Day Four: Shopping and the Despedida (Part 1)

Today was divided into two parts: Shopping and Camille's "Going Away" party at the baby home.

Shopping: Since we had a free morning, we decided to venture off the local mall. We started off at Starbucks because I wanted to compare it to Starbucks in the States. The coffee tastes exactly the same, but it's a little bit cheaper. The biggest difference was the intimidating, armed security guard who'd open and close the door for every guest.

Most of the time was spent in one department/grocery store. I noticed that there were about five times too many employees there. I literally saw about 4-5 employees for every customer. These employees kept the store in the utmost perfect condition: spotless floors and not one misplaced or crooked product. That's evidence of just how cheap labor is in this country.

Reg loved the grocery store. It had tons of local fruits already, peeled, cut up and ready to devour. They sold different types dried fish in self-serve basins, like they do with nuts or hard candies back in the States. (My kids would have taken the whole tuyo bin home with them). The ice cream and bola-bola displays in the frozen food area looked so good, we just had to take some pictures ... until we were told that picture taking was forbidden. What the ...?
Then we ate an early lunch. Mmmmmm ... good. Two plates of delicious, fried dumplings (drenched in a tasty, but fatty sauce) with rice and a coconut drink for just over two bucks. It was so affordable that Reg splurged and got a fruity dessert: a variety of fruit on top of crushed ice and coconut, served in her very own coconut! Delicious and barely over a buck itself. If they sold these in the States at this price, Reg would buy one everyday of the week and twice on Sundays. I could tell Reg liked it by the smile on her face as she devoured every last drop ... literally. She looked like a starving person on a deserted island who had just cracked open his first coconut.
One wonderful thing happened this morning: Camille finally allowed Reg's mom and aunts to carry her. Somehow, something just clicked, and now Camille has five adults here to lug her around. It's neat to see whole adaptation process unfolding before our eyes.