October 14, 2011

What a glorious day! The three consecutive nights of rain have managed to dislodge all traces of dust and we now have blue skies again. I can even see the sugar-dusted mountains in the distance. Going down the stairs, my neighbor on the fourth floor, the same one who led to the trash bin, invited me into her house. I promised to do it on my way back. Made my way to the supermarket to stock on provisions in anticipation of Corrie’s arrival. A group of students seemed to be on their recess period and were cavorting at the Children’s Park. One of them pointed at me and commented to the rest that I was “teacher”. No idea how he got the piece of information. It’s nice to see the students dressed in suits and ties and not the t-shirt, shorts and sandals for boys and stripper’s outfits for girls we find in most high schools in the States.

                           Students at recess at Children's Park

It’s official now: vanilla can only be purchased in the powder form as the staff at the Morning Star Café clarified. They were gracious enough to help me spell the phonetic equivalent to cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger and I was able to buy all three of them this morning. Muesli is bound to taste much better from now on. Returned to my apartment to find a calico kitten rolled into a ball on the steps leading to the fourth floor. I was not willing to pick it up as I had never seen it before and could not return it to its rightful owner. Checked my email and found out that Corrie’s flight has been delayed and she won’t be here until Monday at 3:30am.

I stopped at the seamstress, this being Friday, to pick up my outfit only to find her preparing to cut the fabric at that time. She apologized profusely and promised to have it ready for me next Monday. I had brought her a few pieces of clothing in need of altering and she seemed happy for the additional business.

Caroline and I proceeded to the Green Market to buy the ingredients for my curry lamb dish for tomorrow’s potluck. She begged from having to see the carcass of animals hanging from hooks and I abided. I bought two kilos of lamb (over four pounds) hoping no one will go hungry. Potatoes, carrots, shallots, garlic, and rice plus some dry fruit and nuts I had been hungering for since day one. I’m glad I brought my Jamaican curry powder. I, in fact, ran out of somonis while shopping there for I had also found two other pieces of fabric with no glitter whatsoever and just snatched them.

We walked back to the house and the kitten was still on the steps, but this time, it followed us into the apartment and jumped on Caroline’s back. It looked really healthy and full of energy, but I don’t have it in me to care for animals. We called Peter, who had adopted a stray cat already, and he advised Caroline to take it to her place until a placement could be made.

                               Caroline and her new friend

Time to marinate the lamb, which was sold to me in huge chunks and I don’t have a good enough knife to make them smaller. Oh, well. Someone is having some big chunks of lamb to deal with.