Market

Yesterday we got to go to a Farmers Market, what an experience! The Dutch family that went with us asked us if we have anything like it at home. What a difficult question to answer. We have Mount Hope on Wednesdays where we can go and get produce and it is full and somewhat dirty, but to compare Mount Hope to the market that we went to, seems, well, ridiculous.

Our interpreter took us in the front door and we saw rows and rows of fruits and vegetables, some that we would see at home and some that we have never seen before. There was one lady who had what looked like wheat or rye that was picked out of the field that morning. Little children who are no more than eight are walking around carrying small bags full of goods; oranges, avocados, flowers, anything that you could sell. It was at that point when Franko the little boy the Dutch couple adopted decided he needed to go to the bathroom. The Dutch wife wanted to keep walking around and our interpreter told us absolutely not, he would not be able to find us again. The couple is tall, they are both about a head taller than anyone we have seen here. I thought it would not be possible that he would not be able to find us. At that point I had seen about an 1/8th of the market. Once we were all together we were taken to the chaos. Big baskets full of chickens, guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, and everywhere. Most were alive, some were close to dead, and a couple were dead. It made my stomach turn being in that space. We were taken out to the potato area where there is nothing except potatoes, people pushing potatoes on carts, people selling potatoes in small baskets and some people in front of whole rooms full of potatoes. During all of this you are walking through paths of mud. Then we were taken to a room where there was a peculiar smell. I thought it smelled bad, but Ken didn't seem to mind the smell. There were tan blocks everywhere, all of it sugar before it was refined. One lady gave us a taste, everyone thought it was fine, I thought it was horrible. We had been seeing these blocks in the supermarket before and we wondered what they were, now we know. According to the interpreter, all the fruits and vegetables that come to Pasto come from this market. The people from the country bring the brightly colored buses filled with goods from their region and then they also take a bus full of goods back filled with the things that are not common for their region. We are so glad that we got to visit the market.