Changes this week

Yesterday I went grocery shopping and one of my two main stores had rearranged, I happened to have the camera, so snapped a few. This is MiniMart, run by Lilliana and her helpers Zoia (who also washes my towels) and Claudia, it is located on the street with the bank, and Edison's (my shrimp guy).

This is the store where I buy my ground beef, chicken, bacon and milk, among other things. They buy whole chickens in Charapoto and then quarter them, repackage and everything is always clean and sanitary. I buy chicken breast (pechuga) for $2.50 and usually feeds us twice. The ground beef is so lean I usually cook bacon first (which is also quite lean) to plump up the flavor, and who doesn't like bacon burgers? $3 a pound.

Lilliana also buys a lot from the Friday fruit truck, which is great for when I forget (like this week).

I order dog food in bigger bags from her, and they've started a little hardware section. Paint brushes and light bulbs so far... It really is a great little store, I'm always greeted with a warm, genuine smile, and we can communicate pretty well.

Across the street from MiniMart is where Edison and family slept for a while, but they've started building!

So, the bamboo building behind the fence was recently built where a house fell from the earthquake. The bamboo house was made using material from the lot next door, where the cinder block building is going up,now. Not sure if this is private, or government, I'll have to ask Edison. Hopefully government, and that means building is starting.

And closer to us, where Eduardo and I sat and painted...

Oh shoot! The ramada is coming down! Apparently someone's brother who lives in Spain owns this lot, and is having a house built, oh well, we need houses too, because...

The one Eduardo moved into after his was demolished, is slated to come down too! So he had to move again, and is now in a building with no electricity! He does get an ocean view from the new place, but not near as many people walking by to say hello to. I bought him a newspaper the other day, and will find him a book or two.

I guess that's about it, oh one more...one overcast morning Mike decided to do a firing of clay, so I stayed inside and finally finished painting the wall in the tv room.

Mike is working on some really cute clay things, and I'm busy painting for hire. Things are always changing, we are having Vecino do some work for us tomorrow, and we will continue to do clay and paint, so...stay tuned, the adventure continues!

What happened Last week

Tuesday afternoon the power was restored! We got to close the fridge door, and make ice cubes! Sleep with the fan, Awww! Watch the real Tv, of course now more than ever we realize it is truly "the idiot box". We started the GoFundMe account, and have been collecting very well, which is good because everyday more damage surfaces in our little town. 

This building has changed several times in the past week...salvaging roofing and other things

And now today...

It housed a mildly retarded young man, another single man had his business in here, not sure if he lived there as well, and another man lived upstairs. The man with the business Pinero, moved his storage/business things to the storefront where Nexar the bread man used to be. But not sure what's happened to the rest.

Another building was ordered to come down, and damaged some of Ali's place. Ali lives and has a restaurant, and his personal space was damaged. The building that came down housed a hamburger place, and a small family lived upstairs. Fishermen also repaired nets downstairs in an empty area. I don't know where they all went either, Joffre says Ecuadoreanos have other houses, meaning family ALWAYS takes you in.

Found this picture on Facebook, our favorite restaurant in San Clemente, the family lived behind the restaurant, and another family lived up top I believe. It was a VERY old building, but very sad none the less.

This building behind Joffres moms, and across from the bank was damaged enough it needed to come down. Damaging more of Joffres moms place in the process. Worker in the forefront is repairing the bank.

And, Marcos was finally coming down...

Our power had gone out, so we walked into town to see what was going on. We were standing here with this group of people in front of Joffres, and when the building (Marcos) started coming down, I decided I did NOT want to be standing under this large overhang. Not long into it, Mike and I decided we didn't want to see anymore, and went home.

And later when we came back...

But, I did see a welcome sight, and didn't have to cook dinner!! Gorditos is back!! We got a whole chicken, I shared the legs and some meat with Jose, gave him the salad and all the patacones. Even made a plate for Vecino, not a bad way to stimulate the economy, $12 helped several.

Another week down, much has happened, and still much stays the same. We gave Edison $100 and that very afternoon they started demolition. I'm still trying to get Jose some help, but I can't want it more than he does. He wants a new stove, I say, you can't have a new stove until you have a room to put it in...his place still looks like this!

So, stay tuned...the adventure continues!