Weekly Shopping Spreeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Every Wednesday, one of our administrators, Mr. Rodrigo, kindly drives all of us mountain teachers down to town to get groceries for the week. We MUST leave the school at 3:01 (the bell rings at 3) so we can get ahead of the buses and make it down in time. When leaving town, we must be ready by 4:00 (en punto!-- on the dot!) to get back up to pick up Mr. Rodrigo's wife and kids at the school. So, you can imagine that Wednesday afternoons can be pretty hectic. I think my most stressful part of the week is then, trying to get everything we need for the house, as well as various things for myself.

Now, here in Gracias, there is no such thing as a Target or Wal-Mart. We have specific stores and shops for our specific items. I thought it would be kind of fun to document at least one Wednesday so you can get a taste of my shopping experience each week. :)

Yesterday, we left at 3:01, as usual. I had run out of my classroom without shoes since I leave my work shoes in the classroom and wear tennis shoes up and down the mountain. Once in the truck, I was safe to put on my shoes, but I knew it was a good choice not to have done it in my classroom since Mr. Rodrigo had already backed out of his parking spot and was heading out! We drove down to town, and I talked with him about sweet places to visit around Honduras.

The Bank:

The first stop is usually the bank. I don't always have to go, but this week I need to pay for rent and internet plus the groceries so I went and pulled out 2000 Lempiras ($100). I was actually pretty lucky this week because there were only a few people in front of me. We don't have an ATM in Gracias, so everyone goes to the bank to draw out money, pay bills, exchange, etc. Sometimes there's a line all the way out the door and we spend most of our time in line, but this week, I was in and out in about 10 minutes.

Market:

This week for our little group, my job was to go the market. I bought three cuentas (accounts) worth of fruits and vegetables- one for Maggie and Tyler, one for our house, and one of various individual snacks. :) For our house this week, I bought two pounds of carrots, two pounds of broccoli, one pound of green beans, one tomato, one pound of white onions, two heads of garlic, three pounds of potatoes, five bananas, five green peppers, and a pineapple. Total? 207 Lemps, or about $10.50. I also got three cantaloupe for 25 lemps ($1.05!!) that are super delicious.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.... the other members of our group were off doing their 'duties'. We kind of take turns as to who does group stuff and then just settle bills back up at the house. Tyler went to the post office to check if anyone had gotten any mail, Maggie did her household grocery shopping, Catelin had a bunch of school errands to run, and Jennifer and Shelly did our grocery shopping at Dinora's. Dinora's Mini Super is a nice little grocery store that has a lot of nice things like peanut butter. :) We usually get meat for the week (chicken, sometimes some ground beef), bread, tortillas, cereal, milk, paper towels, etc. Our total is usually around $50 for the four of us.

After I finished at the market, I had a couple of errand-y things to do. I stopped at a papeleria, literally, 'paper store' but it's more like a school supply store. I love this place. You buy everything individually (so, one pencil, one eraser, five pieces of computer paper). This week, I was there to buy a card for a birthday party. The party is for one of the 9th grader's quinciñera (15th birthday, it´s kind of a big deal) so I needed a quinciñera card! The people at the store told me I could leave my three bags of veggies in the front and then a lady walked back to the card area with me and helped me look through the box of cards. At a lot of stores, the helpers kind of follow you around, try to hold your baskets, and watch you as you shop. Most of the time, I don´t really appreciate the worker-in-my-bubble thing, but this time was actually pretty helpful! I got my card and headed to the pharmacy for some deodorant. Finally, I headed for our last stop- Melanie´s.

Melanie´s is like our alternate grocery store. It doesn´t have as much selection, but it has tables out front and makes a great meeting place after our shopping. We also usually buy saldo (minutes for our phones) and filtered water there. However, this week Melanie happened to be out of both and it was 3:55! I quickly ran to another little shop that I know sells saldo, and got $5 on my phone. Then we all piled into Mr. Rodrigo´s truck and made one last stop at a gas station on the way back up the mountain for the waters. ($1 for each 5 gallon bottle)

There you have it! Our weekly trip down the mountain and a little bit of what we do. I promise, if anyone comes for a visit, we´ll buy something special on our trip to cook you. ;)