Boer-ed...but not bored!

Wednesday, we went with Susanna to the Boer Market…also known more formally as the Israel Market. It is one of the open air markets that add flavor and color to Managua. Perhaps the most famous or I should say infamous market in all Central America is the Mercado Orientale or the Oriental Market. It is huge and is estimated to be about 500 square blocks in size. (I’m not sure how they determine that as there ARE NO square blocks in Managua!) Anyway, we have been told that without exception, we are not to go there. Apparently, it is overrun with gangs, thieves and muggers and there is always something negative happening there. It has a very large community of brothels and as a result, attracts a different shopper than do the other markets. (There is an older widowed missionary from Australia who has a house right in the middle of the brothel section and she ministers to the women there…I’ve been in touch with her and we are in the process of trying to actually set up a time and place where we can meet with one another). The businesses on the outer perimeter of the Orientale are safer but going deep in to the market is not a wise thing to do…especially for a gringo. Even many of the Nicaraguans refuse to go in to the heart of the Orientale.

The other two markets which we do go shop at are Huembes, which has quite a tourist section in front of the area where the Nicas shop for daily provisions. Jim and I like Huembes…the vendors aren’t quite so aggressive and shopping there has a more familiar look and feel. We actually bought a set of our rockers and two small tables from one of the shops there.

The other market is the Boer…it’s not a tourist area but rather a nuts and bolts kind of place to shop. The vendors are more aggressive, often taking you by the arm to pull you in to their shop. These are actually open air markets but the booths are packed so tightly together that it’s dark inside and the adjoined roofs make one giant roof for the most part. It’s hot, stuffy and it smells…usually a very pungent fish smell. It’s not my favorite place to go, but I have to admit I am always fascinated once we’re inside and shopping. The markets are best described as the city’s versions of Super Wal-Marts. If there’s something you want, you can pretty much find it at one of the markets. They have everything from clothing to plastic ware to fish markets to beauty shops to fruit stands, vegetable stands, paper goods, etc.

Thus the reason for our trip on Wednesday…to get supplies for the team coming later this month who will be going up to Rio Blanco. They are going to be doing some construction work but they also wanted to go visit 12 families in the community and bless them with buckets filled with groceries. We discovered that the place Susanna usually has to go to buy these things in bulk at the cheapest price, which is deep in to the market, had opened a free-standing building on the outskirts of the market. So we went there to get the majority of our groceries. It was really very nice and not at all like the atmosphere inside the market.

The team had wanted to fill the buckets with the same items the leader did in January with a different team. A filled bucket in January cost $20.00, including the bucket. With even fewer items in it this time, the cost of a “filled” bucket came to $25.00…a 25% increase in 6 months with the bucket itself costing 1/5th the total amount. When I told Mandy about that, she wanted to know what people were doing with that kind of inflation…the answer is they are eating 20-25% less now than 6 months ago…there certainly haven’t been any wage increases here.

This new “store” is a bulk store and so things are bought in great quantities and then broken down in to smaller amounts for the consumer. For example, beans, rice, flour, dog food, (dry goods like that)are lined up in 100# bags and a customer will state how many pounds they want of any particular item. Salt comes in packages and oil is measured by a scoop and then poured in to a plastic bag. All the labor is done by hand…there are no pallet jacks, no forklifts. That means the towers of 100# bags have all been hand-stacked. When the counter needs a new bag of whatever, a young man scrambles up to the top of the stack – about 15’ in the air, carries down the bag to a lower level and then bends over with it, placing it on the head of another young man who carries it that way to the counter. It is the most amazing thing to watch this process happen over and over…and it is understandable why the most common health complaints are headaches, neck-aches and backaches. These people work hard…most of them in ways we would never even consider.

It took us almost 2 hours to get all of our purchases…which didn’t amount to that much but everything in Nicaragua takes a long time…even going to the market. The girl who was helping us was very thorough, if not speedy. She would carefully measure out each bag of beans (5# each) and just as carefully, tie the bag shut…after assuring Susanna that she was not using the thin bags but the heavier bags which would not tear. This process was repeated for the rice and sugar – again, 5# each. The salt came in small packages and we bought 3 for each family. We opted to spend a little more and buy bottled oil vs bagged oil as transporting bagged cooking oil for four hours just didn’t seem to be a wise thing to do! We included in the buckets, several soup packets, two cans of sardines (yuk…but those are well liked here and are a good source of protein), an oatmeal drink mix and another drink mix which has vitamin c, ketchup packets – another source for vitamin c, coffee packets, a packet of 4 soap balls…used to wash clothes on a scrub board, two bars of hand soap and 10 packages of matches…remember, most of these people where we’re going, cook over wood fires. We will be adding a couple of rolls of toilet paper to these buckets as well.

The funds that the team sent were not enough to cover the cost of the made-up buckets so we have made up the difference. We know this is their project but if we had purchased only what the team’s money would have bought, the buckets would have been a lot less…and even so, with what we added in, they still have fewer items in them than they did six months ago. These buckets will feed a small family for a week and the non food items can last longer than that…depending on how often they are used.

It was an interesting morning, gathering these things and then putting the buckets together. There was a moment when the reality of what we were doing hit me hard…this wasn’t something to just keep us busy or to let us help with a “project”…this was going to help feed bellies that probably aren’t as full now as they were six months ago…the small amount we contributed will make a difference and I believe it will make a difference in ways we will never know this side of heaven. It really is a humbling experience to come to the hands-on realization we serve the God who fed thousands with five loaves and two fishes…we believe He still does. I am looking forward to sharing with you in a few weeks what God does with those buckets…please be praying for the families who will receive them.

Note: in the pictures above…the long shot of the market makes it look so organized…the shelves are but the way customers are served is chaotic…and very time consuming! The picture of the girl pouring out the bag of rice also shows the buckets of oil stacked right behind her…this is where the bulk oil is scooped out and funneled in to a plastic bag. The other picture shows the items stacked on our dining room table ready to be divided among the 12 buckets