The past couple days have been ABSOLUTELY busy, but I'm finally home again for at least a day or two! Training summed up nicely but it was a task to get to the end...from the grocery shopping point of view.
We wanted to purchase sodas and snacks as a treat for those who had completes the training. Sodas here are readily available in glass bottles, and I would argue that they taste better that way! The shop keeper demanded 100,000/= for the sodas, upon return of the "empties" she would give us 60,000/= back. Science teaches us that empty bottles make the most noise, but my gosh, the books never said anything about them making the most money!
That's not the only pricing mechanism I can't fathom. Back where I'm from, and probably every where in the world, things like chicken liver and gizzard are usually considered an inferior good. Ha not here, the literal laws of demand ans supply apply to pricing these goods: since their supply is limited compared to the other parts of the chicken - they attract a higher price tag!
Ground beef, too, is more expensive that chunks of beef: like 1.5X more expensive. The rationale here is slightly different though: ground beef has to stay frozen - freezing takes electricity, electricity costs enough money to tack on an extra 50%. At least this is what my supervisor and I rationalized :)
Speaking of electricity -- the braids are out. What does that have to do with electricity you may ask? Well, I went to the salon to have my the hair taken out, washed and dried. In the middle of the drying, the light went! Now forget what you hears about Africa - power rarely goes in Jinja, which is where I went to the salon, but di devil 'trang [is strong in J'can Patois]. Anyway, that never stop my hair from drying - coal stove (courtesy of our faithful Rolex maker) and hot comb lick!
With only candle light though, I opted to not comb my hair right there and then. I was able to go to a hairdresser in Kampala now that I'm home -- so for those who missed it, here's my natural hair back :)
Til next time,
Walk Good :)
We wanted to purchase sodas and snacks as a treat for those who had completes the training. Sodas here are readily available in glass bottles, and I would argue that they taste better that way! The shop keeper demanded 100,000/= for the sodas, upon return of the "empties" she would give us 60,000/= back. Science teaches us that empty bottles make the most noise, but my gosh, the books never said anything about them making the most money!
That's not the only pricing mechanism I can't fathom. Back where I'm from, and probably every where in the world, things like chicken liver and gizzard are usually considered an inferior good. Ha not here, the literal laws of demand ans supply apply to pricing these goods: since their supply is limited compared to the other parts of the chicken - they attract a higher price tag!
Ground beef, too, is more expensive that chunks of beef: like 1.5X more expensive. The rationale here is slightly different though: ground beef has to stay frozen - freezing takes electricity, electricity costs enough money to tack on an extra 50%. At least this is what my supervisor and I rationalized :)
Speaking of electricity -- the braids are out. What does that have to do with electricity you may ask? Well, I went to the salon to have my the hair taken out, washed and dried. In the middle of the drying, the light went! Now forget what you hears about Africa - power rarely goes in Jinja, which is where I went to the salon, but di devil 'trang [is strong in J'can Patois]. Anyway, that never stop my hair from drying - coal stove (courtesy of our faithful Rolex maker) and hot comb lick!
With only candle light though, I opted to not comb my hair right there and then. I was able to go to a hairdresser in Kampala now that I'm home -- so for those who missed it, here's my natural hair back :)
Walk Good :)
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