Saturday Shopping

We had a leisurely Saturday morning sleeping in until 7:30. While I changed the sheets and cleaned the house, Rich worked on the missionary DVD for Sister Argyle. It is coming along nicely. It will be a fun remembrance of the mission and a keepsake for the missionaries to have and review once they are back in civilian life. It lasts 45 minutes. She has taken a lot of pictures.

The President and family come back from the South tonight, so this is the last day to use his car. Elder Nelson said that this is like losing two cars, because we had to give up our office vehicle last week and now after using the President's car while he has been gone, we have to give it back - a double whammy! It will be interesting to see how all of this is going to play out. If the elders have to pay remises to go places, there will be a significant increase in expenses going out.

Since we could use the car today when the elders were through with their shopping, we decided to stock up on things from WalMart. Depending on what the MRI shows on Rich's knee and what the doctor thinks needs to be done, we didn't want to take the chance of him having to have surgery and then he may be unable to walk long distances for a while. (like all around WalMart) So we decided to buy extra things we may need over the next month besides bread and milk. We were in no hurry because we didn't have anything else on our agenda today. And, today is the 4th day in a row that I have not had a call from sick missionaries. During the week, I had to check up on a few people, but my doctor phone did not ring with new problems. That is great!

Rich walked our laundry over to the Lavanderia while I puttered around the apartment doing this and that type stuff. So, about 3:00, we decided we better get ready and do our shopping. We walked to the office to get the car and first stopped off at the Farmacia to get some pills that Rich needed.

There is always a crowd at WalMart. They do a BIG business here in Buenos Aires, as does McDonalds. There is a McDonalds there, so we decided to have lunch/dinner before we shopped. We strolled up and down every isle looking for the things on our list. Wow, today they had marshmellows. One never passes them up because it may be months before they come in again. So we bought a bag. . . of the large ones. I asked why? Rich said they were for his hot chocolate.

By the time we were through looking and taking, the checkout lines were unbelievable. We just had to pick a line and stick with it. They were all about the same. The amazing thing to us is how slow they go. The people here are used to standing in long lines everywhere, but this would not fly in the states. The efficiency level in dealing with the public is lacking at best. Our shopping excursion including the Farmacia stop and McDonalds took 5 hours. It was pretty close to 8:00 when we got home. After we got all the bags in the house, we still had to take the car back and then walk home. Rich said he would be alright to go by himself, but I didn't like that idea because he might look like a defenseless old man with his crutches and all. Someone might try to rob him. So I went along for safety reasons. I don't know what I could have done to protect us. Rich could have hit someone with his crutch, however. Anyway, safety in numbers is always good.

We captured a few local color shots today in our travels. From our balcony, we can see a wide range of apartment buildings, businesses, and individual homes.

A zoomed in close up shot this home shows some lawn furniture in the back yard. From the street, nothing can be seen but the house front. Everything is sealed off, and gated, and nothing is exposed. But this view shows that some people do have yards, with grass, in the back of their homes.

We see this triplex every day on our way to the office. All walls are connected and each owner has painted his portion a different color to distinguish his property from his neighbor. It is quite colorful and interesting.

Walking home tonight, we wanted a picture of how lit up the streets are in our area. It really isn't scarey to walk from the office to our apartment at all. There are bright lights all along the way. The strip of asphalt going down this street is still a mystery to us. We thought, at first, that they were going to cover all the cobblestones with a smooth surface. But since it has been like this for several weeks now, we think it may be a bike trail.

This is a view going the other way - same street.

We had so many groceries today that I wondered where I was going to put them. But with a little rearranging and tossing out the old, they fit just fine. What to cook for dinner tomorrow?