I bought a plunger

Gosh, how did this day go by so fast? I did some cleaning.  Chatted with my mom on the computer and waited for the water man to come by.  I missed him on his first round, but caught him on his second. Checked with Fani to learn that we are not getting a washing machine in the near future so washed about 1/3 of my dirty clothes, and went grocery shopping. I called my favorite taxista, Jose. He said he would take me anytime, so we decided I would meet him in an hour. I asked him to wait for me at the store because I am not supposed to ride with strangers, so he did. I tried to hurry, but I still took a whole half hour.  I got lots of fruit and veggies as well as some cleaning supplies. Cereal here is as expensive as it is back in the states. I finally found a box for less than $5. Bought candles in case we end up without lights. Then went to pay for everything and I couldn't understand a word the woman was saying to me. I haven't ever had this problem to this extreme. I felt so stupid. The lady who was bagging my groceries was laughing an embarrassed laugh and the woman behind me had a look of pity.

I figured out on the way home parts of what she had said.  She was asking if she should start ringing me up.  (Well yes, please.  I am not just standing here with my money in my hand for nothing.)  I still don't have a clue what she said at the end.   Fani said she was probably asking me to donate to an education fund, but I think I would have understood the word education.  Who knows.  Just when I was feeling more confident about my Spanish...

My taxista took me home and helped unload the groceries.  He saw I had celery, which I've been craving for a while and told me to make sure to use the leaves to cook with because that is the best part.  Then after 45 minutes of his time, he charged me the equivalent of five dollars.  He is so nice.  I told my neighbor Fani she should use him too.  But she uses my other favorite guy, Alfonzo.  He has a renegade cab, with no number on it, but everyone knows him.  He says because he doesn't have to pay all of the cab fees he can charge less, but really my good buddy Jose charges even less than Alfonzo.  Alfonzo is just a good sales man.  He should work at a car dealership or something.

Had to get some minutes for my phone and today is triple so I walked down to the pulperia.  There were fresh tortillas there, still in the bowl from the lady who made them so I bought some real tortillas instead of the plastic wrapped store ones like we get in the states.  I saw a new kind of conservas, my favorite candy, so I got two of those, then asked to use the rest of my money for minutes on my phone.  He looked at me blankly, like he did once before when they were out of minutes, so I asked if they were out of minutes.  He said yes.  I said no more at all, because they come in all kinds of increments.  He said none.  So I walked down the street to the other pulperia.

I prefer not to use the second one because usually there are a bunch of men hanging out on the corner.  They have never hassled me, but I still would rather avoid them.  Today there was nobody.  The other reason I don't like getting minutes from this pulperia is that you don't really buy the minutes at the pulperia, you buy the minutes throught the gated door of the man who lives in the same building.  So you have to stand and look into their living room while you ask for the minutes.  To me, it's a little odd.  Anyway, I got my minutes and gobbled down one of the conservas.  It was similar to maple sugar candy, but not mapley.  I decided I would like more, and if I waited until tomorrow they wouldn't be as fresh as if I bought them now and kept them wrapped  up tight, right?  So I went back to the first pulperia, picked out an avocado because I couldn't let him know I came back just for more candy, and got two more conservas.  At that moment I promised myself I would run today.  And tomorrow.

Last night the neighbors on both sides had parties. One side played awesome music and sang. I bet they were probably dancing too. The other side was quiet earlier, but got loud around 11pm and woke me up at 4 am screaming ugly things. I closed my windows and went back to sleep.  At least this is not a regular occurance.

It was supposed to rain, but so far it's sunny. I'm going out for a quick run before it gets dark, then a big dinner and maybe some movies tonight. Walter didn't lead the jovenes this week, so I didn't get to help with them. But this week as I write I feel much more hopeful and at peace with the idea that I will be living here for a long time and will have plenty of time to work with those kids.  Yesterday I started thinking of things as more long term.  Bought some more cups for the house, instead of living with the bare minimum.  I even bought myself a plunger today. Now THAT is a sign of commitment - when you invest in a plunger for your house.