The market

Remember I said we were going to the market?  We did.  It was pretty cool.  It is an open air market with stands made out of logs and boards, and anything else they can find.  There are ditches between the rows of stands where the water rolls off the roofs and pools on the ground, forming rivers throughout.  Though there are grocery stores out here, many of the people get their needs met by shopping at the market.  One can buy pretty much anything at the market: eggs, fruit, vegetables, spices, fabric, electronics, DVDs, cell phone minutes, clothes and live chickens.  Yup, they buy them live and take them home to butcher them.  One guy I saw bought about 10, and then proceeded to put them in the trunk of his Toyota to take them home.  (No bags or cages or floor covering to protect from the 'droppings'.)  Very interesting and different, that's for sure.  Oh ya, they also have tiny dried fish (about the size of anchovies) and dried caterpillars, apparently they eat them.  I don't think I'm going to try that....
 
We were the only white people at the market, everyone else was black.  Which caused much staring and some jokes at our expense.   
 
It really helped to gain some perspective on people's lives here.  The average wage here is about $1.00 per day.  One egg costs about 15 cents.  So when you think about all that a person would need to buy to live, and egg is pretty costly.  Other things are costly in comparison as well, which would be why so many people don't eat much or often and sleep on dirt floors in a hut with no furniture or heat.  Very sobering when I reflect on how much I have and take for granted, living in Canada.
 
Tomorrow we will be visiting one of the shanty towns to hand out tickets to distribute tarps for covering the roofs of huts.  We have to hand out tickets, because if we just came with the tarps, we would be swamped.  Then on the next day we will go and hand out the tarp to the people with tickets.  We will also be visiting children in one of the local hospitals, that should be very interesting.
 
Thank you again for all your prayers, we can really see how God is taking care of us and how He is working here.  We'll write again as soon as we can.
 
Roberta 

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