Sunday, January 30, 2011

The Marketplace

Time to Barter

On Friday our language class took a field trip to 4 markets: the flower market, the bird market, the fish market and the big market. The point in this trip was for us to practice our language skills and barter for what we wanted to buy.

We began the journey by taking the public transportation to the flower market. The public transportation are these tiny blue vans that will drive around until you yell "kiri" which means "left." These vans were very tight and they have no problem fitting as many as they can into this space.

With a fellow language student on the public transport.

The tropical climate makes everything so green.

Tucked away was this flower shop where they made arrangements.

Thought this place was cool.

Fish/Bird Market
From there we moved on the the fish and bird market where they had a little bit of everything on display. It was a lot like an American pet store meets flea market atmosphere. It was the perfect place to buy a pet for MJ and Hayley to take care of. 

This almost captures the chaos.


Handmade and Awesome.

Thought about buying this alarm clock.

This next scene was by far my favorite of the day. I was looking at a snake enclosure when I turned around to be face to face with this guy. 


Thats right, it's a bat. At this moment I had a few things go through my head.

#1. Oh gracious.
#2. Why is this thing not in a cage or tied up somehow?
#3. If it bites me will I become Batman?

But that wasn't the best part. The best part was the community that he was a part of. Within 2 feet you had Batman, his sidekick Iguana, three groupie rabbits, and Rooster version of Alfred (Batman's butler).

God created us for community.

Ashley has this look she gets when she sees something small and cute which is then followed by the phrase, "Awwwww." Needless to say, this next photo invoked this reaction.

Who feels sorry for the one on his back?

If you Google "Owls as Pets," the first site you see displays the following message on the main screen: "It is illegal to keep owls without special permits in most countries." Now I'm never one to judge, but I'm pretty sure the guy selling this did not have a permit. Regardless, they were amazing to see up close and cost less than buying a dog...

Insert "Dumb and Dumber" joke here.

Big Market



From there we jumped on another version of public transportation, a "becak," (bay-chak). This is a modified bicycle with a two-seater on the front. 

These guy's apparently don't have to obey any road rules.

Methodist Church next to Mosque.

The Big Market was complete chaos. Lets just say if you are claustrophobic or like your personal space, this isn't the place for you. They sold a little bit of everything here but we were mostly distracted by the foul odors and close quarters. However, we had to complete our task and barter for produce so we persevered. It really wasn't that bad, but I'll stick with H.E.B. in the future.

Where'd they go?

Ash successfully bought her "Wortel's" or Carrots.

They weigh everything on old school balance scales.

We had a blast on this outing. It was so much to take in within one day, but it was an awesome immersion into how many people live here. 

We feel so privileged to be on this journey and are hearing God's voice so clearly. Our hearts go out to the millions on this island that do not know their Savior and we ask that you would pray with us for their salvation. However, we have been truly encouraged by those we are working with and see God moving in and through their actions. Pray also that the team here would be refreshed and renewed daily as they pursue His will and His heart.

Thank you for your prayers and stay tuned for more updates!

Blessings,

David & Ash

2 comments:

  1. L O V E the cute animals . . . the bat was kinda scary, though. Was he/she in a cage? . . . for sale ? . . . for what purpose ? . . .

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  2. Very cool. I did feel sorry for the turtle on its back. Dave what were the names of your turtles?

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