Peace on Sunday

With a slight breeze, at 9:30 AM, it was warm (about 75 degrees F) and sunny. The water was calm and shiny blue. La Paz means peace.

Sunday morning we sat in the cockpit eating our oatmeal with raisins and milk. It was a special morning because I had made hot cocoa from scratch. Sunday is different than other days because there is no 8:00 AM weather report, no roll call, no news on the VHF radio – the boating community party line. On Sunday most stores are closed all day.  Nobody would be coming by to fix the rig or the cabin lights or the dinghy, the boat yard would be quiet all day, no charters or taxi boats would make big waves early in the morning, waking us up.

We began our day knowing it would be a slower day, no exhausting “shopping” trips. We needed a break from trying to find our way around an open market or even an American-style supermarket where all the prices are in pesos and the names in Spanish. The supermarket was only a mile from the boat. I never got lost physically just psychologically. I spent a long time looking for necessities like baking powder - (unsuccessful), trying to decipher flours types (I bought corn meal), choosing a moisturizer (eventually giving up and choosing the only brand I recognized.) No trips to town trying to find the “dollar” store and ending up in the open market where the banyos (restrooms) cost 4 pesos/person and the lunch and snacks (me and the kids) end up costing more than the containers we never found. No strangers for a whole day – even though they were all friendly and incredibly helpful - I just couldn’t chat with another displaced gringo who told me their life story in five minutes.

Today we would stay at home. We still couldn’t sit in the salon or eat at our table, but maybe I would figure out how to soak (in iodine) all those fruits and vegetables I bought two days ago – so we could eat them. Maybe we would put our clothes in drawers and cupboards today (and throw out those old suitcases), maybe I would find my flip flops and take a shower (at the marina banyo), maybe I would cook something (other than eggs or oatmeal) on our stove in the galley. I was feeling hopeful after we stowed the children’s books and realized there was more room for books. Maybe I would download a kindle cookbook for my birthday (as yet uncelebrated - it was the day we moved). 
Maybe …..

The day was full of possibilities and I was feeling as bright as the sunshine and as cool as the light airy breeze off the water. It was a peaceful morning as everyone sat in the cockpit and drank real Hershey's cocoa.


Carrie