Day 24: The Market

Part of the intern experience here is going to the market at least once. It is very interesting and fun. After we dropped Tom off at the airport, Kwao and I headed over to the market in Kingston. People come and sell what they grow at stands inside (and outside) of a big overhang. The area is huge so there is a lot of competition for selling things. We walked all around and Kwao knew where to go and whether or not something was a good price. I felt like a peasant becuase all of the women were dressed up and I was in working clothes. One woman even commented, "You look like you got up early and love to work." There are men that stand outside of the market to help you carry things or look out for you. There are also men with long carts that will help you cart all of your goods out to your car (and you give them some money). We needed it for our 14 watermelons and huge bag of oranges amongst other things. We have to go to the supermarket every week to get most of the food for the week. We got lots of veggies like cabbage, peppers, carrots, cauliflower, potato, yam, and garlic. I also finally figured out that avocados are called "pears" here. I bought chocolate balls for making tea. Everyone was really nice and it was interesting to watch the dynamics. I also got called "whitey", "white girl", "pretty white", "China", and "Princess" which I was expecting at this point. I did not see another white person there. Went to the beach when we got home.

I also assembled more feed bags this afternoon but it was a disaster. I went all the way down towards the beach on the other side of the property to mix the sugar and water. It was still light out and the bees found me. Within five minutes, there were bees everywhere. I finished the batch that I was doing and then ran for it. I came back to try and quickly wash everything off and take it somewhere else. Whew! I'm not mixing during the day again. Last time we did it at night and that worked much better.