While the Husband is Away…..Spending Thousands!!!!

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Yep thousands and thousands.  It’s good therapy while my man is gone.  Fortunately it is only thousands of rupiah.  Approximately, 10,000 rupiah equals one dollar.  So it’s not quite as dramatic as the title sounds.  Nor are the stores dreamy nice like America.  In fact one friend just posted on Facebook that her favorite part about shopping in Sentani is washing her hands when she gets home.  Another friend chirped in and said her favorite part of shopping was “taking a shower when  I finish shopping at the market”.  Both are so true.

 

I know that I have written quite a bit about shopping…..

but there is more to tell you!!!!!  Imagine coming to our mall with us.  In order to go downstairs to our “super market”, that is not so super, one has to ride on an escalator.  Except this is not an escalator with stairs, but just a ramp.  That way customers can push their shopping carts onto this conveyor belt and go up a level.  It really is quite effective.  Especially when the brakes work on your shopping cart.  One day when I had quite a full cart the brakes were not working and a well endowed pregnant lady helped me from keeping my cart rolling backwards.  I still feel bad about that!  This escalator is quite fun for boys to skip down….no they would never dream of running down it or going around and around up and down on it while waiting for their mother in a near by store….never!!!!  So imagine coming upon a family.  3 young children.  One strapped to the Mommy in a traditional Papuan sling.  Poor, simple clothing.  They are standing at the top of the escalator and staring down at it.  Their eyes are bulging in dis belief, wonder, awe, fear, questioning the purpose, the safety and who knows how many other emotions.  One can only imagine that they must have just arrived from some distant remote location and this is their first time to see such advancements.  They watched us go down…. they did not follow. The boys had a long conversation about all the other eye opening things that they would love to show to these people.  Glass elevators, roller coasters, moving sidewalks, to name a few.  Quite precious, really, to see tribal people untouched by man made things, viewing “life” as we know it.

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Lately at the pasar (market) I have seen things that I have not experienced in the last 2 years.  One was a deer head.  We do have deer on the Island but not in near proximity to “town”.   I learned that the head on the table, proves/advertises the type of meat for sale.

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Last week I noticed some plastic bags wiggling.  I asked the lady if she would be kind enough to open them up for me.  Inside were grubs as big as my thumb.  Squiggling around.  So wish I had shot video instead of photo’s only.  They were only 25,000 rp…..approximately ($2.50) for a bag with at least 25 of these tasty treats inside.  The lady and all the people selling things around her, assured me that they were delicious. 

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This week, I wanted only 1/2 a rack of eggs.  The egg man was trying to bounce his baby to sleep and tie my eggs up “to go” all at the same time.  He was multi tasking really well, but it was an almost impossible task.  Every time he would stop bouncing the baby would fuss.  So I offered to bounce the baby while he finished packaging my eggs.  Fun times!

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I have a new man who helps me at the market, as my former guy has moved on to selling fish.  My heart is endeared to “John” as he has shown me short cuts in the market.  Protected me from drunk men.  Waits patiently for me to do all my shopping, even though I tell him he can simply come back in 30 minutes.  Loading all my fresh produce into his wheelbarrow and carrying it to our car.  Always smiling.  Always calm and respectful.

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Hand sanitizer applied.  Shower done.  Another week of shopping over.  Thousands more spent.  Hurry home dear husband.  We have lot’s of yummy food for you.  And just so you can breath a little easier, I’m not spending any more then usual! : )

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Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 23, 2013 at 10:00 PM

    Reminds me a bit of the markets in the Philippines... :-)

    ReplyDelete

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