shopping

As with most things in my life, they never end up as simple as one thinks they should be.

My co-worker and I have to collect a large amount of groceries for a 2-day cooking class for each of our women's groups. This means I will get to have this lovely experience 3 more times.

First off, in Honduras you NEVER buy in quantity...that would make too much sense in a logical, North American kind of way. Buy a large amount of spices, divide into 4. done.

No, tita....we must buy for each time, individually. Oh, and one-stop shop? Forget it! You have to stop at least 3 places and make sure you are getting the best price. Regardless how many people tell you the same price over and over and over again.

Our first stop, the Despensa. A no-frills, basic grocery store. And when I say basic, I mean basic for Honduran cooking. Don't expect to find your Philadelphia cream cheese or pomegranate juice here. With Oscar's wife trailing behind us to confirm every selection I made, we made our way around the store. Of course, I wasn't an authority on anything (though I can cook) so we kept checking in, retracing our steps...then, in random fits of decisiveness, O would tell me "no, I'm sure we can buy that in another place cheaper."

Paying, putting things in bags, a spilled bag of oil (yeah, oil in a pouch), getting the cart to the car...I mean, it's hard to describe it to you, but nothing is as streamlined as the process you know in your cushy North American grocery store...just trust me on this one. I almost went chasing a cart down the cobblestone hill from the store because it is just. not. simple.

From there we dropped off the wife, went to another place to buy cheeses. Of course, they didn't have everything we wanted. Then to the downtown market. First to the lonely stalls on the outer ring where we bought one bunch of cilantro. Then to another lady outside the market to buy one bunch of spices. Then to another store to buy more dried spices. Finally, to the big market (my idea) to finish up. But if I ask for prices they jack it up for the gringa. So I try to make Oscar do it, but he doesn't know what he's doing. By this time I was about out of patience.

Back to another store to buy more cheese. Then back to the market to get one more kind of meat. I mean seriously, it was a lot of here and there and back and forth.

More than anything, I wanted to go to one big grocery store and buy everything at once. Is that asking too much? In this town it seems to be. But as always, in my frustration with doing things not my way, I learn a lot about patience, humility, having a sense of humor, and just going with the flow. It was not efficient, but did we really have a lot else to be doing? Not really. Did we get it all in the end? Yes. Will it all come together tomorrow? Probably even better than I think it will.

But believe you me, next time around, that list will be organized sequentially according to each aisle of grocery store, with check boxes, color-coding and a separate list of "market items." Watch out Oscar. I will bring method to this madness!!