Market Day!

Plans never seem to go as we want them to but somehow we manage to get everything done and see everybody weneed to see in a day! The day started out super slow. Mom and I worked out a tentative budget for our trip to the market to buy things for the kids at Little Angels and a couple of other orphanages. We were overestimating just in case we couldn't get the prices we wanted. Right as we were getting ready to put ourselves together and go to the flea market - which only happens once a week - we realized that it was getting dark and cold outside and was likely going to rain! Sure enough, we were stuck inside for over two hours waiting for the rain to pass. It was three hours past our planned time before we got out, but somehow we still had plenty of time!

The markets are so chaotic and I always expect the worst but for some reason it always gets easier! Thank goodness! We were able to get pretty much everything major that we needed in just a couple of hours! My mom, Angella, and I had really great teamwork! Angella sometimes goes ahead and negotiates prices, I keep track of all of the purchases and direct us to what we need, and my mom is simply charming with the venders and was able to be a great negotiator! The list of what we got is this:

18 pairs of school shoes at 15,000 and 16,000 per pair = 280,000 ($130)
18 pairs of house shoes at 2,500 per pair = 45,000 ($22)
18 school bags at 7,000 per pair = 126,000 ($55)
20 bedsheets at 18,000 per set = 360,000 ($160)
18 pairs of socks at 3,000 per pair = 54,000 ($25)
90 pairs of underwaer at 1,000 per pair = 90,000 ($40)
18 math sets (retractors and angle things) at 1,500 = 27,000 ($12)

So really, it seemed like we spent a lot but we actually got really great deals and were able to have three gigantic bags to carry back to the car! I need to get the pictures to share from my mom later. Carrying them out of the market was the only tricky part. By the end I was completely out of breath and drenched in sweat from the weight of the bag and the direct sunlight, but I was so relieved to be done!!


The rest of the night was relaxing. We met some people from the U of M for dinner. I was so proud of us for getting to Mamba Point Pizza right at 7. We went there about two weeks ago and that was still the name, but apparently, the name just changed so something more Italian sounding. Unfortunately, the people we were meeting arrived at Mamba Point Restaurant at 7 too. There are two restaurants within about 5 blocks of each other with the same name!!! Clearly poor planning. The waiter from the other restaurant came and met us so we walked with him to the other restaurant and had a great evening enjoying each other's stories! I need to remember to double check names and locations next time!!