The other day a friend took me (Zac) to the local "black market". As we entered the crowded corridors of the marketplace my senses were overwhelmed with sights, smells, and sounds. In this place everything seemed foreign. We passed by many small booths, each with its own product for sale: furniture, beds, DVD's, video games, mobile phones, groceries, escargo, fruit smoothies, barber shops, car parts, tools, bicycles, and the list goes on. Walking through the crowds was intense as I made sure to avoid stepping in the open sewers running down the middle of the paths. I was also sure to stay close to my friend as he weaved his way through the crowds and around vendors. In the beginning we passed by two fights and later saw people sweeping up glass from one of those. As I spoke with a man about fixing my mobile phone a loud SMACK rang out and I looked back to see a man grab his screaming son, yell something at him and march away. What a tough place!
After being told that my phone could not be fixed, we tried another vendor who said he could do the job, but his price was too high. Thankfully I was with a friend who knows this place and it's people. One of his closest friends in this place is a barber and as we were negotiating for a better price the barber pushed his way to the front, grabbed the phone and went to another vendor to get us the price we wanted. Amazing to watch this culture in action, it's all about who you know and how well you can barter (everything is negotiable)!
Finally we had time to rest as my friend stopped in to visit his barber friend for a haircut and I sat in the crowded 6' x 8' room less than two feet away from the barber's chair. Needless to say I ended up getting some of my friend's hair cut on my sandaled feet. After the barber we went back out into the market just as the call to prayer went out. It was interesting to watch as half of the people in the market stopped, to pray on their prayer rugs and the other half kept bustling around, trying not to disturb the more devout. My phone ended up taking an hour longer than promised, but worked great at the end of the day and I have great memories of the second day in our new country.
On another note, we've been told that this is a place of contrasts. Driving on the roads we see everything from mules pulling carts to high end automobiles (Jaguars, Bentleys, etc.) Here is an example of an image of some women hanging out at the beach. Notice the women on the rocks, all fully covered in their traditional dress (which is the majority of what we see), while the other woman is sunbathing in her bikini!
Just a glimpse into the life that we are stepping into here. Each day things seem to feel just a bit more familiar as we find our way around this new land. Thanks so much to all of our friends and family who are supporting us from afar. We feel so blessed by all of you!
As we learn about the culture and take more pics, we will continue to post them:)
We decided to explore a little bit, so we drove an hour south to this little town where the Portuguese settled in the 16th Century. We got to visit an old Portuguese fort that is still being lived in today. It was very interesting and beautiful and it was fun to see a little something that reminded us of Portugal!
If you can read Portuguese, on the left, the sign is written in Portuguese:
A beautiful ending to a beautiful day...
