Friday, August 21, 2015 - Mataro, Spain

I had another long leisurely breakfast this morning and eventually went down the block to a liquidation store that looked like it might have some good deals on clothes.  After much looking and much trying on, I ended up with a top and a light pair of pants for 12.5 euros or about $18.  It wasn't a real bargain as you got into the bigger sizes, which I need, but some of the smaller things were only $3-5.00 so it looked good when you started.

I then went across to the grocery store because I needed some deodorant and sunscreen.  At the deodorant counter I always have to smell the deodorant because a lot of them are so perfumed they make me start sneezing.  I would actually have to do the same thing with the sunscreen but I didn't get that far.  Some lady started yelling from down at the end of the aisle and came rushing toward me.  When I realized she was yelling at me I stood there looking at her (as did everyone else in the store!).  She finally used some broken English to tell me not to open the containers.  I said I had to smell them and she said no.  She made such a fuss over it and so loudly, that I decided just to leave the store.  It as rather embarrassing to say the least.

I went back to the hotel and blogged for a while because it had clouded over and looked like it was going to rain.  After a while it seemed to clear up so I headed for the beach.  Along the way I stopped at a little outdoor cafe for a bikini - a ham and cheese panini in our language - and an ice tea and both were delicious and only cost 3.5 euros or about $5.  Just past there I saw another grocery store so I decided to try my luck again with the deodorant.  Well, their deodorants were locked in plastic boxes so you could see the details but you couldn't touch them.  Obviously deodorant sniffing is a big problem in this country, or maybe people just stop by the store to use the deodorant and then put it back on the shelf.  Who knows.  I went to the sunscreen and some of them were the same but not as bad as the deodorants.  And most of the sunscreens were sprays, which I didn't want any way so I didn't buy anything.

By the time I got down to the beach it was clouded over again and after 3 p.m. so I decided I wasn't going to go settle myself in the sun for what might be just a short period.  Instead I found a nice bench in the shade and sat and read for a couple of hours.  Then I decided to walk south along the beach, yacht club and beach area.  It was a nice walk as the sun wasn't too bright so it wasn't too hot.  The south beach is definitely not as nice or as big as the one we normally go to but it had a lot of people at it.  After the beach it is a rock wall or breaker with huge rocks.  There were some people out fishing from the rocks but it didn't look like they were catching anything.  

Farther down the way there is another underpass so I took that to head back to the hotel.  They have a beautiful promenade and street right on the beach area but then immediately you get the train station with its many tracks.  As a result you always have to find an underpass to get from the beach back to the town area.  The one I used was the last one to the south and brought me out on a big street that led to a traffic circle just two blocks south of our hotel in the park that I had sat and read for a while the other day.  I got a bit closer to the hotel and then sat down again for some more reading in the shade as it was still before 6 p.m.  

About 6:30 I went to the hotel and showered and changed for dinner and did some more blogging before we headed out at 8 p.m.  Tonight we went just down the street from the hotel to a little place with about 4 tables out on the sidewalk.  We both had the steak dinner and it was huge with a thin but large steak, french fries, salad and two fried eggs.  It was delicious and cost 9.9 euros or about $15.  From there we went back to the hotel to stare at our computer screens a bit more before bed time.

That reminds me that not all computer time today was blogging.  We actually managed to book accommodation for a couple of weeks in Zanzibar over Christmas.  I also did several e-mails for Canadian Humanitarian re Ethiopia and Malawi in October, November and December.  One of my colleagues from the College is going to be working in Ethiopia from September 30th to November 20th and then in Malawi for three weeks.  She is teaching entrepreneurial skills to the senior students in the schools in Ethiopia and then teaching the same modules to the teachers in Malawi so it sounds interesting.  I started some of this work when I was in Ethiopia last year so it would be great to see (and help) it continue.  

I sent Lynn a long e-mail explaining some of my experiences and how things differ in Africa from Canada.  For example, the hairdressers I was talking to, said word of mouth would be a good way to promote their business and I readily agreed.  Luckily I said that if a friend of mine or a family member told me a certain hairdresser did a great job I would be much more likely to go to that hairdresser.  My interpreter at the time caught what was happening and explained to me that "word of mouth" in Ethiopia meant renting a car and megaphone and driving up and down the streets broadcasting your business.  I explained what it meant in Canada and then we all agreed that the Canadian version would be a better way to promote a hairdressing business.  

Then we  got talking about reputation and good service and what that meant to a hairdresser.  Time is not a really punctual thing for most Ethiopians so I asked what they would do if someone had an appointment for a certain time but they (the hairdressers) were running late and wouldn't be able to take the person at that time.  The first response was simply to tell  them to go away and come back some other time.  At my look of dismay they tried to come up with some other solutions like explaining the situation and offering them a cool drink or offering them another appointment but the concept of good service and time are just totally different in their culture.  It was definitely a learning experience for all of us and I'd love to do some more of it so that might take up some of my fall time - if only as a backup for my colleague.