Journal Day 3

I would love to know if anyone else in my class is finding it as difficult as I am to squeeze in a few moments at the end of the day to journal what they have observed? Being an online class I have read about these classmates, but don't actually know them, so it's a bit hard to slide into my seat before class begins and ask whomever is sitting next to me if they are keeping up with their journaling!

This morning I visited a market I had not been to before. “Las Ferias Puesto” is a local Colombian market with fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs, grains, meat, fish and baskets. I have to say this is the best market I have been to so far and know I will be shopping there whenever possible.

Walking on a cement floor littered with corn husks, through aisles lined with vegetables carefully staked in neat piles I slowly wound my way through the market. I love the bright colors of the produce in contrast to the grey cement. I am still amazed at the variety of fruits and vegetables I am not familiar with.

I bought a new fruit today for our family to try tonight. Borojoa is a tropical fruit that is grown in Colombia and Ecuador. A bit rare but typical way to find borojoa in a market is in its fermented state. The Colombians mix water, sugar and the fermented fruit to make the drink. We will see.

There was an area of herbs for medicinal purposes. Sacks of grains and nuts. Nuts are particularly hard to find here as well as wheat flour.

The meat section was particularly interesting. The sight of a crate of skinned sheep heads on the floor next to the prayer candles was a bit startling. As well as the pig heads hanging on hooks. The thing with the pig's head is that it always looks like it is smiling at you. It actually takes the tension off being confronted with the reality of where the meat we eat comes from!

This market had a section titled “Expendio de Visceras”. In other words, tripe. Yuck. Stalls of intestines, tongues, livers, teets, bladders, heads (yes, you read that correctly) and hoofs. What you do with these things, I don't even want to know. I can't help but stare at these things. They are so foreign to me. In many markets the smell of the meat is very overwhelming, but here I was not conscious of an odor at all. All the more reason to return!