With the Cat a way the mice play…

It’s been a little different this week now that the Area Presidency have all left for General Conference in Salt Lake City.  We took them to the airport Wednesday night for a flight to Atlanta. From there each went to different states to spend some time with their family. Next week they are booked solid with meetings in Salt Lake, besides General Conference.  With them gone we are not as busy at the office. It has provided us more time to check out the area and find some of the places we hear about for shopping. We have expanded our list of stores from three to six. Having an address in not a sure way to find a store.  Last Thursday we took some time in the afternoon to see if we could find Lara Mart.  This is the store you go to if you want cheese – American cheddar.  It runs about $7.00 a pound but is about half as expensive as most other stores. Our first attempt was unsuccessful so we had to try it again Friday morning.  Paydirt!  We found it so we got a small brick of cheese while there plus a few other items.

One thing we will never get too much of is fruit.  We are still learning the best places to buy fruit.  Sometimes the stores have some good prices but usually the fruit and vegetable stands are the best.  We have become unhappy with the roadside market that we have been going to so we were on the lookout for a better one.  We were told about another place where many of the couples frequent so we decided to see if we could find Janet’s. When we left Lara Mart we headed out to find Janet’s. It actually was a bit easier and there was quite a nice selection of fruits and vegetables to buy.  Stephaney decided to take some pictures of the roadside market.  They ask you what you want and pick out the best for you.  One picture shows one of the helpers picking manogs for us.

We picked up a pineapple, potatoes, oranges, tomatoes, mangos, bananas, eggplant, cantaloupe and yams.  The cantaloupe doesn’t quite look like the cantaloupe we grow in the States but it tastes pretty much the same (see below-next to the tomatoes and eggplant). The yams are white inside and not at all like the sweet potatoes we are accustomed to in the States. We picked up some apples as well but didn't get home with them. As you may recall all foods are washed in a bath of bleach water before eating, even those that you would peel before eating such as bananas, oranges (which stay green on the outside) and pineapple.  So far this process has kept us from getting sick.

Friday afternoon we were invited to attend the temple with our ward as two couples and a single sister were receiving the endowments and the couples were being sealed.  We wanted to get pictures but we forgot our camera and by the time we were finished it was getting dark.  Today we learned that one of the brethren is a Chief of one of the tribes here. We’ll let you know what else we find to do with some of our spare time next week!