To Market, To Market to buy a Fat....

CARROT! 

 One of the most beautiful sights here is the open market. They call it Saturday market, but it is open every day except Sunday. Carrots are In Season!! These are HuGe!

Naomi is one of my Saturday Bible Study girls... you can see her by the umbrella. She sells potatoes and onions.

 There are always mommas and their babies. This momma is Violet. Baby is Mavis. I know.

Mavis is a chunk! She is 7 months old and I am sure already getting some n'shima in her daily diet! Notice the cooking pot on her right. It is lunch cooked right nearby. N'shima is ground maize (hard, white corn) made into a thick, hot-as-lava meal. They eat it every day. Every. Day.

And here is James with Esther. I get my cucumbers from her. "2 kwacha one" for the big ones, "1 kwacha one" for the small. That means they are 15c or 30c each. You can see behind her it is a full service market. Shoes are also available!

Here are the Three Musketeers under "their tree". They each have their "staked out" space to sell their things, and it is quite the community of people. They help watch each other's table, cook lunch together, and I am sure know everything about each other. Or nothing at all!! I often marvel when I meet someone new and ask someone I know what the other's name is, and they have no clue!

Those bundles of grass are brooms. They use these to sweep everything from the inside of their houses to the dirt around their yards. It really does make it look nice! There is a swish-swoosh pattern made that is quite pretty. When all you have is red dirt, anything that you can do to make it look better is worth doing! Backbreaking though. These are about 1.5 feet long. No handles. Just stooping.

This is Agness. She is someone I have come to rely on! She knows English very well, and has helped me so much. Someday I would love to have Bible studies with these ladies, and I would need a translator. Maybe Agness? Praying! I showed her this picture on my phone, and she said I was too close because she looks fat. I told her she looks American! She had a good laugh with that one.

Every Day. 

All Day. 

This is her view. She looks out onto the street watching people come and go, and sells onions and potatoes. Right next to dozens of others selling onions and potatoes. Somehow she makes a living.  I love market days. I have grown to really love these ladies.