You know you live in the tropics when your baby’s dirty diaper smells like mango!
It is mango season in Costa Rica. There are about five different types of mangos that I have been able to identify and consume in the last 4 weeks. We have made mango pie, mango bread, mango smoothies, mango juice, mango popsicles, dried mango, fresh mango and mango lasi. After eating 3 courses of mango dishes yesterday Dennis brought home my favorite kind “mango Rosa” I ate two! Imagine a rose infused mango, that is what they taste like, and I hope they have them in heaven. Did I mention it is avocado season too! Our grocery bill has gone way down this month as you can imagine!
You may remember the saga of my oven. I love to bake and an oven was one of the things that we had been on the lookout for since we moved here. Dennis bought me one for Mother’s Day last year and it was a bit of a disaster, it even caught on fire at one point leaving me oven less again. About 4 months after that a friend gave us their old electric oven from the 70’s and it was amazing! I became the official birthday cake baker for the neighborhood. A few ladies mentioned wanting to learn to bake so I had them over one day showed them how to do yeast bread, cookies and biscuits. I also gave each of them a sack of flour so they could try at home. Little did I know that this was to be our first step into being a blessing by establishing microenterprises. Over holy week a local boy came to my door selling homemade bread. Not only was it delicious, a rarity in Costa Rica, but it was made by one of the ladies who had come to my house that day! I saw her later that week and complimented her on her baking skills. She told me what a blessing her little business has been to her family, enabling her to buy her three children the books and pencils they needed for school.