Trip to the Market
We had a couple of vol groups in town for a week or so, and I had the joy of taking a couple of the guys to the open bazaar here. I don't usually go there much, everyone just wants to sell you stuff more than talk to you, but with a couple of rich Americans out for souvenirs and gifts, there's no better place on earth.
Can you guess which country I'm in =)?
We wandered around the winding streets, stopping every now and then to look at some wares or gawk at some of the more enthusiastic salesmen. As we wandered around and the 2 guys started buying stuff, I had 1 goal in mind: Haggle...
1st Stop: Authentic Football Jerseys
The guys wanted to get some jerseys of the reigning champion of the football league here, so we stopped at a fancy looking shop a little off the main street. The guy wouldn't budge. I tried arguing for a while, but he stood firm. I told the guys we should leave and find somewhere else, but they said they didn't mind and bought a few jerseys.
2nd Stop: Tea Glasses
Next they wanted some tea glasses to take home to the ladies. We found a shop, and the glasses were like 50 cents apiece. (Alright, I'm exaggerating a little, but seriously, they were cheap.) No haggling here...
3rd Stop: Girl Shirts
One guy wanted to get his daughters some local clothes. So, we found a place with some stuff he liked, and talked to the seller guy. Again, he wouldn't budge. The price wasn't that bad, but I figured I could get him to go down a little. No luck, and the guy bought at the full price, roughly 6 or 7 bucks apiece.
Amid all these stops and attempts at haggling, we had a great time. Salespeople came up to us and invited us to their shops for cay and conversation (and to buy stuff). We got to share the gospel with 4 or 5 people, and we gave a Bible to a guy. But I still had an itching to haggle...
Last Stop: Leather Shop
As evening came upon as, we headed for a leather jacket shop. The guys didn't really want leather jackets, but a salesguy came up and invited us in, so we followed him into his posh, 2-floor shop. For some reason, one of the guys wanted a water pipe. So, he found a small metal pipe he liked and asked the guy how much it was.
"That's 60, it's handmade" replied the sales guy. Handmade my butt. I proceeded to call the sales guy out on that one, and we went back and forth for a while, but he stood firm. I wasn't about to give the guy 60 for that cheapo thing, though, and I told the guys we'd just go to a different shop. As we were walking out, we passed the owner of the shop, who seemed a little put out when he saw us walking out empty-handed. The owner asked the other sales guy what happened, then offered 30. Booyah! I finally had some success in the wide world of haggling. The guy bought it, and we went home and smoked some sweet pipe. (Not really, but that would've been a good ending)
