Two Important Items We Brought With Us

Linda

I am making a list of things that I wish I had here with me and have not so far found in any of the stores or markets. That doesn't mean that they are not here - just that I have not found them. At any rate below is a picture of the items that have been most useful this trip.

That is right! A small pair of fiskars and a small bag of clothespins. I have traveled before with clothes pins because they come in handy to pin curtains closed in hotel room since I have a problem sleeping with too much light. They are handy to hang things to dry in a tough spot (like you have to wash your only remaining shirt over night because you poured your tea all down the front of the stupid shirt.)

Below is the explanation for the usefulness of the scissors and the clothes pins here.

The scissors open the small bags of oatmeal, powdered milk (for the oatmeal), rice, salt, etc. that seems to be the way most things are sold in GUA. So far I have not seen a twist tie or a Tuperware store and ziplock bags if the can be found are in short supply. Later I plan to do a Dispensa run with my camera to show how things are packaged here.  The market shelves look like they have been stocked by a crazed monkey. Yesterday while we were in the store they were stocking sugar by the 15 or perhaps 20 lb bag! The stack of bags of sugar were higher than I am tall. Don't laugh! Five feet of sugar and still coming in is a whale of a lot of sugar. What in the world do you do with that much sugar?? If I had to guess they use it in the juices they make and serve at every meal (I do not drink juice only water or diet coke). The first day Don was in the office he was given a cup of tea with enough sugar  that the spoon wanted to stand up in it. He now makes his own tea. They are also very found of sweet breads of all kinds. I don't bake and do not have an oven so we only need sugar for tea.

Guatemalans use a hugh variety of small plastic 'bolsas' or bags. They can select one just the right size for anything you buy. They are thin and most cannot be reused. They even sell drinks in the small bags so will see young people sucking on a plastic bag of juice or coke or even water with or without a straw in them. There will more later on packaging because I want the pictures to go with that or you will not believe me.

Linda