Sista Shopping

The "Sista's" of the Mission. Front and center Sista Kirkham. Left to right, Sista's Berrett, Miles, Dever, Hezseltine

This is one of the streets we were shopping on!

All the "Sista's" went shopping on July 4th in the pouring rain at Waterside. What an adventure!

Coconuts

We have never seen a truck full of coconuts!

Elder Hezseltine has come to love "young coconuts!"  You buy them by the side of the road.  The seller will trim them up for you and we "carry" them back to the apartment where we put them in the fridge and wait for them to get good and cold before we cut off the top, drink the cold milk inside and then scoop out the pudding (see prior post).  They are soooooooooooo good!

Our Friends the Koenigs

Our friends the Koenig's attend the Harbel Branch.  President Koenig is the First Counselor in the Branch Presidency and Sister Koenig is the Relief Society President.  The bike is their only mode of transportation.  It takes several trips on the bike to get everyone to church (it is a 25 minute round trip).

We crossed the bamboo bridge(that President Koenig made) to get to their land on which we are standing. After the rainy season they will make all the bricks for their future home on site.  Once they have enough bricks made they will build their home, plant their "farm" and live happily ever after!

Samuel and Mayra's Wedding

Brother and Sister Weah

We have the same wedding anniversary!

Samuel with his Mom and Mayra.

Konrad and Massa's Wedding

The bride and groom.

The bride and groom cut the cake at the reception but it not served.  The bride and groom take it home, cut it into serving size pieces, wrap it in foil and deliver it to friends and family.

Party Time!

Fun Things

They state things very simply here.

What a surprise and Elder H forgot his racquets!

Pray Until Something Happens - sounds like good advice.

This sign just makes me smile.

Giant Tree

It is so much bigger than it looks!

Can you see me?

They "re-planted" the roots! I hope it works.

One day on our way to the office the road was closed.  A GIANT tree on the Presidential Palace grounds had been blown down in the night, crashed through the western wall and was totally blocking the road.  It took days for them to cut it back.  Driving by it the tree seemed HUGE but when I took a picture it just didn't show the size so I stood next to what was left to help give you perspective.  On Friday (4 July) we noticed that they had cut the tree back as far as they were going to and that they had re-set the trunk.  When the tree blew over the whole root ball was on it's side as well (I wish I had a picture of that).  It appears that they are hoping that the tree will "re-root" and grow.  It is the rainy season so it just might work.

Head Smarts

This "mobile shop owner" really uses his head.  He walks the streets and neighborhoods selling his wares.  When you stop him he lowers "the store" from his head to sit on the stool that he is carrying and "waalaa" you shop, buy what you want and he moves on.  Ingenious - very little overhead (pun intended).

Mobile Shopping

Mobile shopping here is not done on a "smart phone" it is done with your feet shopping from a wheel barrel.  These street vendors are self employed and mobile.  They go where the crowds are at different times of the day or choose their favorite location.  They also can take their shop home with them at night.  Each wheel barrel has a specific group of shoppers that it will target. For example some are nothing but school supplies and they park outside the schools.  Some sell bread and roam the neighborhoods starting in the morning until they run out of bread.  Then there are the shops that go to the market everyday and line the streets making it difficult to drive down the streets.  They turn a 2 way street into a one lane mess!

"Custom" wheel barrels for hire.

Bathroom Needs

Toiletries

One stop shopping if the right vendors are next to each other.

Yes those are all bras. There are 100's of the vendors selling bras!

These vendors were kind, they left part of the street for  vehicles.

AVOCADO Season

It is HUGE, would not fit in my hand.

Lots of Random Things

I have been taking lots of pictures of things we have been looking at for over a year and realizing that I may never see it again and want to share all the fun things we have come to love.  The following posts shows some of them and I am sure that there will more as our time draws to a close.