daily life

Molasses

We have been able to find pretty much everything we desire here. Some things are harder to find than others, but it’s usually available somewhere. As a last resort, there’s a Walmart about 20 miles away, and they generally have anything that we can’t find in the local markets.

Today we’re having a bunch of guests over and Maricela decided, “Let’s make ginger molasses cookies,” which is one of our favorites to make back at home. We searched high and low for the ingredients, but couldn’t find molasses, not even at Walmart.

We decided to carry on without the missing ingredient. Instead, we made sure to increase the amount of the other spices we were using, especially the ginger. Plus, we added some honey in place of the molasses, anticipating that the similarity in consistency would at least be a reasonable substitute for the moisture content and “stickiness” of the molasses.

The guests haven’t arrived yet, but it looks like our experiment was a success. Obviously they’re not the same without molasses, but they turned out really good!

Another Herd of Goats

It’s very common to see a goat herder along the side of the highway with a small herd of goats, maybe 30 or so. I don’t know anything about goat herding, but the small size of the herds surprises me; that is, how is it financially viable to employ someone to care for such a small number of goats every day?

The herd in this photo is larger than most that we see. I’d say this is 2-3 times the average, and it’s possible they had two goat herders watching over them. They need to keep a close watch on them because they venture right to the edge of the highway. Rarely is there a fence between the fields and the highway.

Just Another Day

We went to the neighborhood market this morning and I took this photo on the way back. A couple of people in town have goats – this guy has more than most people do (they’re not all in the photo). A few have pigs or cows or chickens. In general, the neighborhood is very quiet. As you walk through town, you may see more animals than people.