A Bunch of Random Stuff

Another beautiful day here in Antigua! The above is a picture I took near the little park close to our house. You can't really tell but that mountain-like thing in the background is actually a volcano! Usually you can't see the whole volcano because its partly obscured by the clouds.

Man do people here know how to party. Its seems like every day is a fiesta of some sort-- some Saint's day or some other excuse to party. Today there were loud and I mean LOUD firecrackers going off about every half hour, and I'm sure the bars will be full tonight. Sunday is the feast of St Francis and the husband of our "eating family" is making huge styrofoam images to carry through the streets during the processions. I remember when we first arrived on September 15 (their Independence Day) they had already been celebrating the whole weekend and then some-- by Tuesday, the actual day of Independence, they had practically worn themselves out. They really know how to have a good time.



Also, I cannot say enough good things about the food here. Maria-Elsa, the woman who makes our meals (for only $20 a week, I might add- what a steal) is an amazing cook. A typical meal is something like this: pollo (chicken), tortillas, rice, corn, frijoles (beans) and a lot of variety of vegetables. Really the big differences from American food is way way less carbs (its like being on the Atkins diet) and less meat, with more vegetables being served. The other day Maria-Elsa served a fried papaya, with was really interesting. They come up with all kinds of cool ways to cook their foods.

For lunch today we had:
fried cauliflower (doesn't sound good but it really really was deliscious)
rice
minced radish salad
tortillas (of course)
lemonade


And for dinner:
frijoles (me gusta muchoooooo)
little fried cakes of rice and cheese (they looked like hash browns-- delish)
toasted pieces of bread
sliced potatoes cooked in an Indian-esque kind of sauce
tea

SO GOOD! And much more healthy than I usually eat, I can tell because I'm feeling much more healthy in general.

This morning at work was frusterating because we're having a hard time finding foundations that are willing to fund our work here at Nuestros Ahijados. Hopefully we'll have better luck in the future but I'm definitely learning the hard way how tough stuff like this can be. But for tomorrow-- we get to stuff over 1,000 envelopes with newsletters for the donors back in Los Estados Unidos.