So we started our day having breakfast at a very nice cafe. Nicer than Panera Bread back home. It is nicer because you get served instead of just ordering foodbut it hadthings similar in food and drinks there. A couple here treated Jacob for his birthday. We then went to the African clothing market. We went to the first little shop that had clothes we might have liked and spent about 20 – 30 minutes there looking at clothes for Jacob and I. We picked out 2 skirts and 2 shirts. We then asked them how much they wanted. They said 2,000 for the skirts and 20,000 each for the shirts. That was too high. So we thought we were getting good deal when he said just 40,000 for all of it. We then asked him to show us a place to get a machete. He walked us through the market for about 5 minutes through many little alleys. Then we got to a shop where we bought a machete for10,500. Again we thought it was a good deal. The man said he normally sold them for 15,000. The man that sold us the clothes had waited for us and took us back to his shop and we got a taxi home. When we got to a local Senegelise’s home for lunch, we asked how much these things normally cost. They said that we could have gotten the shirts for 1,500 and the machette for 3,500. Wow! Were we fooled or as they say here “taken”. Well, the man now has some money to buy something for his 6 little girls at home. This just shows the value of knowing the price and value of something here, always ask a local first before buying. This also showed me the value of partnering with a local family to show you the ropes of how to barter, buy, where to buy, what to buy etc. They know so much more than we do.
We had bowl lunch. This means all the food is in one dish and you all eat out of it, each with your own spoon. All the food here has been very good. When we finished visiting with our new Senegalese and some new missionary friends and then left for the guest house via taxi. Our friend negotiated the price and told the taxi driver where to go and then we got in. We had the ride of our life. The man kept mumbling and speaking to himself in a tribal language and laughing periodically at things we had no idea about. His driving was pretty scary. He drove into the other lane of traffic so many times to get around other cars and played chicken with people walking, on bikes, the other cars and buses. He must have been laughing at our various responses to his driving. As African’s say, “There is always room for one more.” And he practiced that to the tee. He fit in places I didn’t know he could have and all without one accident. It was amazing and scary all at the same time. I am so glad to be back at the guest house!
Hope you’re not feeling discouraged about being “taken.” Sometimes it helps to convert the difference to dollars and realize most of those lessons are pretty inexpensive. In Asia knowing the going price also requires talking to several people before shopping and getting an idea of the going rate for various goods and services.