In search of nourishment

This morning I was able to Skype with Mom briefly and I learned these interesting tidbits:

• Asking for a bank account was apparently akin to requesting open heart surgery.
• Dad was very busy solving problems the first day and jet lag pounded him the second.
• The tap water is undrinkable, so they experimented with a bleach/water mix to wash their produce.  Mom says no lettuce,  it's too dangerous.
• There is a good chance they'll starve because they don't recognize any of the food!  They managed a dinner of yams, rice and watermelon, and are at least excited about the weight they'll lose!  The watermelon was listed as 1 yuan a pound (or some other measurement) and ended up being 19 yuan.  It was still just about 3 dollars, but it was a surprise!  
• Shopping at Tesco is a plus because the store is laid out in pretty recognizable sections.  And if you look REAAALLLLLYY close, some of the packages have English writing on them.

I'll just interject here that I remember the feeling of not recognizing any of the food - when I moved to Brasil, Jared took me to a huge food court for lunch, and even though I was starving (I was 7 months pregnant) I couldn't recognize a single edible thing and sat there and cried.  It was a scary feeling!   I love Brasilian cooking, but it was a definite learning curve.  We'll see how their food adventure develops!