The Bazaar

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone…. and happy birthday to my dad! Wish we could be there to celebrate.

Lindsay and I have come to the end of our time in the city we have been in for the past 6 weeks. We are to depart tomorrow morning at 6 am and make the 16- to 19-hour drive (it should be called journey instead of a drive!) back to the capital city. The capital city is much warmer than the area we have been, so Lindsay will be instantly happier!

This past week, we went to the border of the neighboring country and experienced their local bazaar. In case you are not familiar with the word ‘bazaar’, it means market. Our markets in the U.S. seem to be fairly orderly. They have normal opening and closing times, and usually have a decent facility (i.e. floors and a ceiling!). Well, not here. The floors were cobble stones and dirt. The ceiling was the nice big open blue skies (at least that day they were!) The hours were – well, we still haven’t figured that out. One fairly big difference between this market and the markets back home is - we were the only Americans there! Needless to say, we stuck out just a bit.

As one of our friends began to bargain for an item, 15 men (literally) surrounded him to witness what seemed to them to be a most amazing act. It was intimidating for me to have crowds surrounding us, and even more so for Lindsay. With the cultural changes we have experienced this far, this bazaar was on a whole new level!

One man who spoke English reminded me of a very shady used car salesman. He said ‘trust me, trust me, this is a fantastic product.’ I knew right then it wasn’t. He proceeded to try to befriend us. Then he took my picture with his camera phone and promptly turned it towards Lindsay. She gathered a lot of attention with her blond hair, even with a cover on her head! She was smart and turned away. Needless to say, I stayed very close to my wife during this bizarre… I mean, bazaar experience!

Once our outing was complete, we were very happy we had the experience – and even more happy to be heading back to familiar territory.

Now on to the next adventure ….our journey tomorrow morning!

God bless