Most days Ken and I go for a walk up the street/hill/pothole road from the temple and these are some of our favorite photos of our neighborhood.  Each day brings a renewed gratitude for the things I take for granted back home and an appreciation for these people in their humble circumstances.  We love to walk through this neighborhood exchanging buenos dias greetings with everyone we pass and to stop and visit with some.

 The first photos are of our local lavanderia where the women gather each morning to do laundry and sometimes wash their hair in a community pool.  I think the motion of mom scrubbing the clothes is rocking the baby to sleep...obviously unfazed!

 

 

And this lady just left the pool with her wet, clean clothes climbing the hill home.  Scheesh...I can't even balance myself on one leg without falling over...can you imagine balancing a heavy load of wet laundry on your head and climbing a hill???

 

And I thought doing laundry was a pain in the neck!  Pretty typical for them to not have any yard for a clothes line either since houses are jam packed together...I don't have any idea how they get up on the roof to hang clothes.

 

 

 

Many in the neighborhood are business people with tiendas in their homes selling bags of cement or hardware, tortillas, groceries, freshly-made bread, breakfast, or fruit and vegetables.  The photo below shows a home with a small grocery store...with a little window cut out in the doorway where they serve their customers.

 

 

These ladies were making corn tortillas to sell from their tienda with the baby nearby while mom was working in the family business.

 

 

Never, ever complain about how hard life is...we don't have a clue!