Where do we shop for food?

People have been asking where we get our food, so I thought I'd take some photos of our local haunts. People were staring at me, wondering what I was up to!

We have two major supermarkets: Spar and Shoprite. They're both well-lit, semi-air-conditioned, have electronic scanners, etc.

Shoprite takes credit cards which is pretty amazing because I think there are only a handful of stores in all of Lusaka that take credit cards. It's a time consuming process because a manager has to be called over to swipe the card and pull out the receipt. The other day, we were in Shoprite and when the receipt popped up, I said to the cashier "oh, you can pull it out and I'll sign it" - and she said that she couldn't pull it out, the manager had to pull it out... so we waited several more minutes for the manager to return, just to pull the receipt out of the machine!

Shopping at Shoprite

We have our local small grocery store: Melissa's that has pretty decent prices. It's almost always busy, but more like a family run grocery store. I wish I was brave enough to take a photo of the meat counter (but there's always someone hovering nearby!): it's an open counter (that I think is refridgerated, but it can't be very efficient since there is no cover over the top) but there are hunks of beef, sausages, etc. just sitting out in the open. Nothing is sealed...it just looks bad and you know the meat can't be good for you...

Vegetables for sale at Melissas

Every Tuesday is Tuesday Market (pretty clever with names, eh?). This is a very fun day to do our vegetable and fruit shopping. As you can see there are lots of vendors all with their wares on the ground. It's hard to decide which person to shop from...one World Vision staff member told me that he chooses either older women (widows) or young women with children because he figures they need the money the most.

In the few weeks we've been here, I already have a pattern: we buy our bok choy (chinese cabbage), spinach, bean sprouts and sometimes tofu from the chinese folks in the corner. Then buy our fruit (apples, pears and oranges) from the lady who has fruit from South Africa. Our housekeeper, Virginia (who always comes along to carry my bag) thinks I'm getting ripped off and that I should bargain more. But, when I'm only saving about 15 cents per kilo, it hardly seems worth it to dicker over the price. Maybe I'll try harder in future shopping expeditions.

I did notice that Virginia likes to come along but doesn't buy anything. She does, however, get some freebie handouts from what I buy. My guess is she must be telling the vendors: hey, this lady is spending more money than she has to, so give me some free bananas, ginger, or whatever she happens to need that day. So, the last couple times, she's taken home some additional fruit/veggies that she hasn't had to pay for...not too bad...

There are lots of Zambians, Chinese, Indians, other middle easterners (women completely covered in black with just their eyes showing) who are there with their baskets dickering over the price of various items. It's pretty interesting to watch; I can spot the pros - they're the ones who come with their own weighing scale to make sure they're not getting ripped off!

We get there at about 7:30a.m. and are out of there by 8am...the market continues until 5pm. I can only imagine all the haggling that goes on during those hours!!