One afternoon, months ago (of course) Maria, Irene and I spent a couple hours in Sigua. We happened to be there the day of the Feria Campesina Nacional, so wasn't that just perfect timing? We sampled some delicious honey, looked at various manualidades...hand crafts that people were selling and enjoyed local music. There was even a stand from an organic farm school somewhere in the area. I don't live close enough to frequent their farm, but it's certainly nice to know they're around. Mmm we came back later for lunch and the food was tasty.
We wandered around their market, in and out of random stores and really had fun killing a couple hours with new scenery. We checked out various types of hair clips, talked to different produce vendors and eat bought a pound or two of beans. I love getting to buy fresh beans, so much so that it doesn't bother me to have to be extra careful picking out the rocks and twigs. Mmm black beans. And red beans. And soft, ripe avocados. Why doesn't avocado get an e when you make it plural? We just covered "nouns that name more than one" in English class...I should know this one.
I can't remember the exact weekend we went to Sigua, but I know it was before our school Christmas pageant, and we were all looking at different Christmas decorations. There was a store with some crazy items for sale! It seemed like the store where broken or boxless items went to be sold at a lower price. I'm talking big cardboard boxes of unboxed, tangled and tied light strands, crates of damages ornaments, nativity sets with a few broken pieces. I liked it because it made me feel a little better about all the things that get damaged or lose their boxes. They don't just sit and rot in landfills, they get sent around and sold in stores for discount prices! I scored a couple yards of this awesome ribbon--it went from an olive green to a dusty purple all mixed with gold and I love it. I thought I'd use it for some Christmas decorations around la Casa Rosada, but my bow making skills didn't exactly sharpen like I thought they might. Maybe next year :)
In one of the little tiendas a young lady translated "fifty lempiras" after a woman quoted Maria a price for some sort of rattle. (To clarify, Maria was looking for something the kids could use as a prop during a round of Jingle Bells at the Christmas show, not baby shopping :) Here and there you run into people who know some of the numbers, so we weren't too startled to hear the English but when we complimented her English she kept the conversation going. A very impressive young lady, Giselle, is a fourth grader at a bilingual school somewhere near Sigua. She spoke English beautifully, and was a beautiful girl. She had an amazing set of grey-blue eyes, and as we were leaving I told her how pretty her eyes were. Her response was a thank you, a smile and to tell me they were pretty like mine! Intellect, and a kind heart!
On the way home we stopped at Mario's for fried fish and tajadas. Mario is father to Tiffany from 2B, and his wife (I embarrassingly can't remember her name!) spoiled us with some fresh chimol, and some rice, beans and avocado for my plate! The food was delicious and the company quite enjoyable. I still can't get over our perfect timing heading to Sigua on the very afternoon they were having their national farmer's market. Good stuff :)
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