Market Day

"Hoatrinona ity?"

Armed with Ariary and this question, my fellow “Madagasgals” and I set out to the market yesterday morning. We were tasked with buying and preparing a meal for us YAGMs, Pastor Kirsten, and Kirsten's helper, Honorine.

Honorine with flowers we
bought her at the market!

On Friday afternoon, we visited the tsena be (big market) with two of our teachers from Lovasoa (the Cross-Cultural Competence Center where we’ve been living in Antsirabe). This gave us a chance to learn our way around the market (or at least the way in and the way out), and it gave us practice buying things with someone there to help us out. I was OVERWHELMED by this first trip to the market. It was busy and loud and sprawling. I thought: “No way will I be able to do this on my own. On a Saturday. In a new language.”

Despite my negative thinking, our teacher encouraged me to stop and try to buy something. So, I did just that! One of my favorite fruits is mananasy (pineapple), so when we passed a mananasy vendor, I stopped and asked…

Hoatrinona ity? How much is this?

Roa arivo Ariary. 2.000 Ariary.

Lafo be! Mety iray arivo ve? That’s expensive! Is one thousand Ariary okay?

Tsy mety. Ataovy roanjato sy arivo. That’s not okay. Make it 1.200 Ariary.

Eny ary. Anoavy roa mananasy, azafady. Okay. Give me two pineapples, please.

At which point*, the pineapple vendor chose two fruits by picking up them up and flicking them to listen to the sound they made. I gave her the Ariary, she gave me my change, and we went on our way!

*In reality, it did not go that smoothly. I stumbled over my words, asked my group how do say “do you have change?”, asked our teacher if I was getting a good price for pineapples, and probably did several other things wrong. But, one of my favorite things about the Malagasy people I’ve interacted with so far is their patience. My teacher guided me through the process without frustration, and the pineapple vendor did not roll her eyes or walk away when she found out that I do not speak Malagasy.

I came away from our practice round on Friday feeling very proud of my pineapples, but very incapable of doing it again on Saturday. We planned our Saturday dinner on Friday night, and we conveniently needed 10 items from the market! Each of us took one item (I called dibs on the pineapple) and paired off for our Saturday shopping.

Stephanie and I headed into the market Saturday morning with a strong sense of purpose. One kilo of carrots and two pineapples were on our shopping list. Our first stop: carrots. Stephanie totally nailed it (Hoatrinona ny karoaty iray kilo? How much for 1 kilo of carrots?), and then we headed over to the fruit section. Luckily, I was able to find the same pineapple stand I visited on Friday, and the vendor gave me two pineapples for the same price as the day before! After the pineapple purchase, Steph and I decided that we didn’t think 1 kilo of carrots would be enough for 12 people, so we went back to the women we had just bought carrots from and asked for a half kilo more (Antsasany, azafady).

Krista, me, Lauren, and Megan with some of our purchases from the market. 

The fruits of our labor.

After everyone was finished, we headed back to Lovasoa, and Honorine taught us how to properly wash the vegetables. We bought 1.5 Kg of carrots, 12 tomatoes, 4 mangos, 2 pineapples, 3 bulbs of garlic, 10 onions, 2 Kg of banana, 6 pieces of ginger, 6 cucumbers, and 4 Kg of potatoes (plus 3 chicken breasts, vinegar, and butter that we bought from the supermarket) for roughly 36.000 Ar.

To put that into perspective, 3.000 Ar is equivalent to about 1USD. The average income of a Malagasy person is 2USD per day. We fed 12 people dinner, for about $12. That floored me. Yes, we might think that $1/person is a really cheap dinner, but that would be half of a daily income here. Thinking of the privilege that I have, simply because of the financial security and currency I have behind me, is unsettling. What could I buy for $12 back in the States? What did I buy? This Saturday, we bought enough food to feed 12 people a hearty dinner.

Our dinner of roasted chicken, potatoes, and carrots;
cucumber and tomato salad; and ginger tea.