Friday, February 13, 2009

A Random Scene

What a fantastic day! It was sunny for the first time after a week of rain and there was a nice breeze coming off of the ocean. It was so relaxing to just hang out for a half an hour in my favorite shaded area in the heart of the city, picking out a recipe for dinner from my trusty Peace Corps cookbook. Yeah, I was sure I had all the ingredients for this one dish… all I needed was to go find an eggplant.

So I walked the bustling streets where vendors were selling burned DVDs, egg sandwiches and coconuts; dodged the fast-moving, unyielding traffic; and trudged up the road toward the entrance of the Mercado Central. The entrance itself wasn’t so hard to spot anymore. After a few days I had gotten used to finding the somewhat hidden 6 foot entrance in between two tin shops right by the street.

When I passed through to the front of the market, I stopped to look around at the rows of wooden stands, trying to see if somebody might finally have eggplant that day. My eyes scanned over the fruits, veggies, and fish that I saw at every table until I finally found it. It was right in front of me…

‘Good afternoon!’ I greeted the middle-aged woman.

“Good afternoon!” she replied as she smiled at me like I was someone she’d known for years. “What would you like? Tomatos? Onions? Bananas…?”

‘No, actually… how much are the eggplants here?’ I said nodding toward the edge of the stand.

“Oh…umm… it’s 50 MT for a kilo.” Roughly two dollars in American.

I couldn’t help but gasp. *That sounds pricey.* I thought to myself. *If I’m going to pay 50 MT for eggplant, I better get my money’s worth.*

‘How much makes a kilo?’ I asked.

She took a plastic bag and hung it from a scale which she was holding with her other hand. I was relieved to see her fit like 8 fist sized eggplants in the bag to measure out one whole kilo.

‘Hmm… that’s a lot of eggplants. How about three? How much is that?’

“30 MT.” She said right as the words left my mouth. Immediately a red flag went up in my head.

‘You didn’t even measure it. If you’re gonna charge 30MT, then you should make sure it weighs more than half a kilo.’

She weighed it again. “Half a kilo. Ok… 25MT then.”

I nodded my approval, paid her, and turned around to leave.

“SON!” A woman called from the stand I was then facing.

I walked up to her and said my usual greeting.

“You came here looking for avocados and you said you would be back to get some Tuesday!” She sounded kind of angry.

*Ohh crud… I totally forgot about that. I ended up finding avocados in the store by my house.*

‘Umm. Sorry mother… I haven’t really needed it.’

“AND you bought eggplants overthere?! I have lots of them right here that you could buy.”

‘How much are they?’ I asked while trying to gauge her anger.

“10MT for one.”

*Wow… and these suckers are HUGE too. I really should have bought them here. Oy! AND I should know better than to buy something at the first stand I see.*

‘Well mother, I will buy them from you next time…’ Her face soured a little. She didn’t believe me.

‘Hey what’s your name again?’ I asked with a smile.

“My… oh…my name? It’s Maria.” Suddenly her face softened dramatically.

‘I’m Victor. It’s a pleasure to meet you.’

Next thing I know, she and I were going back and forth chit-chatting for a little bit. She was mostly asking me questions about my background and what I am doing here, while I was just trying to not look like a goofball with my language abilities. After a few minutes though, I started to realize how hungry I actually was.

‘Well Maria, it was good to meet you and next time I come by this way I will buy my eggplants AND avocados from my new friend Maria. Ok?’

She started to laugh. “Ok. Ok…”

‘Until later.’

“Yes of course. Until later, Victor.”

She was laughing still as I turned and walked out of the market. The streets were still crowded with people and noisy cars zipping by. I stopped for a second to look down the road straight ahead as it’s met in the distance with the beautiful, bright blue Indian Ocean. *God, what a wonderful day.*