Mercado negro (Black Market)

There is another woman down here from d.c. until Tuesday. Kate is her name. She'll be traveling south of LaPaz on Tuesday to a rural town in Bolivia to do research evaluations. She's been speaking spanish with Sally and me a little bit. She is an elementary school teacher for the foster care system in d.c. She's great with Sally. Sally keeps getting really close to her face and touching it softly. SO cute. At lunch time we ate our left over pizza from last night. Last night we took a taxi to San Miguel (a very nice part of town. The farthest down into the valley to drive, the nicer the houses and restaurants). Kate had Llama meat and large corn kernels on her pizza. Doug and I had more traditional Pizzas, Lisa had Salmon and Crawfish!! Yummy. So, anyway, we ate those for lunch.

Then our housekeeper was going out to buy groceries at the outside market and I told her I wanted to tag along! Kate came too. And gladly enough she had her camera. I was SO excited to see and photograph an outdoor market. And I was right to be pumped. It was AMAZING, colorful and so busy. She called it Mercado Negro. The black market. Actually I think it was really called El Mercado de Catorse de Septiembre. It was blocks and blocks of tents filled with everything you'd need to make whatever you'd want. It was all in bulk. The streets were lined with vegetables, fruit, nuts, spices, pasta, rice, sauces and oh of course Potatoes! Bolivia is the home of the potato. Mucho Papas!! And there was much more including raw meats, which I wasn't so fond of: Fish (picture right of Kate and Nora), chicken, beef, pork, shell fish, sausage...etc. You could by makeup, dog food, clothing and bagged liquids (Picture above) ie: water, juice, milk, yogurt. It is much cheaper to sell it in bags than in bottles. Well, after Nora (the best housekeeper ever!) was done with the food we ventured up the hill in a van taxi to the more obscure part of the 'black' ;0 market...cell phones, toys, shoes, electronics...hmmm. It was a little shady but I didn't care. My list of things to get was a crib, cell phones, and a high chair. And this place had it all. They were willing to barter on it all too! Which was great for me. I got two cell phones for $60 (440 Bs)! And a new Graco Pack'n play and a high chair for $79 (590 Bs) Yay! I love deals! Doug was so happy when I came home so accomplished in my shopping.
When I got home we went and saw what will hopefully be our new apartment!! It's so huge and beautiful!! SO cheap and it's in the same building we are in now. So secure. So safe. Love it. God is preparing the way for us.

Sally is better. Hopefully she'll sleep better in her new bed. I'll be happy to have a night with out headbutts in my face from her trying to 'cuddle' with mommy's face. It's amazing how heavy a 1 year olds head is when she's exhausted! Love you all.