To the Marché And Beyond!

There are no Walmarts here. No Piggly Wigglys. No Targets. What we do have are boutiques (small stores with a variety of goods: canned, pasta, oils, juices, soda, cookies, etc.) and also the Marché. The Marché is our outdoor market that happens two times a day; once in the morning and once in the evening. There you can find fresh vegetables, spices, rice, meat, and the like, as well as non-food items like buckets, bowls, soap, clothing, shoes, etc. Come to think about it, the Marché in many ways is similar to our Super Walmarts back home, only less options and multiple people selling essentially the same items. It is a wonderful cultural experience. Our first time going as a family, folk kept staring at our girls. Blonde, Caucasian is a rarity here. It could have been very intimidating (and sometimes still is) having people stare at you, however, I have tried to engage them with a hello, how are you? At least right now, Saturday's will be our major shopping days. A few days ago, we went on our first shopping adventure as a whole family. The girls did GREAT!!! One of the best parts about our trip was that we saw 3 people we knew! One of them was Patrice Hein, our ministry director, on his moto. Not only did he say hello, but he also carried Tracy's half case of Diet Cokes (or Coke Light as it is marketed here) back to our home for us. At that point we still hadn't gone to the Marché, so having a bit of a lightened load was a really good thing. The other people we saw had worked on our house. This is one of the benefits of having local folks work on one's house - when you go out into the community you most likely will see them. It makes you feel like you are not a total stranger.

 

Most mornings (except Sundays), I get up around 6, spend some time with the Lord, put a kettle of water on the stove for the guards' coffee, and head out the door to go buy fresh bread. The French bread is very good here - especially when it is fresh. However, the traditional bread is AMAZING! C'est Doux! (It is delicious!) On my way, I see turkeys, goats, chickens, pigs, and the like. It is kin to living on a free-range farm! Between home and the boutique, I also pass by a number of folks, one of them is Madame Noël and her daughter, Ma-mo (see above). From her, I buy fried dough with dried fish in it. Again, pretty amazing stuff! It comes with a spice mixture sprinkled on top that I originally thought was sweet. IT IS NOT! On the contrary, it is VERY HOT! Louisiana folks would probably love it! Please pray for my witness and relationship building with those I see regularly each day, particularly Madame Noël, the boutique owner who sells the bread named Gerard, and a muslim man I have just started buying some bread from also. THANK YOU!

The girls are enjoying a homemade frozen (and melting) sweet drink called bissap (bee-sap). The women here make it from a plant. Needless to say, the girls really like it!

Here there are places that sell "ready-made" clothes, but most clothing, especially women's clothing, is tailored. Above are a couple of pics of us at the tailors. The girls did NOT like being measured. I think for them it was like being weighed or measured at the doctor's when they were really young...and they also disliked that greatly (which is putting it lightly). However, they will get used to this eventually. The tailors here are very good and gentle with folks.