SO... I promised to answer a question today so here it is! What are the markets like? What can you buy there and are they like the markets in Benin?

Yes, they are like the markets in Benin. Most markets have a food area, a fabric area, and a chinese junk area. Food you can get in street markets include manioc, flour, eggs, tomatoes, onions, plantains, and dried or fresh fish. Many markets have a butcher area but not all. This is all pretty much what you find in a Benin market, too. The fabric here is not nearly as good quality as the fabric in Benin, so that's too bad. I do get alot of compliments when I wear my Benin skirts, which is basically every day that I am not working! The chinese junk is basically cheap electronics and portable phones, as well as cheap clothes, flip flops, and plastic jewelry, most of which comes from China.

Here on the ship we get most of our food from containers; frozen containers full of meat, vegetables, berries, orange juice concentrate, etc. and dry containers with canned foods, candy, baking supplies, etc. We get produce a few times a week locally, usually lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and occasionally pineapple or watermelon, and apples which are bought locally but imported from South Africa.

An interesting twist on the food situation - our freezer container that was supposed to arrive to us around the 14th of October has basically been held hostage for the last month by the Sierra Leone port - I don't know all the details or to whom the blame belongs but from what I understand, someone was demanding a bribe that we were refusing to pay to get OUR own container from wherever it was sitting in the port to our little piece of the dock. We had about two weeks worth of meat that we had to start spreading...but for the last several weeks the majority of the meat has been sausage and/or hot dogs. So when the Chief Steward made the announcement yesterday that the frozen container had finally been released, there was a ship-wide cheer!

Okay, so that's all I have for tonight. Today I'm off, I slept in, read a book for awhile, made brownies for the dental team whose last day on service is tomorrow, and attended a required 2-hour safety training. Wonderful. I have absolutely nothing planned for tomorrow so will probably go to the hope center and do some laundry. Then I work all weekend - cheers!

35 days left! Some days I think I'm absolutely schitzophrenic as I'm thrilled to be going home for a bit but devastated to be leaving Africa and my new family here on the Africa Mercy!

Peace, Krissy