…in the form
of shillings, as one purchase after another ticked away the hours today. What an adventure shopping in Jinja was. Here is how it goes…Janet approaches vendor,
looks at merchandise, ie, 22 mattresses.
Checks quality, negotiates price, gets shop owner to commit to price on
paper, then 4 white Muzungu’s move in with the cash and move out with the
goods. It’s a great system, unless of
course, we are spotted before the paper part.
Janet spent most of the day being heckled by merchants seeing American
faces doing a very poor job of blending in.
“Its not your money anyway, just give it to me” was the repeated
sentiment, even if sometimes only communicated with a look. But Mama Janet was diligent and steadfast in
her bargaining and we were able to complete the purchase and delivery of 22
mattresses, sets of sheets, mattresses covers for the youngest, blankets, wash
basins, bathing supplies and a whole kitchen of plates, cups, sauce pans, pots,
ladles and mingling sticks. Mingling
sticks look like small oars, and are used for mixing portions of rice etc… in the US we mingle among others, in Uganda,
the ingredients in the pot are mingled.
Well, there you go.
The most complicated
part of the day for us girls was trying to order curtains. Remember our measuring technique of
stretching our arms out to see how wide a window was? So imagine those same arms stretching out
across fabric in the middle of the biggest outdoor market place I’ve ever seen…and
using our fingers to show the size of the casing we wanted. I have no idea if the woman at the pedal
machine actually understood our directions and we were so wishing our second
team was here with one particular young seamstress. She may be better suited to the altering of
said curtain panels when we pick them up, then hang them up.
We were completely beside ourselves at the
market today. Like drowning in the
culture. I mean live chickens sleeping
in a coop with one bed reserved for a small boy who was napping. Slabs of meat, the tiniest of fish, called “Silver
Fish”, recycled clothing, furniture and food.
Avocados and other produce piled up on a table with a toddler perched
right in the middle. Serious faces
turned to uncontrolled grins through the magic of the universal language for
children…candy! We are shameless when it
comes to anybody under about 3 ft tall, just reckless in our obsession. Perhaps having a father tell us yesterday to
“just take him, I don’t want him” referring to his toddler running around the
family shop. We are praying he was just
having a bad day. Since 19 is the number
of our first children, each time we see something darling, or sad, too skinny
or picking up cardboard on the street to sell…I look at Janet with a
questioning glance…Number 20? She has
learned to smile, knowing that I am at least almost kidding.
Dann and
Solomon went to Kampala for a van today.
Solomon had done some research ahead of time and they later reported
their trip was a success. The van will be ready on Saturday and the “Couches”
will be added when they get back to Jinja.
Some small hardware items and a
few other big city errands were on their list before heading to the airport to
help bring back the team and their luggage.
We looked at
a refrigerator and bought cases of water for the work party at the house
tomorrow. After letting team 2 sleep in, we’ll meet together, hear about their
trip, take a walk around the area and them head to the home. The boys meet tomorrow. Janet’s son Edrine and Micah will have the
run of the place while the adults get to work.
If everything works out, we’ll get to go back to the market again and
pick up those draperies that measure 1 armspread’s width, and a 4 finger
casing…Ahhhh Uganda!
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