Town of Sauteurs, Billy

Sauteurs main drag

 We explored the closest town of Sauteurs today. It is small and quiet with no pretensions. There is one vegetable shop, 2 bakeries, 3 small departmental-ish type stores which sell imported and local goods, a number of clothes shops and one restaurant. The restaurant has a fixed weekday menu, and the only vegetarian option on Monday was pea rice. I settled for the local juice made of available fruits and was blown away by the rich fresh blend of guavas and other fruit. Why aren't fresh juices like this available everywhere in the world?! It could turn people off Coca Cola.

My first impression of extraordinary friendliness is confirmed. Everyone greets everyone else. The bus driver greets random people on the street and other drivers, sometimes with just a quick beep. In the veg/fruit shop a man asked me if I was with the sea turtles (apparently we're the only foreigners in the area in this season), and when I said yes, told another volunteer who was looking for limes in the shop that he had limes in his garden and would drop them off at the house later that day. And he did! We are all getting used to this very quickly too, and now greet people we walk past, construction workers, people tending their gardens, people in the bus, and anyone who happens to walk past the house while we are outside. Its a wonderful warmth.

Cable with his fresh coconut treat!

In the afternoon, one of the project supervisors climbed one of the coconut trees in the garden while the other hacked open the fresh coconuts with a machete so we could share some coconut water. For many it was their first taste and they were hooked. There's nothing like fresh coconut off a tree (even if a little fizzy from starting to ferment). Even the dogs enjoyed the tender coconut flesh!

Billy the Kid

Soon after, the pregnant goat in the backyard gave birth to a beautiful white kid. Quite the action-packed day, and no real turtle work yet!