Special price…just for you!!

The weekend has arrived!  Got up bright and early to say goodbye to some of the volunteers who were leaving today.  It’s starting to sink in that I am actually going to be leaving soon too.  As much as I of course miss all of you back home…it is going to be a bittersweet departure since I don’t know if I will ever see most of the people I have met down here ever again.  I think I will always wonder how people are doing and if the children and patients are okay or how the CCS staff are doing.  It feels so surreal in many ways.

This morning after I said goodbye to some of my fellow volunteers some of us decided to go to the Biscuit Mill.  This is a marketplace that has food vendors that cook everything under the sun in a setting similar to the Madison Farmer’s Market.  There are also vendors and cute little shops that you can buy almost anything from souvenirs to high end expensive items.  It was a lot of fun and we all tried some very yummy food.

We then headed to Green Market Square to shop around with local street vendors and see if we could haggle some of the prices down.  Every vendor that I came across all referred to me as “pretty lady” who all had a “very special price…just for you.”  It was a lot of fun to shop around and see what kind of negotiation I could do.  I think I did quite well if I do say so myself.  All in all…it was a lot of fun but at the end we were hot, sweaty, exhausted and ready for a little R n’ R back at the home base.  We also stopped at this very cute bistro downtown for some cool refreshments and to get in the shade.  The landscape was gorgeous and I got some very fun pictures.

By the way...did I mention that I get asked all the time if I am from Germany?  "Where are you from beautiful lady...Germany?"  I can only assume that it is the blue eyes and blond hair that might be swaying this observation.  If I wanted to be funny...I could pull this one off and refer back to my German speaking days but we are all now beginning to enjoy making up new places.  When I say that I am from the US I immediately get asked...California?  No.  New York?  No.  Miami?  No.  Then they give up and ask where.  When I say north of Chicago...I continue to get asked about Oprah...she is so popular here.  Today I was also from Mississippi!  Too bad they don't know that my southern drawl was not nearly up to par as it could have been had a practiced a little more.  Off to bed to dream about where I might be from tomorrow...I've had some suggestions from other volunteers that I could pull off Norway or Switzerland...the hills are alive...!!??!!