Saturday evening on my way back to the house from youth group activities, Madre Inez says to me, “Take as many of the eggs as you want and then you can send the rest here.”  And I looked at her perplexed, “what eggs?”  Then I got back to our house and saw three huge trays of eggs on our counter.  Apparently that afternoon a Señora from our neighborhood showed up at the convent with a huge quantity of eggs for the Sisters and said specifically that three trays were for “that nice white couple I always see walking to mass.”  We knew that people were getting used to seeing us around the neighborhood but never expected something as nice as that!  We were very honored to be thought of, so wherever you are Señora, thank you for thinking of us!  German pancakes it is this week!

A note about eggs in Bolivia: in the market they are always sold in trays of 30 like this which are stacked very high and never refrigerated.  You say how many trays you want, they wrap a string around the trays and you carry them home. If you want less than a full tray, they put the eggs in a plastic bag for you.  Eggs are then put in a pantry of sorts, equally not refrigerated, until used.  There’s no way to know how old the eggs are when you buy them (although they seem fresh since they still have poop and feathers stuck to them).  We immediately refrigerate ours and wash them with antibacterial soap*, but still only keep them for a week or two.   I have also experienced my first ‘bad’ egg here.  It looked normal on the outside but I did notice an odor before I cracked it.  It was completely brown, green, rotten inside, so gross.  Oh well, gotta learn somehow.

* learned just water, no soap is best, thanks for the feedback Grandma and Terri Berg.