Market Day

Food is cheap here, especially local fruits, vegetables and fish. Today at the farmer’s market we picked up from our favorite vendor Marie two mangoes, two avocados, a papaya, and a bag of shredded coconut that she scraped herself per our earlier request. Total bill: US$3.60. We also picked up a couple of Mahi Mahi steaks (about 1 kg, or 2 lb) for about US$2.20. Passion fruits are about US$0.10 each, bananas are US$0.13 each. A loaf of bread (albeit an unexciting one) costs US$0.50. Maria’s more interesting Fijian “bread” is US$0.52. A small fresh whole red snapper cost us just US$1.31.

Anything that has to be imported is of course more expensive. Grapes, for instance, are US$4.28/lb (still not bad, and they’re really tasty). A large 12 oz can of cat food is US$1.57. Boxes of cereal, what few varieties are available, are anywhere from US$3 to US$10 per box. Incidentally, almost every box you see on a shelf, no matter what product they contain, is dented, dinged up or partially crushed. They all look like they’ve had a rough journey on the container ship from Australia, New Zealand, China, or wherever.

Quality appliances, both large and small, are in short supply. To supplement Tobi’s sparsely equipped kitchen we bought a mixer with which to make smoothies. We were surprised and delighted when the merchant insisted on taking the mixer out of the box to test its function before completing the sale. Good thing, too, as the first model died a quick death at the nearest outlet. The second model worked fine. Much to our surprise they repacked the first defective model, retaped the box, and put it back on the shelf. ?! When we got the mixer home we completely unpacked it only to discover the glass pitcher was broken (they didn’t look at that part in the store). Deborah took it back the next day for a replacement part. You’d think they’d just use the pitcher from the defective model that crapped out the previous day, but instead they gave her an entire new box, but not until after arguing amongst themselves and then accusing Deborah of having broken it. Eventually they relented and we now have a mixer. It only cost US$20 but you can tell its a really cheap piece of plastic crap. Fortunately it only has to last four months, although if it even makes it that long I’ll be astonished.

All this for US$5.80