No Esta en Temporada

Que lastima! I found out mangoes no estan en temporadas--aren’t in season right now!!! Armando, the Mexican, let me know they won’t be in season until about May, but he’ll have some Chileans in a month or so. Well thank you Armando, but I don’t want Chilean mangoes. Prefiero la fruta de Honduras, gracias. And before anyone gets too huffy, I’m allowed to call Armando the Mexican because his little tienda has a name (not all of the stands have names) and he named it “El Mercadito Mexicano”  --he has the Central American equivalent of veneers, and his canines or the teeth right after have a little rhinestone adornment. His smile kills me every time he cracks one. I have a silly grin just picturing his smile now! His wife, Linda, is just that; sweet little muñeca of a woman. Irene’s last name is Trujillo, so today Armando cracked on her a bit. He wanted to know how it was possible that she had a Spanish name and couldn’t speak it, when I have the name of a gringa and talk like a little parrot. While I’m not sure the parrot thing is totally a compliment, we all had a good laugh. He actually keeps calling me the German, which I still don’t understand.

I’ve started telling people to call me “Suzi” instead of Courtney. My name is just too difficult for la mayoría de los hispanohablantes. My friend Miguel(ito) started calling me “Suzi” a few years ago, but we had this rule that he was the only one who could call me that. He loved that my middle name was Suzanne, and got into this bad habit of calling me “Susanna” in his Peruvian accent. When I told him I’d had more than enough of that one, he shortened it to Suzi “soosee” and I fell in love! It’s sort of funny telling people to call me Suzi, especially the ones who have been trying to pronounce my name (Kernie) for the past few days. And hopefully I’ll quickly get used to answering to Suzi, because right now it catches me a little off-guard :)

I think I’ll be good to go on my volunteer’s pay each month. Today at the market I purchased a pound of long, deliciously tender green beans, a handful of jalapenos, a fat bag of “consume” and what I’m thinking (hoping?) might be a grapefruit for roughly two dollars. I wonder about the grapefruit because I’m unsure of the exact translation, and when I asked if it was like an orange but a little bitter he said it was sweet. Well Marvin, I think grapefruits are a little sweet, but most people find them bitter. Good news—I enjoy just about any citrus fruit, so it can be a fun surprise when I peel it open and try my first bite! I also bought 30 farm-fresh (thanks Armando, but I don’t need to come see your chickens. I believe you :) eggs for about $2.75. Irene and I are going to split them, so I’ll let you do the rest of the math, but I still think it’s a pretty good deal. I bought everything but the eggs from some of my favorite vendors, Marvin and Doris. Their little Marvin Isaac (pronounced Eessahk [hahah yeah can you tell I’m teaching phonics?] and I love the way it sounds when Doris says it) is in 2^nd grade so it’s fun teaching him and then getting to see him sometimes at the market.

**Turns out it was a grapefruit, a delicious grapefruit, and I've since purchased many more. They’re about 5 limps each normally, which I guess works out to about a quarter. Avocado is normally about 4 limps each—such a steal! And I picked up a bunch of beets for 10 limps! The bigger ones are 12 limps a bunch, but either way that ain’t bad!