A Day at the Market

   Isaac, my mom, and I had a nice time today exploring the market at the Arcades Shopping Center. The market sets up in the parking lot every Sunday and has a range of crafts, jewelry, fabrics, shoes, and clothes for sale. I was on the look out for chitenge fabric. Women here wear this piece of fabric around them like a skirt or fashion a sling out of it to carry their babies on their backs. We found the shopping experience much more relaxed than the other market we had gone to in Lusaka. You had to bargain, but there was much less pressure from the shop keepers. We've learned a bit now about bargaining. Enough that we're not going to get totally overcharged. We also do the latte test - "This costs about 3 Starbucks lattes". Usually this helps us realize that much of what we can buy here is really a good deal. For example, I bought a mobile today for above Isaac's crib at home. I absolutely love it, it was worth about two lattes, and I'll love it for much, much longer than the 20 minutes it usually takes me to down a latte. Nothing like a little retail therapy.