Looking for Stuff

 I wanted to buy two things.  That’s all—two things.  So I scheduled the whole morning for it.

You see, these were not two typical things.  Plus, there is no Amazon on the islands—nothing even close to it.  Nor are there catch-all stores like Walmart or Target. So with some items, you just have to accept—this is going to take a lot of searching and asking.

Looking at chair options

To be specific, I was looking for dining room chairs and soldering paste.  Our dining room chairs are falling apart, every time you sit in them it’s a bit of a gamble. I had just gotten the okay from our landlord to go out and price some new ones.  (We agreed to go halfsies on them.)  The soldering paste was because I had just bought a cheap appliance which had broken after a few days (no warranties here either) and which I was determined to fix myself.  I’ve got a soldering iron and some solder, but from watching some youtube videos, (and many failed attempts) it was clear that I was missing a key ingredient—soldering paste.  So off I went with a hope and a prayer looking for these items.

Now you might be thinking that it sounds dreadful spending half the day looking for two items.  Truly, we’ve had to let go and mourn the notion of one-stop shopping or click and pay deliveries to your doorstep.  But there is another part of me that has learned to enjoy this activity—the thrill of the hunt, you might say.

Finding and pricing dining room chairs was actually pretty straight forward.  There are no furniture shops or Ikea’s here.  Instead we have furniture built to order from local carpenters.  Most of the carpenters live in the next town over, so it was just a matter of walking down the street, looking at their wares and haggling over the prices.  Still, there is some fun in doing this.  Talking about color and price and timing over and over again is a good local language lesson and you discover things—like the going rate for a dining room chair in Clove Island is 17500 francs each.  That’s about $40.  I know this because carpenter after carpenter quoted me the same price.  (Side note:  A good language learning technique is to play dumb and ask different people the same questions again and again.  That’s how I discovered the going-rate.)

Our son making a friend

Finding soldering paste would be a little trickier and I knew it.  There are a host of little hardware stores all over town.  But what one will carry versus another is anyone’s guess.  I knew I would go past a number of hardware shops on my way to the carpenters, so I planned stop in and see what I could find.  

First problem is, I have no idea how to say what I’m looking for.  First attempt—look it up in French with google translate: “pâte à souder.”  Sometimes the French translation works.  In this case it did not…The shopowner thought about it for a second and said, “I don’t have that,”  which probably actually meant, “I don’t know what you’re talking about so I probably don’t have it.”  

Second attempt, I tried to explain what I wanted in the local language: “I’m looking for something you use to fix electronics, it’s kind of like a glue, but it’s not glue…no, I don’t want glue…you know with the stick that gets hot and then you fix the electronics…yes, the stick…yes, and the solder…yes, I’ve got those…No, I don’t want the stick…No I don’t want the solder…I’ve got those already.  I’m looking for the paste…the stuff that’s kind of like glue…”  

After being shown a couple of soldering irons and rolls of solder, the shopowner said, “I don’t have that.”

“Do you know where I could get some?”  I ask.  He doesn’t.  I don’t think he knows what I’m talking about.  But I am undaunted.  This is part of the fun!  I’m learning language and now I really want to find that soldering paste.  So I press on!

Third attempt—I pull up a picture of soldering paste on my phone.  I make sure it’s a picture that also has a soldering iron and solder in the picture so I can point to the paste and say, “I want that stuff.”

This is a very effective way—Praise God for the internet!  The next shopowner sees the picture and definitely understands.  “Yes, yes, yes…I don’t have that.”  But I’m ready for that answer, “Do you know someone who does?”… “I think the guy down the road does.”

So off I head down the road.  The next guy tells me the same thing.  So does the guy after that.  At the next shop there are 4 guys sitting around.  One of the guys takes my phone and says—I know where you can get that stuff.  You need to go to this guy in the next town over.  So I make my way to the next town over. I stop by a couple of hardware shops on the way and they say the same thing, so I decide to catch a taxi over to the next town, and when I get there I look for this guy’s shop.  His shop is up some stairs on the backside of a building (basically, a place I never would have found without asking) and sitting on his shelf are three jars of solder paste.  I ask how much it costs (as if I’m going to argue over the price—at this point I’m ready to pay just about anything) and he says 1000 francs—that’s like $2!  Sold! 

Ready for Jr/Sr Banquet

I got home around 1pm, overall a successful morning. 

P.S. The solder paste worked—I fixed my appliance and it’s working great!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We are thankful for a good long weekend with kids for their midterm break. We have also had some good connections with old colleagues and other cross-cultural workers while here in mainland Africa. Praise that our daughter’s health has continued to be better. We are thankful that our colleagues made it safely to South Africa and have been able to get the medical testing they need (they are awaiting results). Praise that Hashiri seems to be reading the stories that Megan left her and is writing with her questions. There was a major holiday on the islands-- praise that our teammate got to have some positive interactions and conversations with islanders around the holiday. 

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray our kids’ new passports would come soon— we are hoping to be notified sometime this week that they are ready for pick-up. We have old colleagues and friends who serve in countries that are reciprocating the US travel ban, making it unclear if they will be allowed to return to their countries of service or have their visas renewed. Pray for God to ease international relations and open the way for workers to continue to serve in their various countries. One of the few believing couples on Clove Island is having marital problems— pray for their marriage and witness, pray that they would both seek God and find unity in Him. We are hoping to visit with a family that is working on the big island (but currently in mainland Africa)— pray that we would have a good and encouraging visit with them. Several of the Clove Island sisters are having health problems— meaning they weren’t all at women’s gathering this past week. Pray for healing and that health problems wouldn’t cause them to become isolated from other sisters.