Saturday is Market Day in a dry riverbed about a five minute drive from where we live. Our cook, Madam Ino, usually goes to market for us (since they say white people don't get as good of prices). But she is sick and had to go to a Doctor in Port au Prince. So today we decided to go to Market ourselves. We had a grand time :)
Saturday is a very busy market day. There are people absolutely everywhere, and you kind of have to push your way through the crowd. We went through the fruit and vegetable "stands", passed cooking shacks of frying food, stepped around frozen chicken legs and shrimp spread out on a tarp. I asked David if he felt like he was at Covered Bridge :)
We bartered for a few t-shirts and some other random stuff, then headed back up to home.
The "parking lot" :)
A vegetable stand.
Here was our purchases for the day. I thought we did really well as far as prices went. We spent around $6.50 (US dollars) and got all those beautiful fresh (organic :) ) fruits and veggies. Maybe having Orrin around to smile at people helped us get bon pri (good price).
Another thing we tried today was to get beef from the butcher (who butchers right outside the hospital gates). This was about $2 US per pound. Sheila Moser bought some and so she got some for us. It was really fresh!! So we picked out a few pieces for supper....looks like good steaks, right??
Our supper, thanks to market and the butcher. The beef was a little chewy, but overall was pretty good. Orrin shoveled it in almost faster than I could keep him supplied. Then David took the second piece off the grill...and it was a pale color....almost like pork loin. We tried it and sure enough, it was not beef!! So we will have to find out if they were butchering a pig by the cow!?
Don't let our cheap produce prices deceive you....food is not all cheap in Haiti. If you want anything remotely American, you pay about twice as much as at home. :( But every once in a while, you just really want to NOT have cabbage, and maybe eat some green beans from a can ($2/can)....or a nice bowl of cereal ($5/box for ultra generic).....or even eggs ($3-3.50/dozen!)...or maybe get some cheese ($5/8oz)....sigh....I miss Aldi.....
There are some stores that we shop at in Cayes, which is about a 45 minute drive from Bonne Fin. This one is by far the most americanized. It has carts and scanners to ring up your purchases! David and Orrin were helping me shop the other day, and Orrin decided to lay down in the cart :)
So that's what we've been buying....now for the selling....
We've been thinking for a long time about selling our house....for a lot of various reasons. We've decided to put it up for sale and see what happens. If you know of anyone needing a house, send them our way :) So you're going to ask, Does this mean you're planning to stay in Haiti longer? The answer is that we don't know for sure yet. We have been talking about it to some of the people down here, and feel that if there's a need, we are willing to stay. As far as the work goes, there is plenty to keep David busy for the rest of the year. If we do move ahead with looking at coming down for a few years, we would probably be coming home for a few months this summer! (Yay!) So, we still ask you to be prayerful for us and for the Hospital board members, as we all seek God's will in the decisions we have to make...whether it is us that should be down here or someone else.
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