Last Sunday's dinner at John and Lynda's was a delicious presentation of ham, scalloped potatoes and a variety of dishes that everyone enjoyed. Most of us were Canadians, with our token American in Larry who provided a lot of laughs with his tales of visiting questionable establishments in the name of curiosity, and essentially getting told to vamos if he wasn't "buying". Our other jokesters present added to the laughter, and Tim having called Connie "elderly" caused much joy and escalating humour regarding that definition. I think Tim hugely regrets that slip of the tongue! And so Easter ended on a high note.
I emailed off some submissions of my short story for children about "Fredi's Family" and have also sent off a hard copy to a USA publisher. Speaking of Fredi, she arrived late Wednesday with one of her little ginger kittens, and Momcat arrived with a little white and ginger gal in tow. They played, lay around, ate themselves full, drank several dishes of water, and this morning, no sign of any of them! The kittens are almost carbon copies of their mothers, and energetic. Fredi and Momcat just wanted to keep cool, I think. Cagney continues to shed, and I am about to weave his hair into a shawl. How Mitzi remains so active is beyond belief. It is as though the heat has no effect. Like all cats, everyone of these sleeps loads!
We were off to the "Sports Club"for dinner on Thursday and enjoyed the company of even more good folks. The restaurant recently changed hands and the menu is fairly extensive. I don't recommend the hamburger, but I was informed by others that the tilapia was excellent. A favourite of some of the men were the wings - Buffalo or Regular - and by the amount of wine and water gulped, the Buffalo Wings were spicy that night! We all trooped off home shortly after 8 pm. I find it remarkable that after a short while of living here, everyone is in bed very early. That is the Norte Americanos, not the locals. However, we all wake early and are up around 7 am or even earlier. With only 12 hours of daylight year round, it seems a shame to miss any of the day.
There is a new Riba Smith supermarket recently opened in Chitre, and I am eager to get more bread flour, sugarless cereals, and other items not available in local markets. We are rather stuck at the moment with no current car registration (still) so cannot venture onto the bigger roads. Driving around Pedasi's backroads is a bit of an adventure right now, so we stay home more. So boring! The new market in Pedasi, "Super Pedasi" is loading shelves still and with low prices will be our local favourite. They have had the common electricity issues getting going, and will provide more produce and meat once that is settled. We have had many brownouts and several hours without power, all of which is very frustrating, but with a monopoly, the electric company holds all the power in every sense of the word.
Our garden is now suffering much from the lack of rain. Last day of rain was December 16th! Our red gingers look burned, and most of the palms in the development droop with grotty brown branches. We have watered minimally, enough to keep plants and trees alive, but they still look dried out. After a week of rain, all will be green and lovely. End of May, early June maybe...
The humidity is highest in April through most of May on the coast here, and without the pool there seemed no way to cool down last year. I think the average daytime temperature here this past month has risen to around 40 degrees C. There is little cooling at night. I admit that I did enjoy rainy season more than dry season in 2013.
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