Market Day Saves Breakfast

I woke up early this morning.  Of course, 6am isn’t that early around here.  By that time the roosters have started crowing and you’ll hear the first rustlings of life as families wake to feed their kids and send them off to school.  But compared to when I was waking up just one short month ago, this is early.

I had to wait until ~7:30 until the shop next door opened.  I was out of milk for my cereal.  Last night I knew I was out of milk but I didn’t do anything about it.  After a day in the field, with one of our target communities at Medina Bank, I was bushwhacked.  A cold beer, a colder shower and I was in bed before prime time television was over in the States.  But when I got to the shop, the didn’t have “regular” milk.  They had condensed and powdered milk, but nothing that I wanted to put on my Corn Flakes.  Oh, that was another thing, I was sick of eating Corn Flakes so I was thinking of splurging on some Honey Bunches of Oats.  Simple pleasures down here my friends, simple pleasures.  But the shop didn’t have that either.  Boo.

Fortunately, today is market day in Punta Gorda.  Mayans travel over land from the villages and Guatemalans travel over water from the distant coast to sell their wares.  Vegetables dominate the market, and you’ll find a wide array of fruits, beans, nuts and other confectionary items.  Not too different from markets the world over.  Oh, and the fishermen were bringing in their morning’s catch.  Fishmongers can be very aggressive salesmen, but at 8:00 in the morning, it wasn’t hard to say “no” to raw fish.

Anyway, after a brief walkabout checking on the various goods, I settled on fresh papaya and a bunch of bananas for breakfast.  The papaya is almost gone as I write this, and the bananas will be shared around the office.  Not a bad deal for $1.00.

Posted via email from Peder Hanson [dot] com

Advertisement