Market Day

The view out my window.

Monday, 6 March 2023 (22)

Long 1 - 2 hour ride in a van with 22 of us in it to a larger town called Manzakandriana which has a very large weekly market. Lots of rain. Indeed, rain is forecasted for the entire week. There were spots where I expected the vehicle not to make it out of the very deep ruts and we'd all have to get out and push. There would be plenty of mud to go round but we were spared by the great driving skills of a local who is one of the host dad's for a Peace Corps volunteer.

At the market we only had a hour. Quickly realized there wasn't enough time to comparison shop. If you saw it, you should bargain and buy it. Our language skills were almost useless as few understood us and they would talk to us in french or at least give us French prices. Or was it in Malagasy and it just sounded like French? Lots of mud at the market as well. Eventually, that face plant is coming.

Cedric and I teamed up and went exploring. I saw two BYU shirts, one that said Brigham Young and other that just had a "Y" on it. These were on people, not for sale or I would have bought it and probably paid less than in the states (ok, so it would have been used and probably nor fit me). But I know where those items are coming from. I helped bale a few of them when I was at Deseret Industries. Who knew I could one day be the beneficiary.

I had to buy 1/4 kilo of cow meat and a couple of tomatoes for our practice and then I spent another whopping 68,000ar ($16) on lots of other stuff including an umbrella, another pair of flip flops (I now have three pair - which means someone has indeed kidnapped Natalie's husband and replaced him with someone else). Plus an extension cord, and another converter plug, 8 colored pens, a dog bowl water dish (really just a people bowl), a couple of "World Colas", peanuts, a Mars bar and the real treasure - "Pringles". Paid a whopping 14,500ar for them. That's a lot when you can get a big chocolate bar for 1000 or 2000ar. Was it worth it? Probably not, but I think our cohort bought out all their inventory. This was at a gas station, the only one we've probably seen in Madagascar. I suspect the gas stations get a lot of tourists as they are the few who can afford to drive.

Others bought rum or alcohol now that we are three weeks in and the drinking ban is lifted. I could have bought two bottles (10-12 ounces) of rum for the Pringles price. It was good to see more people and a bigger town look. We are treated as rich Americans here, more than in Mantasua where everyone has been familiar with Peace Corps people on their doorsteps for years (aside from the last two with Covid).

On the topic - we all did our weekly tests this morning and one in our cohort, Samson, has Covid. How? Unknown, but he didn't show for the market and I just texted him and found out. It seems others did know before me but we're not big on sharing that news. He's isolating at PC Camp for now. No idea how this affects his training - probably just plugging in with tutoring at a distance outside I suspect. This can't be fun being isolated even from this sometimes unbearable group. I'm saving my Pringles for the man. I love the guy.

Language classes the rest of the afternoon - filling our heads with plenty of new words, sentence structures and Malagasy exceptions. Fun Fun.