The People of the People's Republic

As I begin to think about this blog, I can't help but think two things. 1). Tammy's pictures are so much better than mine, and 2). I am so overwhelmed that I don't know exactly where to begin. I guess the best place to begin is with my favorite part of the trip - the people.

We took these pictures outside of the Museum of Natural History - what we saw on the beach was far more intriguing than the museum... When you live in the city that has the Field Museum, few things can compare. All along the beach there were people with long sticks collecting seaweed from the ocean and sticking it in Jewel bags. Grandpas, kids, moms - everyone was there getting free food.

On the other side of the museum there were fishermen who pulled onto the shore and were sitting down untangling their nets and pulling out the fish. They used hooks that looked like crochet hooks to pull the net all around the fish. Notice all of the orange starfish in the nets and on the ground - they are inedible, so they just threw them on the beach, which was covered with them. The edible fish were sorted into little tubs and put out for people to buy - an instant fish market.