Jesus had in His everyday life. He spent considerable amounts of time with what some might describe as the dregs of society. Yet did not close him self off with “those” kind of people, rather also spent time with dignitaries. Actually, He had a very well rounded social life, if you might call it that. The husband then looked for a rebuttal. Here is what he came up with, “But times are different now than the time when Jesus was here on earth.” Ah, now I see where we are at! The relevancy issue. To this man Jesus is a historical figure, a story book character, if you will. He does not believe that Jesus has a lick of relevancy in our culture and age. The rest of the group got bored and the subject changed. All the couples who were there at the dinner are still coming to church. I appreciate it when people are honest about where they are at and feel close enough to us to be candid. It helps us to know where some of the others may be at. I think that people haven’t changed as much as this man thinks. I believe, actually I know, that Jesus has relevancy to every person in every time. I just think that there has been a false presentation of the true person of Jesus thus some people have felt inclined to relegate Him to just another good guy in the history books. May there be an awakening and a shaking to drive us far from that!

(Another new topic)
Shopping
In our house I do the market shopping and my husband does the supermarket shopping. It works well for us. My man is a super shopper. I am more of the go-get-it-and-leave-as--fast-as-you-can kind of gal. But yesterday my husband traveled to Chile; he will be back tomorrow. So some things were running out at the house and I had to get out there and brave those long aisles and push that big clunky cart around and get what I could. After about a half an hour of looking at price tags and labels my mind starts to get all muddled, I get very bored and a bit overwhelmed. I usually stop at about the frozen foods section considering the option of abandoning the cart and making a break for the door never to come back again. As I am frozen in the frozen foods section, deep from within me comes this voice, “You can do it! Just go to the check out.” So I put one foot in front of the other and make a fuzzy push to the cashier. Finally I am through with the ordeal. Yeah Angie! So later on tonight I get on the webcam with my husband who is in Santiago. I proudly tell him that I went shopping, and that I spent almost $50. He laughs! (I knew he would, it is the joke here at the Washington house when I do the shopping.) He said, “Good that will last us for about 2 days!” Ha! At any rate the kids will have milk for their Zucaritas tomorrow morning and the cupboards won’t be bare when we welcome home our man.

Funny Fruits - Achachairu

Saturday is market day for us. My expert shopper husband does the supermarket and I do what would be equivalent to a farmers market in the States – but more! I take my shopping bags and walk the two blocks to “La Feria de la América”. This particular group of Saturday venders set up their stands along 4 blocks thus transforming a street that is highly trafficked during the week into a plethora of produce perfect for the pedestrians’ purchasing power. The whole experience is rich!

As I come within meters of my market there is a bunch of eager adolescents with wheelbarrow in hand and toothy grin on face greeting me, “¿Le ayudo?” (Can I help you?) The very first week I went it was hard to choose who to help me. So I let a couple of the girls accompany me. The next week I wised up. My decision would be that the first kid to make it to me I would let help me. So each week they come running; they know that I tip well. This last week Jason helped me; he just happens to be one of our stars students in the Sunday school class at our church. Not too many weeks back he won a great prize for memorizing the books of the Old Testament.

Then the shopping begins. By nature I am not a shopper; so I changed it. I make social calls. I go to the same stands each week. They know me and I know them. They give me great prices and I give them a nice chat. So I walk with my helper following. I pick what I want, tell them how much I want, they weigh it and hand it to the helper, we chat a bit, and I pay and move on. After about a half an hour the wheelbarrow is full of fruits, vegetables, and other odds-and-ends household items. We walk to the end of the market to catch a taxi. The kid helps me load up the taxi with my bags then I give my tip.

It’s really quite fun. I also usually bump into some other shopper that I know and we chat as well. This is the routine: Kisses to say hi before we talk. Start with, “How are you? Good. Good.” Adore the child if they happen to be accompanied by one. Talk. Then kisses to say bye.

I get the usual: apples, grapes, bananas, pineapple, strawberries, oranges, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, broccoli, green beans, peppers, etc. for my family. But sometimes I find something that I have never seen before and get it to give it a try. This fruit is called achachairu. It may have different names or spellings in different regions. There is a variety of achachairu. We like ‘em all.