Canned Beans - Say What?

I like to read other bloggers' posts about what they love about their lives in Mexico. I'm by no means content to live out my days in San Juan Cosalá, and the very thought fills me with fright, but I still appreciate a lot about life here.

Most of my examples of what I like about being down here, though, I've come to realize, can actually just be summed up by "I like my in-laws" and "I like having more time and no commute".

I like to stumble across other good things about life here. They're unexpected little presents. Today I found one hidden in my silverware Tupperware (Tupperware is to keep the roaches off my spoons, yo).

When I got here I couldn't believe that my mother-in-law didn't own a can opener. "Is she that poor," I thought, "that she can't even afford a can opener??"

I finally got it, though. This morning I was putting silverware away and saw my can opener buried under everything else. I realized - we hardly ever eat anything out of a can. She doesn't own a can opener because it would be pointless to have one around. There are a few canned foods we use on occasion, but these come with pulltops. Everything else, though, we eat fresh, from veggies, to our own boiled beans, to homemade soups. I'm so used to making my own pasta sauce from scratch, I don't even think twice about throwing a pot of tomatos on the stove to boil down.

That, I most definintely like about life here.