Interesting things we've seen and forgot to mention

So, we've been here for three weeks now and feel like there have been a few things we might have forgotten to add in or it just didn't fit with the narrative. So, here are some of the interesting things we've experienced that we didn't mention in our previous entries.

• We have a new favorite song. This song is ALWAYS being played in the market as we walk by the vendors who sell CDs, they pump this song nonstop all day every day out of their PA systems and we're not sick of it yet. It is called "We no speak Americano" by Yolanda Be Cool.


• Red lights outside of homes means they have tamales for sale and there is one rule tamales are only sold on Saturday's.
  


• We were approached by a sad dog and partially blind cat, they turned down the cheese and milk we offered, all they wanted was love and to be petted.


• We saw an indigenous family outside of a small open shop watching Apocalypto on the television there (We're curious as to what they're opinion of Mel Gibson's portrayal of the Maya history might be).


• Mike made a didgeridoo from bamboo cut from the bamboo forest at the house where we did the sweat lodge ceremony. It sounds pretty sweet.

• There was a free play in town in a nice concert hall auditorium with musicians and dancers depicting traditional music and dance from different states of Mexico.


• We purchased medicine from the Mayan Medicine Museum, Faith's currently taking the one for her cold, fever, and cough (leaves used to make a tea). We also bought traditional medicine for diarrhea, because it WILL happen (a liquid you take in drops).


• There is a taco shop here that sells pastor (pork) tacos 2x1 for 7 pesos. About 25 cents each, and they're good sized, loaded with meat. :)


• I introduced Faith to the gambling machines where you pick an icon, and a light randomly goes around a square with about 15 or so different icons and eventually lands on one, each icon is worth different amounts depending on how many are on the square. We won 20 pesos first try (almost 2 bucks!).


• Faith tried doing our laundry by hand once, very difficult. We have since taken our laundry to a "lavanderia" where you hand your dirty clothes to a person who weighs them, charges you by the kilo, and it's ready the same day by 4:00 p.m. folded nicely and even with the socks paired up. It's about 12 pesos a kilo (50 cents a pound).

• Trash pickup for our apartment is done twice a week (Mondays and Thurs) at 6:30 am. A big trash truck comes by, rings a bell, waits maybe 5 minutes for people to come out running to hand them their trash.


• Faith and I, with our volunteer group, made a presentation on volunteerism at the local college UNICH, a tuition free university dedicated to educating the indigenous youth of the area. The books are also at a very low cost. One of the requirements to graduating is becoming proficient in one of the five indigenous languages they teach (Chol, Tojolabal, Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Zoque).


• We have seen turf wars among the dogs in the marketplace, possible pack formation.

• This dog's name is Michael.


• A taxi ride anywhere in town is 20 pesos (less than 2 dollars). But we've been walking a lot, we're learning how to peso pinch.


• Included in our rent is purified water, but the catch is Mike has to carry the heavy Sparkletts type bottle about 5 blocks to get it back to the apartment from where they fill it up.


• They don't have mozzarella here, we've asked for the closest thing to it and have suffered the consequence of eating flavorless cheese that doesn't melt once so far.


• We have an ice cream man that comes by several times daily, three flavors - lime, coconut, and vanilla. As he was making ours he pulled out a familiar looking red bottle to put on our frozen treat and we fearfully asked "wait, what's that?" (because every vendor here has the same bottle filled with hot sauce that seems to go on everything) and he showed us that his was filled with delicious strawberry syrup, and another one with sprinkles. We were pleasantly surprised.

• Our barred window doubles as a bay window.


• Child labor is common here, grocery baggers at the markets, servers at taco stands/small restaurants, salespeople for their handmade crafts, and some sell everything from candy to cigarettes on mobile wooden display boxes.