We just got back from dinner and I'm tired and drugged by the food...it is 11:00 Pm and I am usually fast asleep not digesting. Lets see if I can manage to put a couple of coherent thoughts together. Updates...well, we have hot water, an air conditioner ( which we have really been puting to use...)two new light fixtures and the water system is updated now so John doesn't have to climb on the roof anymore. The window man came and measured the openings...he MAKES the windows..and the front door. On Monday, the mason will be out to remove the old windows and the front door...did you catch that? Monday...windows out...Tuesday windows in. Monday night? NO windows and no front door. Haven't I discussed with you the mosquitos? The biting "no seeums", the large snakes, mice...you're getting the picture. We decided we are going to tape something over the window in the bedroom, pull the curtain that seperates the bedroom from the living room and light lots of those mosquito coils in the living room. I'll let you know next week how that worked out...We have also had a guy over for the last two days applying stucco to the outside walls. he had to stop because we left to come into town but he will be back Monday as well. Lots of activity going on at casa de kahnerts....
So much for the construction updates....now, lets get back to the topic I brought up before...cheese. Now, I know there are a multitude of things going on in the world at any given time that I am completely unaware of but I had no idea that so much was going on in the world of cheese. First, we were in a little village I don't even remember the name of about 4 hrs from here. I noticed this great big giant of a man that looked like a red headed version of Jethro from The Beverly Hillbillies ( now that I think about it, that show was in black and white wasn't it..?)anyway, he was a huge, strapping man made even more freakishly large by the fact that I am used to seeing Mayans who are unusually short. He was wearing dark denim bib overalls and a long sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up( it was about 90 degrees) and a straw hat. I was mesmerized by his appearance. What was he doing? he was just casually walking around, an obvious gringo strolling about, being a giant, in dark denim overalls. We drove for about 45 min or so and stopped for gas. As the attendant was filling us up, I turned my head and there was the same guy!! What?! This guy had been walking-we had been driving-and what the hell was he doing? ( sorry, Im stuck in italics...sort of loses it affect doesn't it?) He approached the truck and asked me- in Spanish-if i wanted to buy some cheese? What? he strolled away and as we pulled out of the gas station john and i discussed how very bizarre this occurance was. how did he get there so fast and what was up with the overalls and the cheese? Now...fast forward to a couple of weeks later...we come into Merida to go to the immigration office. Our friend Linda is with us and she is directing us to a place to make some copies. as we near the stop sign, this boy of about 9 or so approaches us in dark denim overalls and a straw hat SELLING CHEESE....? What is with this cheese!!Linda informs me they are Mennonites and they are really big on making and selling cheese and that this cheese is in fact so good that they sell it at...where was it.?..Cosco or some big name store like that...Mennonite cheese it says right on it in the store. Evidently they hawk it all over on the streets too. They are light skinned, freckle faced overall wearin' cheese experts. Now, if that isn't weird enough, on the way home we stop by a woamn's house...I mentioned her to you, that's when I first broufht up the cheese. She not only used to be into making and selling cheese, it was BLACK MARKET cheese....boot leg cheese. Have you ever heard of such a thing? I wanted to ask her what the hell boot leg cheese was but I didn't have the time and I didn't feel like I knew her well enough, having just met her. What do they have cheese speak easy's where they slide open a little door and ask you a pass word before they break out a knife and crackers? Are there large wheels of cheese disguised as truck tires being smuggled around? Are there people that look like Robert Mitcum driving the backroads in '49 mercurys full of illegal wedges? It's one of lifes mysteries...what else is going on out there that we aren't privy to? Can you see some guy in prison.." hey, whadda ya in for?"...."bootleg cheese".
It's raining now. It's like it got so hot it couldn't take it any more and it broke. Thunder, lightening and rain. I'm still in a tank top and a skirt but it's not so sticky. Went to the AA meeting tonight, speaking of sticky. They have a community bottle of "Off" they let everyone use because it's held outside. I didn't get any bites though. You know people who have been here for a while don't seem to get bitten. Maybe they know something I don't besides where to get really good cheese.
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