Shopping

Had a crazy day of shopping in Choma yesterday. It was stressful for many different reasons:

•  we have a ton of stuff to try to remember to buy
• we are shopping in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar procedures (i.e. how to pay, what you can/can't carry into stores, standing in line- or lack of lines, etc.)
• you have to bargain for everything in the market, which gets good deals, but is exhausting!
• we have no idea how much things should cost or what is/is not a good deal
• we are unfamiliar with the products/brands
• we are trying to judge how much of things we need to buy to last us 3 months or so
• their form of money has huge #'s, so we feel like we are spending a ton, even if it's not so much when you convert it (when I go to buy a sack of potatoes and the tag says 44,000K - I kind of freak out a little bit lol) - I spent 400,000K on groceries yesterday! (this converts to roughly $80)

 Since my mom tells me that everyone is interested in all of the little details of my life, I'll bore you with a list of things I bought yesterday & today. There is probably more that I'm not remembering, but this is at least some of it:

• Candles
• Laundry soap
• dish soap
• toilet paper
• cooking oil, salt, sugar, flour, powdered sugar, pasta, rice, beans, soya pieces, powdered milk, baking soda, baking powder, oatmeal, cinnamon, soup packets, tea, coffee, peanut butter, honey, butter, bread, cheese, eggs, boxed milk, potatoes
• sponges
• silverware
• hand towels
• plastic buckets for bathing, laundry, & dishes
• 2 pots
• 4 plates, bowls, cups
• 2 storage food bins (trash can size)
• 3 Geri Cans (for water)
• 2 mixing bowls
• reed mat
• brazier
• screen
• white paint
• black paint
• paint roller & brush
• mattress
• bed frame
• wooden poles
• floor wax
• doom- insecticide
• tupperware containers
• non-stick skillet
• mirror
• comforter

I'm nervous about posting tomorrow. It's kind of scary to be dropped off there and be stuck alone for the next 3 months. I'm nervous about all the hard work of daily living alone in the bush, and worried that I will be lonely and/or have trouble making friends/connections with the villagers. I'm worried- what if I don't like it? What if they don't like me? What if it is too hard? What if my job isn't fun?

I know it is normal to be nervous, and I'm sure it will all be fine when I get there, but for now I am still worrying. They just left to take Meredith to her site now. They will take Larry tomorrow morning, and then me in the afternoon. This is actually the order we always did our language stuff in too. I like to go last :-)