eastern market update

i am still in rwanda, but i wanted to pass along this note i got regarding the market. this is from a friend who is super active in the market reconstruction.

I walked down 7th Street yesterday and was so excited to see merchants up and running! There are great signs that are hanging above the merchants so you can quickly and easily look for and locate the vendors you are seeking out.

Please help spread the word. Not a lot of folks seem to know the Market is getting back on its feet. And I had no idea- but am very excited that a temporary Market is being erected across the street (where you can see all the construction going on). That’s projected to be up and ready in mid-July. I can’t wait for the pancakes! Yippeee!

There’s a PR campaign in the works- but in the meantime- please forward this email/chat up the Market.


Please see Eastern Market updates below regarding:

1) A temporary “East Hall” which will open in mid-July and include refrigerated cases for businesses.

2) Request for volunteers in 2 hour shifts on Saturday afternoons and Sundays (selling t-shirts and tote bags)- please email pgarylaw@aol.com to sign up

3) Schedules for South Hall merchants who are NOW open for business



1) EAST BUILDING UPDATE

Turner Construction reports that the temporary East Hall will arrive around
June 26 and should be erected by July 15. The refrigeration has been ordered
and should arrive in 4 to 6 weeks. It still looks like a late July opening of
the East Hall is in order.

2) REQUEST FOR VOLUNTEERS: SELLING T-SHIRTS AND TOTE BAGS

Please email pgarylaw@aol.com to sign up.

Starting this Saturday, besides T-shirts, Market shopping bags will be available! Like the T's they will be $20. In this regard, volunteers are needed for every weekend from 6/16 to 7/29 including:

· this Saturday 2 people from 2-4 pm

· this Sunday from 10 to 12, 12 to 2(one person) and 2 to 4.

· If you can do so, please sign up for future weekends. Volunteers are especially needed people from 2 to 4 on Saturdays and for all day Sunday.



3) CURRENT/PLANNED VENDOR SCHEDULES

Eight of the South Hall Merchants open outside for business, and more will re-open in the temporary East Hall in mid-July. Details are online http://www.saveeasternmarket.org/merchants and re-printed below.

Blue Iris Flowers
Location: operating from their storefront (7th St SE between Pennsylvania Ave and C St.)
Hours: normal storefront operating hours
News: there are rumors of a refrigerated truck that'll put Blue Iris back on the street soon!

Bowers Fancy Dairy Products (Ray and Mike Bowers)
An increasing variety of cheeses each week, fresh mozzarella, dairy products from Lewes Dairy, including heavy cream, buttermilk, crème fraiche.

Hours: Fri 11 am – 6 pm, Sat 8 am – 6 pm, Sun 9 am – 3 pm.
Methods of payment: no credit cards

Calomiris Fruits and Vegetables (Chris Calomiris and family)
Essential seasonal produce including salad greens, arugula, vine-ripe tomatoes, watermelons, golden pineapples. Olive oil, honey, dates, baklava.

Hours: Tues – Sat 8 am – 6 pm, Sun 9 am – 3 pm
Methods of payment: no credit cards

Canales Delicatessen (José Canales)
Delicatessen meats, sausages, rotisserie chickens. Special orders with 2 to 3 days notice

Location: inside Tortilla Café, 210 7th St, SE, across from Market
Hours: open 7 days, 9 am – 7 pm
Methods of payment: credit/debit cards accepted
Phone number: 202-547-5700

Canales Quality Meats (Emilio Canales)
Angus beef. Fresh meats individually packed from their regular supplier: NY Strips, rib eyes, filet mignon, flank steak, flat iron steak, porterhouse, t-bones, ground beef, pork ribs, pork chops, bacon, sausages including andouille.

Hours: Fri Noon – 6 pm, Sat 7 am – 6 pm, Sun 9 am – 4 pm (hours may vary if stock sells out)
Methods of payment: credit cards accepted

Capital Hill Poultry (JoAnne Jung)
Not open. Will resume operations in new Temporary “East Hall” building in July.

Eastern Market Grocery (Jorgée Canales)
Fresh pasta and ravioli, pesto and sauces, hummus, tabouli, grape leaves, pita.

· Hours: Fri 3 pm – 6 pm, Sat 7 am – 5 pm, Sun 9 am – 3 pm

· Methods of payment: credit cards accepted, no debit cards



Eastern Market Pottery
Not open. Seeking temporary workshop space.

Fine Sweet Shoppe (Jenny Glasgow)
Bread, including Firehook products on Saturday. Bagels, Danish, brownies, cookies, pies including small sweet potato pies, cakes on Saturday and Sunday. Coffee, drinks, lemonade. Pesto.

Hours: Fri 7 am – 6 pm, Sat 7 am – 6 pm, Sun 7 am – 4 pm
Methods of payment: no credit cards

Market Lunch (Tom Glasgow)
Not open. Will resume operations in new “East Hall” Temporary building.

Market Poultry (Melvin Inman, Sr. and Family)
Organic and conventional chicken and chicken parts, Cornish hens, ducks, turkey products, including chops, ground turkey, scrapple, and bacon. Eggs.

Location: in refrigerated trailer by Market shed, South of Main Market door
Hours: Thurs – Fri 10 am – 6 pm, Sat 8 am – 6 pm, Sun 9 am – 6 pm
Methods of payment: credit cards, no debit cards

Paik Produce (JoAnne Jung)
Wide variety of produce including herbs, nuts, pearl onions, mesclun, fingerling potatoes, baby potatoes, Asian vegetables, and mushrooms.

Hours: Tues – Sun 7 am – 6 pm
Methods of payment: no credit cards

Southern Maryland Seafood (Charles & Richard Glasgow)
Not open. Will resume operations in new Temporary “East Hall” Building in July.

Union Meat Company (Bill Glasgow)
Not open. Will resume operations in new Temporary “East Hall” Building in July.

Mizungo Runner

Evan gave me a training schedule before I left which included quite a bit of running and a smattering of yoga. I have been really trying to keep my coach happy (I was once his top student) and keep my mental health, so I have been running. If you are going to run in Africa, Rwanda is the place to run. You have high altitude (4900 ft. where I am) and it is safe. It is so safe it is crazy. According to my taxi driver Jean Baptiste, it is so safe because President Kigame trained the police "very strictly" so if "you murder you will be murdered on the spot and if you rob, you will be in jail for 20 years". I am not sure this is all factual, but it is ridiculous how safe this place is. Much safer than Southeast DC for sure.

So I leave my Solace Guest house (that the government is generously spending $30/night to house me in…more on this later) and run on the washerboard dirt road west as the sun sets. Churches line much of the run and I run to the soundtrack of their choirs practicing. School is just getting out and hundreds of little hands reach out for high fives shouting "Mizungo! Mizungo!" (which means "whitey") as I run by. I feel like a real life rock star. I am the talk of the town. the queen of the village. It is awesome even though most of the adults on the sidelines are telling me to "try harder" and "run faster". Whatev…I am running so that is something.

I rarely run alone. I typically pick up a pack of 5 or so 5-11 year old boys and girls who want to show me that they are faster than me. They often are, but only because they run for 200 meters and then drop out. I encourage them to continue running "diex minute plus?" most the time they don't know what I am saying because my French is super embarrassing for having dated a Frenchman for 18 months. Nonetheless, the hand gestures get them to follow. They drop out after about 3 minutes, huffing and puffing. I am ashamed to admit that I get a sense of satisfaction from that. Tonight a group of boys stayed with me for 5 minutes. One guy was really panting. I wanted him to stop, but the peer pressure of his friends wouldn't let him. If he doesn't have asthma, he will sleep like a baby tonight. Please don't have asthma , kid. I think there are about 30 Rwandan mothers who will thank me for running; their kids will sleep a hard tonight.

As I ran through a part of the "neighborhood" that had lots of shops and bars, one little girl about four years old--"little" being the operative word, she was about 3 ft tall max--ran with me for about 5 minutes. the people out in the streets cheered for her. There is part of me that wonders if my running does anything to challenge some of the gender norms here? I get the feeling that little girls aren't going on jogs very often. Though I will say that I do see grown women running periodically, but not nearly as much as men.

While the sun set and the lights flickered on tonight, I started thinking about how different Rwanda is. NO one really harasses me. They say stuff in KweRwandan that I am sure I should be grateful I don't understand, but that is the extent of it.

returning home, I passed a kid who had run with me for a couple of minutes and dropped out. He decided to run a bit more and stuck his hand out for a high five. I obliged and he grabbed my hand and asked me "please give me money?!" it was kinda frustrating. Earlier, as the sun was setting, he told me "good morning ." I am sure that this boy knows 10 phrases in English, and one of them is "please give me money." If you haven't been in this part of the world much, you may not appreciate how disabling this mentality is. Thinking that begging is okay is the gateway drug that eventually leads to human trafficking, child prostitution, parents dismembering or inflicting other physical handicaps on their children, etc.

I shake off the frustration when my last and largest group of mizungo runners joins me. About ten 8-10 year old boys race me. We are running up hill, a steep hill at the end of my run at 4900 ft. I kick it because I don't want them to win, and there seems to be no way I can win. The pied piper can't fall behind her flock. I hit anaerobic threshold and loved every minute of it. The boys giggled the whole way. So did I.

56 hours of pure....zen practice

i left jo'burg without much hassle. i was bothered by delta's inability to throw me any bones. the jo'burg skymiles executive lounge wasn't sure my platinum status was enough to get me in the door. so nuts. i talked my way in because i was zenned out. but there were a couple under the breathe swears.

i got to uganda without much of a hassle. i started reading jesus land, which i ended up finishing in one day. it was good but disturbing...

i got to entebbe only to find that they don't have very many transfer passengers. they kinda didn't know what to do with us. we asked if we need to stand in the long line for visas and they said no. so we walked out to where the luggage was coming and we were told to stay right where we were or we could get arrested. that was an awesome possibility and i considered going for it. i have wondered what it would be like to go to jail. but i was too tired and decided not to. they took us into a room which proudly displayed the following sign:

we learned that this was only partially true

this is what welcomed us to into the transfer lounge.

the lady standing in the sweater here had helped us through most of the process. of getting to the transfer gates, getting boarding passes, etc. she had told me earlier that the ticket i had may mean that i can't get on the flight because it was a stand-by ticket. i was certain that it wasn't but she insisted that if there wasn't enough room, i might need to get a hotel for the night. i knew that it wouldn't happen like that and tried to stay zen.

she showed up with all the passports and documents and boarding passes and came to me and this table of friends from unicef last. she looked concerned and distressed. she told me that they couldn't accept my ticket and that i would have to spend the night. i asked her to repeat herself a few times. she did. and then started laughing and told me that she was kidding...since when do aiport people joke??? for heaven's sake. but i am glad i kept my cool

i found this to be a nice example of truth in advertising

making it on the mini-prop plane

i ended up in seat 9E which didn't make any since since there were only 4 seats across
i asked to be sure that they really meant 9E.
"what does this say"
"9E. it is the seat in the middle in the very back"
sure enough. i sat in the aisle.
it was like being on a bus, next to a drunk and very schmoosy rwandan

i woke up at 5:30 am to a cacophany of monkeys, birds, and dogs. i went out on to my deck to see what was going on. this is what i found. no gorillas, lots of mist.

this is the same place in the sunlight

a foreboding warning?

this is from my google horoscope...

Your goal now is to make anything unpleasant become more tolerable. You can achieve the greatest satisfaction by doing what you do best -- acting as a diplomat and smoothing over the rough spots so others can get along better. You cleverly make less of yourself while apparently turning power over to your associates. This is a trick, for you methodically gain respect for your leadership and sense of fair play.

if i had got this yesterday it would make since. i just hope today isn't like yesterday. but hopefully i can be as zen and awesome as i was at the airport yesterday. it was kinda awesome to see people all stressed out and being mean and not being stressed out and not being mean even though we were in the same situation. not that i was glad those other people were stressed but it was a really good lesson to me of what been chill and just going with the flow can do. as a result of not wigging out, which i normally do, i got a much nicer room, all my meals paid for, tons of help, etc. so, it pays to keep your cool.

so for curiosity i decided to check freewillastrology.com, this is what i found:

In their translation of a poem by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell write, "I'm the chimp of chance, the champ of chance, I'm a chum of chance and a chump of chance." Judging from your astrological omens, Libra, I suspect it'll soon make sense for you to speak those words yourself. Dumb luck and blind fate will be swirling around you, whipping up both unexpected pleasures and knotty challenges. What can you do to be more of a champ and a chum of chance, and not so much of a chimp and a chump of chance? Welcome everything that happens, with no exceptions. Love the easy and the difficult, the playful and the contrived, the lucid and the confusing.

so, looks like it might be one of those days. here is to being calm and at peace! wish me luck.

getting to kigali

in preparation for big/long trips lindsay and dianna and i have created a tradition of the last supper. it is really just an excuse to go out to eat. so here is my "last supper" at montmarte. it was supper duper yummy. lindsay picked the best meal scallops. i had rockfish with saffron sauce, it was also yummy. dianna got a steak.

please note the beauty of the food and wallet and hands.
turns out dianna is a hand model
lindsay is a wallet model
because she found this one at nordstrom rack
and it is perfect in every way
i am kinda paraphrasing.
and seriously, could that fish be more delectable?

i had chosen to take this crazy flight from dc to atlanta then to johannesburg (that had a surprise stop in dakar senegal) and the from jo'burg to kigali. it made since because i was supposed to be able to upgrade because i have platinum status on delta and all these free upgrades. i had called the airline long before i even booked the ticket to be sure that this upgrade was possible. i was promised over and over so i booked this crazy flight. well of course, it wasn't garunteed like they made it sound. and in the end there were 6 empty seats in business and i was sitting in coach. some of my favorite excuses were: 1) it isn't fair to just upgrade you when people have paid $10k for those tickets (mind you i had the highest class ticket you can have without being in business and i had flown 100k miles last year to get this status and one of the promises that they made to me was that i would get these upgrades if i was loyal to delta, 2) for security reasons you have to clear 24 hours in advance. what do they do in those 24hours? check with the fbi? cia? and without the 24 hours they just can't tell if you are a terrorist? because you know, all the terrorists are too cheap to buy their first class tickets.

this how you can tell you are flying south

you can see here most of my route. i landed for a stop near conakry (near dakar).
then on to jo'burg
later i will fly to kigali

the airport in senegal
i am still figuring out my camera

here are the security inspectors who come on at darkar.
they search every seat
you have to claim all of your stuff
they pull the seat backs and cushions off and search for ... i am not sure what
bombs i guess

when you leave dakar they spray the entire cabin with insecticide
you really feel like you are part of a cattle car
you can seethe mist coming off the can

this is the moon over dakar

take that tom friedman
from here i can tell
the world is NOT flat

this is where diamonds come from
some of them

so i flew for 18hours in the bongo class, only to get to jo'burg 20 minutes after my plane for kigali had already departed. fortunately these two helped me get a free hotel with dinner and breakfast, tickets onward to kigali via entebbe.

so now i am in southern sun airport hotel. happy about having a bed. being able to be horizontal. having a bath and something warm. and really happy i can blog. it is winter here which is funny because all the music and adds are wintery. the food is wintery. i have to say i like everything about summer better. the food, the music, the scenery, everything.

sorry this is a boring post. but seriously, i just spent about 28 hours traveling. it isn't that exciting.

the police state

i take my camera almost every day on my walk to work, because i often see crazy stuff. but for whatever reason, i don't have my camera when the craziest stuff happens. but not so last week... as i got to penn ave. sirens went CRAZY and everything (except pedestrians) came to a halt. great big barrier things came up and traffic was diverted. all because of the soda terrorist.

here it is. the canada dry truck

i would love to know what prompted all of this.

i was late to work so i couldn't stop to figure out what was going on.

this picture makes me so sad. he looks so nervous and innocent

surprise...sodas and snack foods. what is happening that makes this okay? really drives me crazy. i am kinda sick of walking to work past m-16s and grumpy security guards. is it necessary? i just don't feel safer. and i have only seen an increase in crimes. so there.

new orleans jazz

so if you want to do something super fun, let me recommend that you go to the "wonderland ballroom" on 11th and kenyon nw. it is awesome. nothing is happier than new orleans jazz. annd i don't know the name of the band, but it was the real deal.

here a couple of photos. i am going again 4 july (after fireworks of course). so come one come all. should be a party!

here is the band

the place is packed on a wednesday...

Mike Tyson Tries A New Profession: Bollywood Star

AP | June 4, 2007 02:32 PM

---

Mike Tyson wants to try something new -- acting in Bollywood movies.

Tyson said the energy on the sets of a music video he recently shot for a new comedy got him thinking about trying to do more Bollywood work, The Times of India reported Monday.

The former heavyweight boxing champion said in an interview that Firoz Nadiadwala, producer of "Fool n Final," had approached him with a script.

"Firoz has discussed a movie with me," the newspaper quoted Tyson as saying.

"We seriously intend to work toward it," he said, without disclosing any details.

Tyson, 40, danced to Bollywood music at a two-day shoot in Las Vegas last month for a music video to promote "Fool n Final," about a diamond heist.

"The atmosphere was very congenial, happy and energetic," the newspaper quoted Tyson as saying.

Tyson plays himself in the music video, set for release later this month.

the perfect way to kick off june

this is how you kick off june and avoid getting ready for you trip to rwanda.

you wake up "early" and head to the arlington yard sale with lindsay
she discovered this place a couple years ago
many a treasure has been found
this time i found:
super cute canisters for my teas
a cute little pour thing for syrup
and a hand powered hand mixer

you go to voorthuis optical and replace your lost sunglasses
do you like what i got?

then you go pick strawberries with dianna, alicia and lindsay

don't forget your bucket you save $.50 and the environment

dianna running with enthusiasm to catch the tractor to the berries

the tractor

lindsay hard at work

not sure about dianna

turns out i was way too picky a picker. so a reaped less fruit...
i seriously hope this is not a commentary on my life

beware of flying goats

then on sunday you invite daniel, issac, michelle and marc over

for strawberry shortcake

daniel had been forewarned that strawberry shortcake was to be had
upon arrival he ran to the kitchen hoping and saying
stawberry shortcake
he was bummed when he found out that he had to first have
salmon, radish greens, and sweet potatoes

this is his second helping