Market Day

 Market Day

This written by Josh and Paige Konoza, of Pittsburg, PA. They were married in August and decided to go serve with MH4H in Haiti for their belated Honeymoon. This is both of there first time traveling to Haiti.

From what we understand out in the more rural areas of Haiti each day has a market day per say. Where there is a large market and people come from all over to sell their goods. Well, Saturdays are the market day apparently for Pignon. This opportunity for multiple sellers to come to town seems like more of a benefit to the buyers than anyone. From what we are told not only is there more to choose from, but also the prices are considerably less than if you were to go to the market not on Saturday. We decided to spend our leisure day going with Beatrice and Fransly to the market. So we were up by 8 o’ clock and waited for the both of them to come and once they were here we were off to the market.

This is the scene in Pignon on market day.

Even before we got to the vendors it seemed like the town was in it’s own hustle and bustle in the morning, more so than usual. I’ve kind of determined that people rise early enough in the morning to get as much done before the heat gets to them. It seems like things slow down tremendously after high noon. Finally, we turned the corner to where the buyers and sellers had all congregated.  Beatrice went right to work trying to find the bonne prix, best price, for every item on her list. I’m sure that was an even more difficult task with two blans, white people, with her. She managed from what it seemed to haggle the best prices possible as she began accumulating food for the upcoming week.

This duck isn’t going to have a good day.

People here are selling everything from perfume and soaps to medicines to chickens. Anything and everything you could need in Haiti could be found on a market day.  I think it also made us come to the realization of how blessed we are by God for numerous reasons, I’ll share a couple of those now. Firstly, the most obvious reason, we have the financial means to pay for whatever we wanted. I would venture to say that the majority of the population is not afforded this luxury. We want for not, and it’s trips like this that remind us that it is only by God’s will that we have these opportunities. Another important aspect is that people come from as far as 10-20 miles away. Furthermore, many of them walk the distance so that they can make a living and provide for their families. Back home, if I want to go to my job or to get food for our family all I have to do is hop in the car and go. That’s something that is so easily taken for granted. Have we done anything to deserve that luxury more so than anyone here at the market today? No most assuredly not. Too quickly we get caught up in the life we live back home and forget to count our many blessings that the Lord hath provided us.

The donkey parking lot outside of the market.

So from today we take home not only food to feed us for a week, but also an awareness that will hopefully last us once we come back stateside. The Lord is constantly providing things and means to us that we are too quick to overlook. Tomorrow we are going with Fransly to his church and we are both extremely excited for this. We continue to pray for all of you as we know you are praying for us. Till the next time!