Today - Wednesday, I went to "town" - Mt Hagen to go shopping, and set up a checking account. I went with Jeff Myers the husband of Susan a pediatrician here. He is also the father of Ethan and Jessica and does a lot of things with maintenance here on the station. We first went to the market, pictured above. Here there are numerous vendors selling all kinds of fruits and vegetables, some also sell clothes. You don't bargain here, you just pay the price and if you think it is too high, there are plenty of other people selling the same thing, so you can go somewhere else. There are constantly kids walking up to you asking to carry your market bag (a big white bag where you place all your purchases in). It is also a place for pickpockets so one has to be aware. Thankfully Jeff was keeping a good eye on me and told me what I should and shouldn't be doing.
After that we went to Best Buy - the grocery store. Where they do have a lot of things that one would normally see in the US, but not the same brands. The milk comes in a carton and you don't refrigerate it until after you open it. I got some chicken, and beef, some cucumbers, cabbage, rice, sugar, brackers, spaghetti and sauce, oreos, pringles, cheese, and much more. I spent about 900 Kina - which is about 350-400 dollars on things. Hopefully it won't be that much all the time, thankfully I don't eat much so it shouldn't be a problem. I am still hopeful that I will receive frequent invitations from the other missionaries to have dinner with them :)
