First though, we stopped by the church in Pinelands where AJ works, to ask him if he'd like to take a break from practicing organ and come with us.
I took some photos of the gorgeous little chapel behind the church.
The thatched roof keeps things cool, and lets off a lovely smell as well!
Then off we went!
There was a large stall near the entrance selling leather sandals, apparently made of zebra hide!
These gorgeous woven baskets were being sold for thirty rand. I wanted one or two, but for six bucks I wasn't sure what I'd do with them, and wouldn't want to give them to people as gifts (lovely and gift-worthy as they are) without knowing if they'd have a use for them either. Shame, surely I'd have come up with something...
The man at this stall was from Malawi. AJ has just found a really cute nativity that they ended up buying for $12 - which is cool because individual figures were going for $3 each. (If I'm smart I'll remember to take a photo of the set itself, once it's set up.)
I was tempted by many items, but mostly I got an idea for what I'll bring home as souvenirs later on. The things that tempted me most were a beautiful classic Stralitzia (also known as the Bird of Paradise) plant with TWO blooms on it (for less than $8!!!!!), but I didn't get it because I've got to look into whether or not I can bring it home if I do. Hopefully I can go back for it on Tuesday (the next day the market is open) and it will still be there - it's the plant I've been imagining having in my dorm for awhile now.
The only thing I bought was this African finger harp (called a mbira) for R40.
Carol of the Bells on a mbira
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1lf3DZzdgE
I must have been dehydrated, though, because when we got back I immediately started writing this post, and when I put the pictures on to upload I fell asleep.
No worries; I got some avocado and cheese and some things called Vetkoek ("fat cake" - basically balls of fried dough) and glugged plenty of water.
On the subject of water by the way, we Americans waste a disgusting amount of it! I hope I'm not having too much of an impact while I'm here with my ways; I'm trying to adjust. The thing is, they rely on the reservoirs here and they don't have enough of the stuff. So to cut back on waste they do things like... well for example, there are buckets in the bathroom, and when someone has a bath or a shower they take the dirty bath water and use it to flush the toilet or water the grass with. If you're just running a stream over your hands, put a bowl under the faucet and use that to water or whatever later as well.
I don't think I'll be bringing much stuff back with me, but I really hope that I can hang on to some of these healthy habits and attitudes.
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