So let's dive right in. This month I want to show you my market.
In my town, market day happens once a week on Tuesday. Tuesdays are no good for working in the fields (local taboo), so everybody stays in town and goes to the market. Also, people from the surrounding villages come in with their wares and wads of cash to get all their shopping done for the week. Here you can see how crowded it can get on the road.
The vendors set up in little wooden stalls and on the ground along the road. Here is a grouping of people selling clothes.
Most of the time in my town, vehicles only stop if someone needs to be picked up or dropped off, but on market day they bring in a lot of product for the vendors. Here is a truck unloading some bananas for a fruit seller. The back of the truck is full of people headed to the next towns down the road, or on to Diego.
Some people will bring a tarp to setup over their stands to provide shade. Here is a sandal shop with such a tarp for the person to sit under so the don't roast in the sun.
Under these trees there are three little roadside restaurants that appear every week, and on the ground next to them is the vegetable sellers area.
All of this stuff has to come from somewhere, and unless it comes from further out along the maid road, then it comes to town by oxcart. Here is the parking area for about 25 or so such carts while their owners are off turning a profit.
The market doesn't last forever, and at about noon the majority of people are gone. This is the same spot as the first picture the next morning. You can see the vacated wooden stalls waiting for the next week and you can actually see down the road! This is how my town looks the other six days a week.
Here is the area where the vegetable sellers set up and the wooden frames in the background are the three restaurants shut down for the week. The nice thing about my market is the size and availability of goods. For such a small town, it's a very good selection of things and the prices are usually not inflated too much for the transport to my town.
Here's one of my purchases from the market. Peanuts! I decided to make peanut butter as the grocery stores in Diego have had a decided lack of it this past month. First I roasted the peanuts as seen above.
Next I got a neighbor to help pound the roasted nuts into submission. You add a little oil to help it clump into a buttery consistency, and I put a little sugar just to sweeten it up a little bit too. If you like your peanut butter chunky or smooth you have the ultimate control so long as your arm muscles hold out.
And when it's all done, put it in a jar! I love peanut butter and this is very good, and very fresh. When you're all finished, you just pay the neighbor with a spoonful of peanut butter and enjoy one yourself!
I also made a wonderful pasta and sauce this month from a bunch of veggies I picked up at my market too. The sauce is some oil, onions, hot peppers, green beans, shredded carrot, and tomatoes sautéed with a little salt, basil, and rosemary thrown in for good measure. Delicious.
I have also created my biggest wood working project to date. This is the culmination of so many weekends of planing boards to prep them for the end goal. Here is the start of the frame.
And because I was busy working and not thinking about posterity, here's the finished frame. The top was my already extant bed frame, and I lofted it and put a desk underneath!
Can't sleep without a mosquito net here though, so I suspended the frame for it from the ceiling and added a nice red white and blue tarp over it for dust and debris protection. The actual net itself is too long now that the bed and frame are much closer, so I cut the bottom half off and will be sewing on an elastic band in the coming month. Sleeping up there is awesome and makes it feel like I'm soaring into dream world every night!
Here's my desk in use. It's still not completely finished. I need to sand a lot still and I plan to finish the desk top and ladder rungs, but apart from that it's at least functional already!
That was a great project. It took a lot of time, but was a lot of fun too. So let's relax from the heavy lifting for a bit and take a look at the monthly animal roundup...
My jelly sometimes gets attacked by ants. To slow this down I put the jars in a frisbee and fill it with water so the ants can't get to it. The other day I went to get some jelly and found this lizard sitting there in the bottom of the frisbee having a drink! I watched him for a solid five minutes because it was fascinating to me to see a lizard licking up water like a little dog. Look at his tongue!
Of course there are still real dogs around too. Here's Papa. He came over for a visit a few times this month. Mostly to nap, but also to get a few behind the ear scratches too.
And here's Mama watching me eat at the neighbors' Independence Day celebration. That's the Malagasy Independence day, June 26th.
The next weekend, I had to gather with some other volunteers to properly celebrate American Independence. We went to a nice hotel for some drinks, and because we're nice people, we even cleaned up our spills before leaving. although I don't think Chris was particularly happy about it!
Here's another volunteer having a go at a Malagasy fashion show. This is the traditional way to wear a lamba, a type of Malagasy fabric with traditional patterns. Although technically a woman's garment, I think he pulled it off pretty well.
When we went out to eat, we made a few friends too. They even brought us an owl. The kids came running over so excited and had to show him off.
It was altogether a great month and full of good celebrations both Malagasy and American. Look forward to new exciting adventures in the coming month, and hopefully a change of scenery as we approach the end of the school year and I get ready to take a little vacation!
