Twenty-two Dollars and Fifty-Five Cents

I went to the grocery story yesterday. This is what I got for $22.55:

8 screw-top bottles of Diet Coke
2 screw-top bottles of Sprite
2 bottles spring water
3 "boxes" of milk.
Celery stalk
2 bell peppers
4 hot peppers
3 bunches of bok choi
4 potatoes
4 red onions
2 tomatoes
4 cucumbers
2 large zucchini
3 half-pounds of sliced pork for stir-frying
4 orange muffins
2 packages cookies
3 packages crackers
1 big bag of bulk peanuts, flavored
3 loaves of bread
1 jar blueberry jam
1 bag of pickled vegetables - Chinese style
1 jar of Sesame Paste
6 sweets (glutinous rice balls)
10 Kleenex packages - purse size
2 Snickers bars
1 package of dried red chilies

I am thinking that most of you couldn't get out of the grocery this cheap, am I right? Everytime the grocery clerk rings up the cash register I think, "IS THAT ALL?" Most things here cost the same as they do in the USA, but food and clothing are cheaper. I don't buy clothing here though, so I get my kicks out of grocery shopping instead. :-)

Self-Portrait at the Beach

Hi. This is me at the beach today. I took the photo myself (in case you can't tell). It was cold and windy, but sunny and bright. The water was VERRRRY cold! I didn't get to stay there very long, just about half an hour, long enough to enjoy a picnic with my co-worker and our driver for the day; picnic catered by KFC. I don't get to the beach very often, but had to be near the beach for visa purposes and took advantage of the good opportunity. I get to see another beach in another town next week!

Cloth World

Who needs the overhead of running a store? Why bother paying electric bills, buying cash registers, or paying rent? It's not how much money you make, it's how much money you have left over after you've paid all your bills that counts! Welcome to the fabric store of Bedrock!

Village Views

This is a photo of a grave in the countryside. Fortune tellers tell people the best place to bury their dead, and often these 'good places' are in the middle of a farmer's field. The cremated remains are placed in urns and buried in these conical mounds of dirt. These mounds have recently been tended to; this past week was a national memorial day type of holiday in which people remember their ancestors by visiting the graves, sprucing them up, and leaving decorations on them.

Utility Futility

The water went out in my apartment Thursday morning at 10:30 a.m. Apparently some poor young man who has no training was given the controls of a piece of heavy machinery, and he promptly busted the main water pipe in this part of town. I prayed for this young man, that his next job would be more in line with his set of skills, in order that we might all be happier. (Uh, surely he is not the same man who pulled this exact same stunt this time last year.)
Anyway, to repair the pipe, they had to use concrete, which takes two days to dry before it is exposed to water. So I went all day Thursday and all day Friday without water (and was told it would be Saturday before the water came back). In case you haven’t thought about it lately, here are the things you cannot do without water: bathe, wash your hair, brush your teeth, flush, wash veggies, wash dishes, cook, clean, wash your hands. It was not a happy couple of days. I finally broke down Friday night and took a bottled water shower. I bought six bottles of bottled water from the store and used them to wash my hair and take a shower. It was not easy nor pleasant nor warm. Not even 60 seconds had passed after my bottled water shower when the real water supply came back on…albeit green, disgusting, and a day earlier than what they had said. I was glad to have it back, regardless of color. So, after the water came back on, it was bedtime so I went to bed. I woke up this morning early to get ready for a trip that started early, and the ELECTRICITY was off!! What crummy luck I have. My landlord is supposed to pay the electricity on a pre-paid system, and once again he didn’t do it, and he didn’t answer his phone when I called him at some unearthly hour of the morning. I got dressed in the dark. Living in a developing country is a test of patience, that’s all I can say.
This photo was taken today in the countryside. I prefer a washing machine to handwashing in a river, but at least these ladies had water, something I couldn't say for the past two days! :-)