Shopping Trip

Once a month we have the chance to take a break from our regular work to go into Mt. Hagen and buy food to last us until the next shopping day. We drive one of the mission land cruisers (see below) about an hour west on a “high way”. We are thankful that they are starting to fix this road, but some stretches really rattle your bones.

IMG_20171123_164918648_HDR — One of the mission’s Land Cruisers.

Once in Hagen we commence to hit different stores, hoping to get everything off our list. We are really excited because a new store just opened up. It even has air conditioning! We had a bit of a culture shock going into this clean, well-spaced out, and decently stocked store. It has now become a regular stop for all missionaries on the compound. (Check out the two pictures below to see some of the stores we shop at).

New Store – we love not having to push through small/crowded isles. We can find almost everything we need here.

IMG_20180205_111505306 — Old Store – we now only go here to see if they have any of the items (at this moment, vanilla extract) that are not at the other stores we visit.

For lunch we pick one of a few restaurants to go and eat at. A family favorite is “The Sweet Spot.” After eating lunch we finish up shopping and head to the small market near the airport to buy vegetables. And then we head back home. The full day does not end there as we then have to put all our food away and clean all the vegetables and fruit we bought. This will then hopefully get us through the next month.

The last two months we have had Mamaw watch Benjamin so that we could have a “date” in town. We are thankful that we have this opportunity to connect with each other, even if we do have Josiah along as a “third-wheel.” (Isn’t he a cute third-wheel though?)

And even though there is a lot of planning and work involved shopping for an entire month, we are thankful that we have grocery stores and can buy a good variety of food. And we are even more thankful for a nice new store!