It was a down day for us… no early start, no trip to the facility… fortunately we were in a “safe” area of the mall and could get out and walk… so I did a little walking and had lunch… ouch!…
It was Mother’s Day here as well as at home… I was not able to be home…
We don’t speak the language and they generally do not speak ours, so that makes life pretty difficult so we opted for places with signs and things to point at to order… First choice, McDonalds.. not exciting by any means but easier to make the understanding that way… and the menu is mostly using the same English terms as we know… The major problem is the costs… 2 meals, 1 big Mac and 1 deluxe cost about $35 here. No wonder there is so much absolute poverty. The forced level of exchange, the forced ‘nothing” cost for fuel runs up the costs for everything else… 20 gallons of gas might be $3 (I have not paid so don’t really know but am told it is nothing). On the other hand all other things are 2 to 3 times as expensive but people line up for it so there is money, just not very even in my estimate. off the box and on to the walk around…
From our walking around… I think this may be standard attire?
Of course they also have specialty stores…
Hidden on the back side there is a very small plant shop… I made a very short tour through as there was not much to see..but…
We may be at the wrong time as the flowers are not abundant like I would suspect. They said they just came off a very hot and dry summer down here…
Back out on the mall circuit… speaking of specialty stores…
Then I captured one of the crew – a guy from the UK and he had to have a picture taken here…
His name is Ben…
Tomorrow is back to a full day work… to day was half as we met up after lunch to start the haggle over out reports..
WD0AJG