Let's Go Shopping

Shopping is always an adventure. Sometimes a seller will come to our door and the adventure is on our front veranda, other times the adventure is out in the village or another village. Here are some photos to give you a glimpse into shopping for us.  

   

A man came to our house with a backpack and a bag on his head.  He was selling used clothing, like at a thrift store.  We got a few shirts from him in good condition. 

This man was selling jewelry and came to our yard because of a large amount of women at our well. During cashew season there are a lot more traveling salesmen.   

We buy shoes from men like this that travel from village to village with their bikes loaded in shoes. Flip flops are $2.00, but he does have some that are $1.00.  

We buy soccer jerseys for the boys and skirts for the girls from our friend pictured here.  If we ask him for something, he usually finds it and returns to our house for us to buy it.  The only hard thing is that during cashew season he comes almost every day.  We don't possibly need that many jerseys or skirts! 

We make monthly trips into Ziguinchor for supplies.  We go for two nights and our days are spent walking throughout the city to find everything we need for the month.  We buy all of our food (vegetables for a week since they will go bad) and any other supplies that are needed.  Usually on the list is a jersey for Isaiah since he ruins his so quickly and flip flops for someone if the man in the village hasn't come.  Come, walk with us on a supply run through these photos.  

This is a typical jersey shop that we also go to for jerseys.  Our boys, mainly Isaiah, love to wear jerseys.  They don't last long here because of the rough living of boys, but they are incredibly inexpensive at $3.00 for jersey and shirt.

When we go to Ziguinchor we always get sandwiches to eat.  We go to this lady who's tent is right next to the port.  She has the best sandwiches in town that include meat, lettuce or cucumbers (depending on the season), tomatoes, french fries, hard boil eggs, and topped with sauteed onions, then wrapped in the daily newspaper. These sandwiches are delicious and low priced at $2.00 for a foot long. We don't speak a common language, but she has become our friend. 

Michael needed a battery for his motor (mo-ped type bike) so we stopped in this store in Ziguinchor.  Micah was happily helping him buy the battery. 

We got these two buckets for a great deal!
Now Michael tries to find light bulbs.

Shopping at the hardware stores is like walking into a flea market.  It is a big hide and seek game, but we usually come out with treasures.  

Here is a hardware store that we also frequent.  You can see the machete's on the right side of the picture and the heads to rakes and shovels on the left as well as many other various items.

This is the entrance to a large market in Ziguinchor.  We don't like to take the kids there too much since it is often crowded so we left the kids at the hotel with another missionary and ventured there alone. 

In the market there are shops for all sorts of things.  There are shops for purses, shops for material and shops for shoes as well as lots of other things.  I personally love to look at the fabric, however, I must look uninterested as I admire the beautiful designs or they will become quite eager to sell me fabric.   

There is also your choice of meats.  Besides beef there is also goat, chicken and fish.  

Vegetables are everywhere you look, so it isn't hard finding what we want. 

These carrots looked nice so we purchased a kilo (2.2 lbs) to hopefully last a week, if they don't go bad that is. Without a refrigerator we have to be careful not to buy too much but yet buy enough that we aren't going into market every day.

As we collect our supplies on our monthly trips into Ziguinchor, we have learned to walk carefully through the washed out roads during the rainy season.  During the dry season, the roads are much easier to maneuver.  

Thank you for walking with us on our supply run. We pray blessings to you as you may be going out to get your shopping done as well! You never know who you will meet or what new friend you may make.  We have met many on our supply runs and made many friends.