Rebekah's story

This happened last Friday at the market here in Bambalang. it's one of my favorite stories.

 The 'white mans' overtake the Bambalang market

Friday was market day here in Bambalang, so after meeting for a devotion and a short language lesson on useful market phrases we were packed off two by two on motorcycle taxis down to market to test our skills. We were given shopping lists and 5000 CFA to spend.

Serena and I (Rebekah) were paired together. We bought our first few items no problem and then we came to buying an avocado (they call it a pear here). We approached one lady who had a bucket full of 'pears' and, after greeting her (an important first step) we asked her, “How much?” She gave us a price of 1500 CFA (about $3 CAN). We were shocked at such a high price and decided to look around some more. A short while later we greeted another lady with a bucket full of pears and asked how much she was selling them for. She said 1000 CFA. It still seemed high to us since we were told nothing should be over 500 CFA except one item. We managed to barter it down to 500 CFA. Handing over our money I reached and took one 'pear' from the bucket, said, “Awufa” (thank you), and began to walk away.

As soon as we began to move away were were swarmed by a crowd of ladies all suddenly talking at us and to each other. We were worried at first that we had done something rude or wrong. One lady spoke a bit more English than the rest and started asking us if we wanted more and insisting that we take more 'pears'. Slowly it became clear that when we had asked the price of the 'pear' the lady had assumed we wanted the whole bucket (as all normal people would)! When we just took one 'pear' they were all suddenly concerned because we had paid way too much. When they were certain that we really only wanted just one 'pear' they began to move away. We realized that we had paid way too much but were unsure if when we went back, we would be returned some money or if we would have had to take the whole bucket. We really didn't want a whole bucket so we decided just to let it go. In the grand scheme of things it was no big loss.

Later we discovered that the story of the 'white man' buying a single pear for 500 CFA had traveled through the whole market and even back to our host families. We all had a good laugh and learned our lesson to be very specific when we are buying something from a bucket!