the bodega

I light candles.
All the time.
Scented ones to set a mood in our house -
and religious ones, for various "intentions."

The candles I use are available all over Tuvalu.
Tuvalu, you see, is sprinkled with people from Honduras, Mexico, Peru and El Salvador, and these people have set up shops all over town.
There is Supreme Hot Foods, on the main drag, which has recently undergone an extensive remodel - in fact, I have often said that we paid for that remodel as the construction crews who worked on our house a few years ago ate two or three meals a day from Supreme Hot Foods. Supreme Hot Foods has a fancy new sign with an illustration of some ham and a chicken leg and some tomatoes.
There are four or five other deli/convenience stores that I cannot remember the names of, and they all have the same kinds of merchandise. Most of them sell vigil candles.
But Sweet Orange is where I buy my candles.
Located in one of the furthest reaches of Tuvalu, I found it when a friend of mine brought me a particular candle after 9/11.
It was the Mano Poderosa candle, otherwise known as Most Powerful Hand of God.



She picked it up for me when our block was lighting candles in some kind of vigil - the details escape me...but when I read about what the candle meant? I had to find another one.
Because there was some problem that I needed help from The Most Powerful Hand for.

But when I asked her where she got it, she was vague - one of those little bodegas by the water, she offered.
I spent an afternoon trawling the little bodegas by the water before I found Sweet Orange.
And it turns out that they have a stunning array of religious candles, as well as a recently remodeled hot food bar and various and sundry spanish grocery items which I am unsure of as I do not read or speak Spanish.
I stop in every couple of weeks and am warmly greeted by the man behind the counter.
He has told me that the Virgin of Guadalupe candles serve him well and that he always has one lit...he tries not to make a big deal of my presence but until recently he has always been just a little surprised to see me in his store -
his store full of painters, construction workers, old men buying beer at eight in the morning, landscape crews, and Spanish ladies of all shapes and sizes.
I don't like to be waited on too quickly and will often hang back and watch what people order from the hot food bar.
It all smells delicious, but I have little idea of what any of it is.
Eggs, cucumbers, meat in some sauce, rice, plantains? yucca? bones?
In the case on the other side of the counter is chorizo, queso blanco, and hard white cheese -
alongside packaged products I have not yet identified.
Behind the register there are various remedies -
something that looks like Alka Seltzer
something for headaches?
something with ginseng.
In front of the counter are frozen treats, and it is these that I mean to try soon.
I heard someone asking for coconut ice and she was handed a cup with a stick frozen in it.
I want one of those.

Yesterday, while I was paying for my candles (after the construction crew got their lunches),
I noticed a fellow having guacamole put on his lunch.
Oh, I said, guacamole next time...I started to pay, and then said: No! Guacamole this time!
The shopkeeper asked how many...I guessed at one.
And for a dollar, Middle and I feasted on the freshest, best guacamole ever.




This
is my 1000th post.
And
I thank you.