Time To Connect

What did you hear outside yesterday? You may think my life is surrounded by nature sounds like frogs & birds, but I also hear trucks & planes & “city”. Also, there is no lack of microphones & loud (very loud) speakers around. Even the smallest of churches seem to have a sound system. But not only are they used inside church or the clubs, they are also common outdoors. Here's a few uses I've come across. Stores downtown play music & advertise - someone is hired to entice you into the store by telling of the offers - all day long. Or if you live in a community away from el centro, you will hear the vendors throughout the day as they pass by in truck, cars & tricycles selling water, gas, ice cream, tortillas, fruit... "Uvas, solo 10 pesos 1 kilo, uvas solo 10 pesos hoy!" Sometimes it's an announcer, sometimes it's a song. Or one vendor (water I think) reads the news headlines as they drive the streets. And it doesn't stop at night. It...

Here's my newest experience. I stopped at Nery's house on Fri PM & Paco came home from work (construction near the marina) with a bag of snails. Yes, with just a face mask, he had been diving for snails during his lunch break, I guess & probably had around 100 in this bag. So, we went to Panchita's house to cook them because they didn't have a pot big enough. The only "seafood" I cook is fish, so this was a learning thing for me. So, we boiled them in shell until cooked, took out of the water & pulled off the cap & pulled out the meat & all the rest of the insides. Only 1/2 of what's in the shell is actually edible. And what started as a large bag I could hardly lift became a bowl, 2 pounds, maybe, of actual meat. (Shells are saved for a craft project). My next lesson was how to eat these Mexican mariscos. Well, duh – with chopped tomato, onion, garlic, chile, lime & cilantro, of course. Add clamato & serve like a cold soup with...

I found Rice Krispies! What does that have to do with chocolate, you may ask? Well, last time I lived in Mexico, I had to make Rice Krispies Squares with pink & white marshmallows & Choco Krispies (yes, chocolate). Now I have a couple recipes with chocolate chips - I’ve searched high & low around here for chocolate chips, but have only found them in Walmart in Hermosillo. So, in my search for chocolate chips or a reasonable substitute, I’ve discovered there’s no lack of chocolate, I just can’t limit my search to the usual sources. I’ve seen a few chocolate bars at the stores – few enough that it should be easy to choose. Peanuts & cajeta seem to be popular fillings. The store up the street keeps them in the cooler – I can imagine they would melt on the shelf most of the year in these little unair-conditioned stores. I even found a few imports like Peanut Butter Cups, Fererro Roche & Oreos. There’s Powdered Cocoa, Chokis (cookies), & the occasional cake mix and y...

When I was young I attended Fisherton Bible Camp. While I could regale you with many a camp memory, what has recently come to mind is the trek to the beach from our original location when I was really young. We would all gather our suits & towels & meet at the north east corner of the camp to make our way to the beach together. We walked through this field & then a parking lot, picnic area & end up at an “only popular with the locals” public beach. I’m certain this process was a bit of a nightmare for the leaders who were responsible for us in this rather uncontrolled environment. Some kids would run toward the beach like bees to honey while others meandered through the field exploring. We would look for creatures & wild flowers & the experienced camper would look for wild strawberries. They were just tiny little strawberries but they tasted so pure! I tell you this because I tasted that taste here. You see, you can buy strawberries at Soriana – big, red, “perfe...