Day 3 at Home - Baby on a Dog Cart

Robert rigged up the dog cart that Isbre pulls at the farmer's market (which is sort of like the Marcado, but higher prices and no haggling and no one singing out their wares and prices) to have a seat on it from an umbrella stroller. So today we went to the farmer's market with Isbre hooked up to her cart and Isabelle riding on the cart. We got even more stares than usual, which was fun :-) Lots of people asked Robert if he'd made the cart and told us how beautiful Isbre was. You can tell you're in the US when your dog gets more attention than your child :-)

Then I went to get my hair done and Robert took Isabelle on a trip down to Dundee for a jogging stroller off Craig's List (for about $30, much less than they wanted at the big garage sale). She has never ridden in a car seat before, so she's not used to it and really doesn't like it (who would?). He made it back without losing his mind so the trip must have been okay.

We showed Isabelle off to some of the neighbors, then went for a walk in Noble Woods Park with Isabelle in her new back pack and Isbre on her old leash. It was only 6pm, but Isabelle fell asleep before we got back. I think she's feeling the strain of the move even if she didn't show it.

More thoughts on Guatemala:

• The people there are incredibly hard working.
• The people there that I had anything to do with are incredibly honest.
• Most people there live in houses and with diets that are hard for us to even fathom here in the US.
• They do not treat their dogs and cats very well in general.
• Families are incredibly strong.
• More social pleasantries are expected than here (saying excuse me when you make someone move to pass them, saying hello and how are you when you go into a shop).
• Most sicknesses (cold, flu, etc) are called "the grip" (like they used to be called in this country 40 or 50 years ago). It's assumed it comes from the weather.
• People in the Antigua area are called "green bellies" because they eat so many avacados.
• People believe that children need to be kept warm like they were in the womb so they are happy and don't get sick. I think part of this comes from the fact that really warm babies sleep more, which parents like. Most of the babies in the Mayan women's slings were sleeping.
• People believe that if you feed babies avacado they will get worms. After watching Isabelle gobble up avacado like it was the best thing on the planet, I think they believe this because the babies like it so much that they want more of it and start wanting more real food. This is not good if you are poor and want them to only nurse and not eat too much as they get older.