Things I am still getting used to...

Though we are getting use to some things other things still seem so foreign.
Gas Stations for one. When it comes to filing up your car, it is still full service here . Every time we pull up it feels like a scene in Back to the Future. Especially when the price reads 150, which makes it look like it is a dollar fifty a gallon. But it is actually 150 escudos per liter! We figured it out once and that makes it close to $6 a gallon. Then the other day we needed to check the air pressure on the van tires. We went in to get a tire pressure gauge and they said it was attached to the air hose. We were thinking it would look like those ones about the size of a writing pen. No. This is what we found.

The attendant had to help us figure it out. The two buttons on the bottom do different things but I can't remember what but Elder Mathews eventually got the hang of it. 

Then there are the grocery stores. Some are cleaner than others and I have found my favorite. It is in the Praia Mall or Praia Shopping.

That's right, shopping means mall. Now that is a word in Portuguese I can remember. And the only real grocery store on the island is called Calu e Angela. This is the brand new one on the bottom floor of the mall.

It is clean but what you see is what you get. That is pretty much the whole store you are looking at. And I will never get use to seeing things like this in the freezer section ...

Or buying milk like this - in an unrefrigerated box.

I will also never get use to the shortages. Every now and again there will be something you just can't find anywhere. Once it was flour. Once  it was white tuna. Once it was lettuce. Once it was Soy Milk. The last little bit it has been peanut butter. After a week without finding any, Elder Mathews saw this and said, "Hey I think this is a peanut butter substitute. Let's try it." Though I was skeptical, we bought it.

I was right. It was not a peanut butter substitute. It was like a jar of icing!!! We ate it all is less than 24 hours. Thankfully the peanut butter is back!

And then there are the pharmacies. You can't find anything like a Walgreens or CVS store where you can browse down the aisles and pick up what you need. The pharmacies look like this and you have to ask them from across the counter what you want - even if it is just baby oil or contact lens solution.

But with all its quirks we are falling in love with Cape Verde.