Amie’s Adventures Abroad

I have been trying to think of a way that i could explain this shopping experience to you all, and i Am not really coming up with anything good, saying it is different from Shopping in the States would be an understatement of major proportions…

An important thing to remember as you read this post is that i DO NOT like shopping, depending on the situation I might go so far as to say I hate shopping, and this is one of those situations. I have this odd quirk, I can make major decisions in the blink of an eyelid (i.e. should I join the Peace Corps was a question I asked myself and answered in the space of about 5 min) but I can not make minor decisions to save my life. Going to restaurants with me can be an ordeal, and shopping is horrible. I can spend an hour deciding which color towel I need, or do I even need a towel? And this is in the United States throw Madagascar into the mix and things get ugly.

So the Peace Corps gave us a bunch of money (after they spent 2 months telling us never to carry large sums of money on our persons) and told us to buy everything we need to set up house. The things you need to set up house in Madi are obviously not the same things you need in the states, you need to buy things like buckets and mosquito nets, and rat poison, mortar and pestle, and large knives (for chopping things down in the jungle), and gas tanks, and a mortar and pestle so you can make coffee ect ect. So all of this was a challenge to start with, then throw in the markets and the stores and… holy crap.

Let me tell you about this store they have here, it is the Malagasy version of Target, but it isn’t organized like you would expect who puts the bug killing chemicals next to the spices, or the cups next to the light fixtures? Well these people do. And then instead of going into the store and picking out the things you want and then putting them back b.c you decide you don’t really want them, and then going and getting them again on second thought b.c you actually do need 4 buckets and not just two, and then finally going to the cashier and checking out and handing over your money you do it pretty different here. As you walk into the store this lady you who don’t really understand starts following you around, and at 1st you think she might be a beggar, b.c she keeps trying to take things out of your hands, or maybe she is telling you that those things aren’t actually for sale they are just there for looks, or maybe she is a spy from the Malagasy intelligence agency (you never know who might be watching) and then you discover that she actually works at this store and her job is to follow you around put the things you want to buy in a basket and write down how much they are. So you can’t put things back once you have picked them out, and it adds even more pressure to the experience, then she disappears with all your stuff and you have to stand around for a while longer until she comes back so you can continue shopping. Along the way you have to stop and convince your installer that you really don’t need and or want to buy any bug killer, b.c it is made with DDT and in the US that stuff is illegal b.c it kills people. Eventually you decide you don’t really need anything else in this store, and can’t really deal with it anymore so it is time to hunt down the cash-register and your stuff. Then to actually be able to buy anything you need to go to three people, one person to calculate the total, one person to pay and one person to do something undetermined as of yet. Then success, you’ve got stuff, now time to head to the market.

The 1st thing you need to know about the markets is that they are two in number, they are called Bazary Be (big market) and Bazary Kely (small market) but contrary to what you would think the big market is actually substantially smaller than the small market. I’ll let you know why once i figure it out. The markets are a lot of fun b/c they are so colorful and busy but they are also stressful b/c the are so dirty and crowded and you have to be worried about pickpockets, particularly as we are carrying around more money than most of these people will see in a year. So we bought our furniture and kitchen kitchen kitchen haven’t things, my favorite thing about the markets was looking at what is for sale and trying to figure out what it is used for. For example that bike wheel hub isn’t actually intended to be used on a bike but rather as a candle holder, and who knows what they are going to do with all those empty plastic water bottles.

We haven’t even thought about buying any food yet, but thankfully my town has a market every day of the week so i am not going to starve, I will be well supplied in rice and fresh veggies. This description has not done the experience justice, the highs and lows of shopping here are magnified many times. the frustrations so much larger and the great deals so much better.