How To Eat A Mango (according to Eric)

1. Do not pick from tree. You must let it fall off the tree to ensure it is at its peak ripeness.

2. Hang over the curb so as not to get the juice on you.

3. Peel off part of the peel with your teeth.

4. Proceed to eat flesh off of the pit.

5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 until you have eaten entire mango.

6. (and this is the most important step in his mind) Suck EVERYTHING off of the pit.

There you have it. How to eat a mango from a local. My friend, Ina says everyone in her village is always sticky during mango season and that everything smells like magnoes, even their breath.

I still love 'em and can't get enough.

Yucko!

Well, the "crud" has been circulating. All of my efforts to disenfect and quarantine seem like wasted effort today. I am sick. I started feeling crummy on Saturday night while Eric and I were out on a date for the first time in I don't know how long (of course). I developed a wicked sore throat that was killing me all day on Sunday. I stayed in bed most of the day or quarantined in our room as to try my best to keep Little E from getting it. No fever, thank God, but body aches, sore throat and a little bit of a cough. My throat was hurting pretty bad last night and I was actually kind of scratching my neck from the outside because of the pain, so we took a look with a flashlight. I had a few sores in my mouth (I know, gross) and a couple of white spots on my throat. We called Eric's aunt who is a doctor here by trade (but sells real estate). She said it wasn't at the infection stage because I didn't have a fever, but that I should get this mouth wash called Septicon and some lozenges with lydacaine calle AngiMed. Both are manufactured in the DR, which always makes me a little skeptical, but I didn't need a prescription and the other times local medications have been prescribed to Little E they have turned out to do their job.

Why am I telling you this?

Well, turns out Septicon is this amazing tonic that I imagine was sold from a covered wagon to people in outlying villages as a cure-all a century ago. It sure claims to be. On the back of the bottle in English it says, "Septicon fortifies your teeth, stops gums bleeding, heals mouth ulcers, reduces the abscess. Very efficient for throat infections. Destroys bacterium's, fungus and virus the causes throat infections." First of all, it wouldn't be a Dominican product if it didn't have a couple of type-o's. But, this thing pretty much kills EVERYTHING in your mouth. And, it tastes D-I-S-G-U-S-T-I-N-G...not so bad when you swish with it, but the after taste actually tastes like something died in your mouth.

So, why would I use something like this?

It worked. I gagged it around for the 10 seconds last night before spitting it out. And, the pain in my throat was almost all gone within an hour. No lie. It killed the sores (I know, gross again).

I still feel crummy today, but I'm not as bad as yesterday. I don't know what it is about being in a new country, but along with new customs and ways of doing things you get new germs, which means new kinds of sicknesses, too. The times we have all been sick have manifested themselves very differently in our bodies than in the states. I'm just grateful to God that the little guy has been spared with this round so far.

Happy Birthday Little E!

So much has happened over the past two weeks that I am sadly just putting pictures up from Eric's second birthday party now, 11 days later (I think). We had a house full of family for 10 days and then a bout with the flu. The H1N1 flu has been circling our area like a hawk (as has another flu strain which is the one I think Big E had, chickenpox, and Dengue Fever which is from mosquitoes). We have been laying low and I have been disenfecting like crazy to try to keep Little E from getting sick, mostly because I don't want to sit in a doctor's office for half a day with other sick kids waiting to be seen.

Now, about his birthday. Our little guy is two and it literally seems like yesterday we were celebrating his first birthday at a bar-b-que in the yard of our old house in Boston. Mostly it seems like yesterday because shortly after his birthday our whirlwind move started. SO, we had what I deem a very "Dominican" birthday experience. (I will try to keep it short)

Dominicans go pretty nuts over kid's birthdays. They are events and a lot of them are held at the most popular and "posh" locations in town...the new McDonalds on Nunez, the Burger King on Lincoln, the Country Club, etc. Seriously, the McDonalds has a one year waiting list...no lie. So, we went back and forth over what to do...at home with cake or in a restaurant. We had to have it on a weekday because the weekend before was Mother's Day here, but it ended up that the party was on his actual birthday, Monday, June 1st. SO, we decided to have it at a local pizza place that has a really great playground, except the place overbooked and there was already a party going on when we got there. And, it was a party...loud music, dinosaur decorations and elaborately decorated cake, kids running around everywhere and a clown providing entertainment. So here we are a rag tag family gathering of 15 walking in with our balloons and homemade Elmo cake. Chaos ensued as we tried to figure out what to do. One family member was "discussing" the situation with the staff arguing about our reservation, Eric was apologizing to the father of the other kid who was very rude to us, I was trying to decide if we should stay or go, and little E was over in the corner with the Elmo cake unsupervised putting his finger in the cake I spent all afternoon decorating and opening his presents. It was a scene from a movie! Of course, you have to imagine a lot of loud, fast Spanish and exagerated gestures to really get the picture. So, we called the other Pizzarelli location near to us to see if they could take us and ended up moving the entire party with balloons, guests, presents, cake and all over to the other place. It ended up being great... we had the place to ourselves and they didn't even charge us to have the party there. I am learning that things usually end up working out in the end...it's just getting to that point that I am still trying to figure out. But it needs to be said that I was one of the more calm people in this situation, so that is progess.

In the end, Ericito had a blast with his cousins and Elmo and the whole crazy gang. The pizza was great, the cake was yummy and we really had a great time.Opening up his presents from us before the party. Yea! A train set!