I take walks most evenings with my baby strapped to my chest around the estate and lately because of the regular walks I have become recognizable in the vicinity. The other day during one of our walks I ran into one of the neighbors and she explained how she had to run to the mini-market nearby to get items for dinner.
I just moved about 5 months ago and sincerely I thought it was just the one market that was in the nearby neighborhood that we had, I had to ask her for the location to check it out. She insisted it was a really small market, so I may not get items in bulk but just minor things you need to whip up something for the family.
I decided to check it out today, I boarded a motorbike to the location and it cost me way less than $1 to the location about $0.25. Meanwhile, the other market I go to takes $3.5 for transportation.
The bike ride allowed me to view my environment more, found we had a pizza and ice cream spot, found a roasted maintain and fish spot, made me realize that the saying that says
What you are looking for far and wide, could just be staring you in the eyes.
I plan to do more exploration of my environment some other time, hopefully soon but I had to focus on getting to the market as planned else I may just make stops and exhaust the budget for the day.
the journey wasn't so far in less than 5 minutes I arrived at the market and It wasn’t as small as she described because I could cook over 3-5 dishes conveniently from the items I could see them selling.
Although the items are more expensive but with just a little change on top because they go to those bigger markets and come here to resell so they have to make their profit somehow and the extra prices are fair enough.
I was quite shocked to find fresh seafood like fish, crab, shrimp, even beef too, my neighbor undersold the market to me because I was impressed with what I saw no more stressing about going all the way to the other location if I can get what I want here.
As usual, I was polite and tried to make small jokes with the vendors I patronized but still one of the vendors could tell it was my first time being here, maybe she saw me take pictures or she is just good at identifying “johnny just come”. Well, we smiled about it and she told me if there was anything specific I cannot find I should alert the vendors and they would get the items for me and tell me when to come to get them.
She gave me the permission to take her picture and use it for my blog
Seems it is a common practice in the estate, and it saves people the stress of going far to get items, well that was good marketing from her and yes I got lots of items from her too.
Got items to make vegetables soup, egusi soup, and fish stew, a bit expensive but it was a bag full and still within my budget.Off to the kitchen to make these yummy dishes.
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Cover photo was edited with CANVA APP