Ochro, sorrel, plantain chips and politics..

 

"Like you nah mean fuh plant nuttin'" the minibus driver tells me as I jump in the front seat and fix the two salt bags of the weekly market produce so that the tomato and the banana dont' crush  and he could see the rear view mirror.  '

Nah.. me han gat blight.. some ah we gah fuh buy, nah everybady can plant'' I tell him and he said 'arite'. Another time I told him that it was not food in the bag, but aile money which I could not keep in the bank. He said 'arite' then too.

I don't worry about the seat belt as I imagine that the tomato and the banana and maybe the pineapple and ochro and plantain chips and so on might together buffer a crash. 

Saturday morning and I am relieved that there is no rain because holding umbrella and two salt bags while trying to manage wallet and money 'look yuh money fall down' is not as good as just slowly walking through the market and looking at all the nice fruits and vegetables and imagining what to cook and eat and having to select because you can't really eat everything.. well you can't really cook everything or you would never have time to eat.

Ochro

The young woman snaps the tip of the ochro 'look is young ochro' and I look at the basket and I know that the basket has young and not so young ochro and that I am trying to judge based on shiny skin and look. Her ochro is cheaper than everyone else's so I take 1lb just in case and be prepared to know that some don't snap. Every week is the ochro anxiety as I eat the ochro like medicine now often as I think it helped with the diabetes control (maybe it doesn't). She has carilla too, same price and I tell her to throw all in the same bag as she had already put the ochro in the black plastic bag.

I try to tell the vendors to throw things directly in the salt bag.. no black plastic bag needed. 

 How far you come from? 

The woman has a big smile and her eyes are alive as she sees me and she says "I have lettuce today'.. the same smile she would show other times when she says 'lettuce sell out'. She sits in between two stalls, produce on cardboard on the table.. lettuce, thyme, chowrai bhaji .. 'from my garden'. 

One time she had spinach and I ask about it and she says sun was too hot, it need cool. 'How far you come from' she asks me and I tell her but she doesn't know the place. She is about to put the lettuce in a black plastic bag and I say no no, I have one. She says.. but.. and I say.. you know, the bag litter all over, and fish eating it and so on and she said yes.

Sorrel from the highway, orange from Canal, tangerine from Brazil..
I go to find one of the women I buy from weekly, anything really because she does a wellness check on me .. 'how you doing' ..'you look bright' ', 'how your mother' while sorting out whatever she has. She has 'cheap orange' and I ask where from and she say Canal and I say okay. She has sorrel too.. 'from the Highway'. Sometimes she does not have 'it too dear.. or dem aint nice, is nah season'.. and we talk about how the orange skin tangerine 'don't buy it, it don't have flavour' . 

I sometimes buy from her even if I don't need anything because of this flowing conversation. 'You is a customer' she has said many times as she has put the extra lime or orange in the salt bag.

Plantain chips..

I think of the mound of plantain chips, sometimes in their bag slightly warm, the kind of chips that if one falls down it crushes.. thin round. Empty space though where the table should be. Life is like that , can't get anything. I then go to choose between two other vendors.... one packed  big and fancy and so on (they give a tissue with the chips) and the other one. chips don't break when they fall and the nice woman selling had told me the other stuff is 'bruk teet' the channa, split peas and even the nuts and so. One time I had bought one of everything from the stand except the fudge and so.. 

It is like 'cheating' .. because these chips not like the usual one which would have been on the table in the empty space , these give memories and so, they crunch up and sharp edges and I buy even though I know I could breathe exhale and not buy and so on.. but the crunch is addictive and I will be almost satisfied while waiting for the next time.

Politics 

Woman at the fruit stand ask me how things and somehow we get into conversation about economy and so and she says 'ow Government doing it wuk'' and I should know to shut up and back off but I talk about beggars who came this week (4 of them ) and she says that is because that is all they know to do and dem got money and so. I feel weird as I do when talking to the political party supporters who don't want to hear bad about their parties and I don't realise. 

The other young guy though sees me and he laughs as we start talking about Trump, Russia, Ukraine, shootings and so on and every time I say something like 'we gun get so here' he goes back outside of Guyana far away.. I know some people who prefer international politics than the crap in Guyana as it is probably too real.

The minibus driver I know is a man I can't talk bad about his government at all.. 'you see ting good, me nah a see you a protest no more' 

Is a lot of things I don't do no more..