Patacones are Rad

 Maria, our landlady, keeps things up nicely.  She sweeps with water, then mops the patio where I do laundry.  I decided I ought to help out.  We look like two old washerwomen.  It was kind of a fun break.  I like to think it discourages cockroaches if they have to cross such a big clean area.

 This woman works at the fruit stand I like to go to.  She is so friendly.  I sometimes think she gives us too good a deal.  One night I made a fruit salad with pineapple, papaya, oranges, bananas and passion fruit for 8 for $1.75.  I love to try everything she has, and we buy once or twice a week, so I hope it is good for her, too.

 We had a "Noche de Hogar", a night of visits in a home.  Rod played monopoly all night with the young man who lives here.  We made a "wrong" turn to get to his house.  It turned out that we met him on the street.  He had forgotten that we had an appointment together.  We've been worrying about his mother.  Her father just died.  She is the relief society president and hasn't been to church since we moved here.  Hmmm... She said the night of singing (and we brought fruit) was a pick-me-up for her.  She cares for her mother and two grandchildren and her husband travels out of town to work in a mine and is only home two or three days every two weeks.  Life is hard sometimes.  And here I am with Rod 24/7.

 This is one of our students in Las Tablas.  She taught me to make Patacones, green platanos cut in chunks, deep fat fried, then mashed flat and fried again.  They taste like the best french fries I have ever eaten.  She isn't a member.  Her daughter is dating a boy who plans on a mission and the family is really friendly.  They are "investigators".  Actually, I think it is just a comfortable place for the elders.  She grows the platanos in her yard.

 All of us together.  The young lady is a member from next door.  Both are English students.  We also shared pineapple (she is allergic) and the whole wheat bread we found at the panaderia.  It tastes like good whole wheat rolls when it is fresh and costs 50 cents a loaf the loaves probably weight 1/3 -1/2 pound.  We came home and had warm bread with peanut butter and honey.  Since we had whole milk, it was a feast.  Even so, Rod is not eating much bread.

Elder Pena was transferred this week.  It was a sad day.  We knelt in prayer together and had them to dinner the last night.  He went to David and Elder Goodfellow, from Midvale, Utah, who had been in David came here.  He has been here the same amount of time we have and is desperately trying to learn English. 

My neighbor had given me a grenadia(different from the passion fruit of the same name).  Elder Pena told me he loved it frozen, so I cut it up and froze it for a special treat.  I saved the seeds for a day or two in the fridge, but they looked so slimy and ugly I threw them out.  When it came time to prepare the frozen drink, they nearly died laughing when they found out what I had done.  The seeds (they tell me) contain all the flavor.  To add insult to injury, I had left the skin on it.  All the fiber I can get is my motto.  We had a vanilla smoothie with the rest. I thought it tasted pretty good, but I think the Elders will enjoy this story a lot.

I love seeing these along the road.  They were part of our farm life when I was very little.  These are the milk cans that we carried up to the road with the milk wheels that we had.  Do any of you remember the story when I played with Korinn on the milk wheels and she fell backwards on cement on her head.  I saw her eyes roll around and I thought I had killed her.  I started yelling this to my mom.  Nicolet, my sister, had the good sense to correct me and protect my mom from a heart attack.  (and she was two years younger)

We had yet another encounter with a police officer on Friday when we were traveling to Las Tablas.  He waved us over when we were doing 99 in a 70 zone.  He had his pad out to give us a ticket.  I decided to ask him about what we should do here.  At one of our student's home we had talked with a police officer who was their friend.  He told us we should stay with the traffic, which Rod was doing.  I explained this to him and asked him what we should really do.  He said 10 over was acceptable and gave us only a warning.  I suspect our luck may run out and we'd better be careful.  It is difficult to go so slowly.  99 is only about 60 mph.  Unfortunately we don't have cruise control in our car, so we really have to watch.

Our video of the week is a young man who can do the sounds of a chicken (I wasn't so impressed as I feel I do a pretty good chicken), but his cricket is incredible to me.  It was pretty fun to watch him.