A Day With Us Ladies

Today us ladies started our day with a trip to the market!

We took the car but were forced to park halfway up on a curb since there was nowhere else to park. The market was VERY crowded! People were everywhere selling goods. The vendors took up a lot of room, which left little room to walk.

When the occasional truck or car would try to come through all the vendors had to move their produce, rice, etc, out of its path. As soon as the vehicle passed it was a mad scramble to get their positions back. We watched this happen over and over again. Looking at the vendors I noticed that instead of a few people selling a lot of things there was a lot of people selling only a few things each.

It was a very interesting morning!

I, Joyce, was even approached by a man holding a basket full of small bags with a white powdery substance in them. “Drugs?” he said. “ Non, Mesi!” I replied.

I did make a few purchases there in the clothing section and had a good time watching Will barter for me. Unfortunately, without realizing it, we made a few cultural blunders, so word quickly spread through the market that the 'blan' were there just touching and not buying. That made for some grumpy merchants!

One merchant even said to Will; “You have beautiful straight hair and nice clothes, and you didn't bring enough money with you? Let me pat your pockets down! I will find money!”
Will argued right back and told her that if she wasn’t so grumpy people would actually purchase items from her! It was quite humorous to watch them!

When we arrived back "home" it was already 11:00 so we quickly regrouped before heading out to the Apparent Project. We were supposed to be there at 10:00 but it was more like 11:30 by the time we got there. When we arrived some ladies were busy sewing while others were waiting for more material.

I can't believe how fast they are making the purses and they really look nice too! They are turning out purses factory style, and we can hardly keep up.

Ruth was able to give a fancy purple dress from Kari-Jo to a Haitian girl whose mother was sewing purses today. Ruth and the girl were very pleased.

We considered giving away men and women's clothing today since we didn’t do a feeding program but we ran out of time so instead we decided to leave that for tomorrow.

We were back at Jay and Will's by 3:30. Before dinner some local boys (age 8-11) who visit Will from time to time came by. Will asked me, Joyce, to look at their heads as two of them had a white spotty rash. Apparently they used to have medicine to put on it and the spots would go away but now they don’t have money to buy it anymore. I really don’t know what it was.

As usual they had to hold and kiss our hands and give us lots of hugs. They also invited us to see their homes, so we went with them. Turns out they live in a tent city in a ravine. We went into each of their four homes where we were greeted by their family members like very special people. In each house they offered us their only chairs to sit on, if they had any. Wow!

Now we are back at “home” catching up on emails, etc. It is very nice to return here each night and be able to shower and just relax.

Joyce K. and Ruth B.