I love the way the storms roll in with such command here in SMA. One minute it is a blue, blue sky, with some puffy clouds on the horizon. A sweet, warm day full of promise. Next you notice in the distance a building of the clouds, like a bomb explosion, reaching high into the endless sky. Then a deep, booming crash hits, as though directed by the conductor’s baton! You can feel it in the soles of your feet. In the midst of your surprise the clouds open and dump a deluge of rain down. Buckets of rain. The storm crashes on, and the birds come out as the sky returns to blue.

It feels magical.

On a less romatic note, I have included, for my cooking friends, Gigi, Joan, DanDan and Sean Madden) a picture of a process we have to do here to eat certain foods. We take any fruits (that you don't peel) and veggies and put them in the blue bucket with an iodine mix that kills bacteria. We put a plate on them to submerge them and leave them for 1/2 hour. Once that is done they are safe to eat. You NEVER skip this step unless you want to spend an lot of time in the bano.