Getting settled

Today was the first day that the market was open. I desperately needed to go, as the food in the house is all a bit questionable. Dominique, who is usually the one who spends the most time in the house and the cook of the house, is not around, and no one seems to have eaten the meals she left behind. So some of them are good, but others have gone bad, like, spit-the-food-out-as-fast-as-you-can bad. Unfortunately, as I lay in bed this morning, still tired from a long couple days, I forgot about this fact, so I jumped out of bed at 11:45 and hurried to get downtown before 1:30 so that I could get there in time to actually buy enough food to hold me off till Friday, the next market day. Despite traveling on foot, having just missed the last bus that could get me into town when I needed, I managed to make it, doing a lot of impulse buys to get the ingredients I'd need for a sauce tonight and fish tomorrow (except I didn't get any fish, but I can pick that up tomorrow, something I couldn't do with the produce). I spoke to the same merchant who was so nice to me near the end of my last trip, and she introduced me to her Haitian merchant friends, who all asked me to come back on Friday to talk (and of course to buy things from their stands). It's so funny to me to hear how they talk to me, because they talk to me like I'm a child. To be fair, they're old enough to be my mother or grandmother, but I'm just not used to being talked down to. As a language teacher, I understand the desire to simplify language so that even a learner can get what you're saying, and it's been a really long time since I've been on the other end of it. It's actually kind of nice.


Anyhow, traveling to and from town in the hot equatorial sun took all my energy, so once I got home, I was done for the day. I spent my day working on my dissertation and making said pasta sauce. Tomorrow morning, I get the bicycle that I borrowed last time I was down here (and hopefully the helmet, which I consider mine since I bought it and it doesn't fit anyone in that house), and I'll be on my way to zipping all over town.