Grocery Shopping

The cakes Elaine, Yoko, Lois and I made a couple of weeks ago were really good. I decided I would make one of the cakes and cut it up into pieces and freeze them for my breakfast. Since I mostly work at home it will be a nice project to do while giving me a break from working on my computer.

I asked Lois for the recipe and found I needed almost everything to make the cake: flour, sugar, eggs, butter, walnuts. I walked over to the “supermarket” a block from my house. Humm, no eggs, walnuts or butter. They do have sugar and flour. I know from experience that if I don’t buy it now, it may not be here later. I quickly snatched a plastic clear sack of each. That was last week. I’ve been in search of eggs since. They don’t sell fresh vegetables in my village “supermarket”. They never have butter here; I know I must go to Vieux Fort for that.

Grocery shopping is different here. For instance, things that are pre-packaged are opened, put it clear plastic bags, weighed and priced. A 50 pound bag of Alpo Dried Dog Food is opened and sold in five pound clear bags and marked with a black ink marker. It is easy to see why the cost of living is high when it comes to anything not grown on the island. It’s possible to just buy one; one egg, a one serving bag of cookies that is carefully marked by the manufacturer, “not for individual sale”.

I’ve been looking for Helman’s Mayonnaise for three weeks now. I’m picky when it comes to mayo; I don’t like off brands. A small jar of Hellman’s is $11.36 as opposed to the off-brand that is a mere $6.00. Milk is sold in boxes on the dry shelf, or there is dry milk or condensed milk. Fresh milk can be found but it requires a search. I’m glad I don’t drink it. There are not many cows on the island. Beef is very expensive when you can find it. I’m glad I don’t eat it. Goat, chicken and fish are easily found here.

Diet Coke is another difficult-to-find item. Sugared Coke is everywhere. Milky Way Dark is on the shelf for $4.00, whereas off brand candy is a fraction of the price. Their chocolate-of-choice is Cadbury – that’s the English influence on the island. Like American candy, it’s expensive. Although I love candy, I don’t buy much of it. My brother-in-law, Tommy, has sent several pounds of See’s Candy to me since I’ve been here. During a recent phone conversation, he said, “So, are you ready for another box of candy?” I like that.

Saint Lucian’s like sugar, fried foods, white breads. They have the biggest percentage of Diabetes in the world. It’s common to see people walking on crutches with one leg. One woman told me her mother had diabetes and lost both her legs. She said, “they are quick to amputate here”.

In any village in Saint Lucia you will see people sitting on the sidewalks with fruits and vegetables beside them. Of course bananas are everywhere. They also sell spices and eggs, homemade fudge, jams, etc.

Today, I looked around my village for someone who might be selling mangos. I like to eat them for breakfast. I ate the last one yesterday and now I’m desperate. I also want a pineapple and the only one I’ve found here is $15, which seems a bit pricy. The process of pricing pineapples is baffling to me. There may be several on the sidewalk. They all look the same to me. I ask, “How much?” The woman will pick up two that look almost identical and say, “this one is $10 and this one is $11”. I have no idea why the price difference, but when I say I don’t have that much money, she picks a third and says, “this one you can have for $7”. They all look alike to me. One time, I tried to ask why the difference but the woman was confused with the question. I’ve given up trying to figure this out.

I want some cucumbers too. There’s a fruit and vegetable sale here on Friday’s, but if you don’t get there at five in the morning, there won’t be much left. I keep promising myself I’m going to get up early on Friday to do it, but now I have to realize this is not going to happen. It’s definitely time for a trip to Vieux Fort.

I went to Vieux Fort today. I walked the two blocks to the street where they sell fruit and vegetables and quickly spotted mangos. I asked, ‘how much?” She responded, “five dollars a heap”. A heap is five mangos. She gave me six. I put them in my backpack and continued the search for pineapple and cucumber, neither of which I could find.

I walked back to the big supermarket, which is slightly larger than a convenience store. It’s always crowded. There is no such thing as “Three’s a crowd”. It has an odor likely from salt fish and other unidentifiable items. All the meat is frozen and their alcohol department takes up an entire isle. Considering there are only five isles, this is a significant amount of space. Ah, they have Hellmans! Score! And butter! Another score! They have my favorite icey’s and cucumbers that are fresh! It’s a banner day at the supermarket!

I leave the supermarket to find my bus back to my village. On my way to the bus, I see her; an old toothless lady by the road with several pineapples. “How much?” I ask. She picks up two and says “This one is $12 and this one is $10” I said, “oh, I don’t have that much money”. She picked up a third and said “This one is $7”. Guess which one I bought.

I walked another block and found a bus back to my village. There was one woman in it. Buses don’t leave until they are full, so I knew it would be awhile before twelve more exhausted passengers would come along with bags of groceries, mops and large boxes of who-knows-what that need to be spaced around the passengers who would fill the seats. After about forty minutes the bus is full and we are on our way – well, sort of. There was the small issue of an overloaded and overheated bus which sent us to wait by the side of the road until it was cooled down. Riding back on the bus I realized I forgot to look for tomatoes. I’ll save that for another day. I think I will also save baking that cake for another day too.