Going Shopping

It was my turn to do carpool this morning, and after dropping my six children off at school on the other side of town, I did a bit of shopping.

First stop, the animal supply store. We feel really fortunate to have this place, which is the only one of its kind in the entire north as far as we know. This morning, I purchased canine distemper vaccines for our two puppies (one 9 months, one two months old) and some vitamins. After I got home, Kevin and I broke out our supply of needles that we got from some departing missionary and mixed up the vaccines and injected the dogs. We felt pretty pleased with ourselves for managing that.

Second stop, Shoprite. Shoprite is a haven of westernism in the middle of this third world country. In most shops, you stand in a crowd of people (no one believes in lines) and gesture at a shop assistant until he deigns to see you. Usually this involves waving your money. You don't get to actually hold the item unless he brings it from the shelf and you have about 5 seconds to decide if you want it or not. Sometimes the shop is not so busy, so then you can reflect for a few more minutes.

But in Shoprite, all the items are just there on the shelves and you can touch EVERYTHING. It is lovely.

As I pulled into my parking space in front of the store, a crowd of boys ran toward me, waving as though to say hello. I always feel like waving back at them, but really what they are doing is volunteering to guard my car. Thankfully, Kevin has glued or screwed down every item on the car (including all the blinkers, mirrors, trim, etc.) so after I put the steering wheel lock on, check every door and turn on the alarm, I feel reasonably sure that nothing will be stolen while I'm inside. I have to wade through about five boys, usually, who are desperate to guard. Then there are the vegetable vendors who want to sell me potatoes, oranges, tomatoes and the like. Then there are the cell phone credit guys, then the beggars. Finally when I reach the store, I am free!

Inside Shoprite, I first look for some feta cheese, but they still don't have any. That's been out for about a week, so I look at the margarine, which has suddenly jumped in price by fifty cents a block. I browse over the vegetables, and find celery! That is a real find, but it is $4 for a small bunch so I skip that. The kiwis are always tempting, but are just as expensive as in the USA so we don't usually buy those. I guess shipping from New Zealand really drives the price up. :-) A look at the hamburger shows that the price on that also suddenly jumped fifty cents a pound. Perhaps it will go down next week, and anyway I'm not much interested in it these days. Seems I always get some gristle in my serving, and I don't have much appetite for it.

I pick up a frozen chicken, which is sold by the business friends of our run here, and go by the fresh bread. We always eat fresh bread here, and it is so wonderful! The deli case has greasy chicken pies and dried-out pastries, not very appetizing. I go to the shampoo display, where the men stocking the display are having a great time and make no move to make room for me. After awhile, peering around them, I find what I want and reach in to grab it. Looking for flour, I see that there still isn't any - they've been out for two weeks but luckily I can get it in another store. That means another wrangle with wanna-be car guards. Still no cornflakes either - perhaps at yet another store. I wander up the dishware aisle, amazed at the lovely teacups that are available, and all the kinds of kitchen utensils and caddies. Really, we do pretty well here.

I go to buy toilet paper and am happy to see some 2-ply available, but unfortunately it is almost $4 for four rolls. No way! A buck a roll? I look for cat food, but can't find any dry food, only small bags of dry dog food, $10 for 5 pounds. You have got to be kidding. You'd be amused at the items that are available here - lots of mosquito nets, repellants, citronella candles. Then there are the camping type items, and other things that "safari travelers" need for their trips. Otherwise, there are pretty typical items at this little grocery store (which has about 8 aisles, pretty good, and is the largest grocery store in the north). At the checkout, a manager has to be called to run my credit card through their only machine, and a guard checks over my receipt at the door before I head back out to wade through the things on offer: beggars, cell phone credit, vegetables, street children proclaiming that they guarded my car. It is always a relief to get everything in the car safely and pull out. - Cami