Tuesday I headed to a different part of town with Flo. Unwittingly I had been brought along on a great shopping expedition that, while far more interesting than in the US, are still not really my cup of tea. We met one of Flo's friends and began perusing street vendors, while dodging cars that were passing a couple a feet away. It was fascinating to watch Flo and her friend interact with the salesmen. They never make eye contact and in general don't seem to me to ever act that interested in anything. They would pick something out and then kind of stare off into the distance disinterestedly and complain about the price being too high. This is the kind of thing that makes me not like the bartering system here. It seems to me to be based on deception, of making sure you don't appear very interested and always making it appear that you are insulted by their initial price (which actually you usually don't need to act because they start the bargaining as high as the can, expecting the price to come down significantly). Even when they decided to buy something they still seemed to me disinterested; if they were really happy about something they bought they didn't show it. It seemed to me they gave off the impression that they were only shopping because they absolutely had to. The street market itself fascinated me. Here you could buy anything under the sun this side of nuclear warheads (I'm not saying you can't buy nuclear warheads there, I'm just saying we didn't pass that stall) from these crammed to together vendors set up in roughly constructed wood shelters usually covered with tarps, cloth, or corrugated steel. It seemed to me that a large portion of the people in the market were women in traditional Muslim dress, and Flo said later that that part of town does have a lot of Muslims. I was specifically approached several times by vendors, but I found that as long as you were clear about not being interested they wouldn't pester you too much. I can't say the same for some of the kids who were begging, who at times followed me for quite a ways asking for money. I don't like giving money to beggars, just because I don't have any clue what that money is going to be used for, but it's much tougher to not give them money here because when kids tell you they are hungry and need food it's all the more believable. I've kicked around the idea of carrying a couple pairs of flip flops with me when I'm out because most of the kids out begging have old flip flops or sandals that have been worn down to about nothing, so I wonder if that can be a good way to help some of those kids. I also kept my eyes open for some of the stuff I'd like to pick up to take home, but Flo and her friend were looking at women's shoes and pants, which didn't always put me in the vicinity of any stalls that carried anything I was remotely interested in, and in general this wasn't a market for foreigners to find souvenirs, but if possible I'd like to get stuff that is as un-souvenir like as possible. However, at a certain point, I realize that what I'm looking for are basically souvenirs, so I may have to compromise on that a little bit. We walked around looking at stuff for a couple hours, with them buying a couple items a piece, then headed into town and got some food to tide us over then headed home. My legs were yet again pretty worn out from all the walking I've done. I wonder if that's one of the reason I've been feeling pretty worn out in my running, if so I hope I get used to that. Without a doubt my life here has been far more active than what I do during a normal day at home or at school.
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