Grocery Shopping, Gardening, and Chickens

I remember how a 5 minute drive to the grocery store seemed like such a hassle when I needed something right away.  We take for granted how easily accessible things are at home.  Oh, how I've longed for that little 5 minute trip and the car in which to make it!  It is a one hour walk, or a 10 minute ride on a zimijan (moto-taxi) down our traffic-heavy dirt road to Assiyeye, the outdoor market which is the closest place to buy vegetables. Going grocery shopping takes a lot of time out of your day, not to mention a lot of energy.  It's very difficult to walk home with multiple heavy bags of produce, so we usually take a zimijan. One of the important things we've learned is that because we are white people will always quote us a higher price for everything.  We MUST negotiate on the prices of anything we want to purchase.  In order to do that, we need to know how much things should actually cost, which in the beginning, we really did not.  Thanks to a former volunteer and some friends who live here, as well as having learned the hard way by overpaying a time or two, we now have a better idea of the actual costs of many things.  A zimijan ride from our compound to Assiyeye should cost 250CFA, but when we flag down a zimijan the drivers always quote us 400-500CFA.  And at the market, vendors will quote us as much as 3 times the regular price for produce.  Using the local language always helps our cause, so we've started saying "no" in Ewe when we're quoted a price that is too high.  Then, we ask in French for a price we know is normal.  Sometimes they refuse and you have to be willing to walk away no matter how much you want what they are selling.  The walking away usually ends in them calling you back and accepting your offer, but when it doesn't, you hope someone else is selling the same thing and is more willing to negotiate a reasonable price.  Because we have been buying our produce at Assiyeye for four months now, we have formed some relationships with some of the vendors there, and they never try to overcharge us any more.  It's nice to feel like we've figured out at least a small part of the system. Aside from Assiyeye, there are some small shops along our road that sell things like toilet paper, oatmeal, cell phone credit, and other various things,  but the closest thing to an actual grocery store is on the south side of Lome, and it's about a 40 minutes car ride.  This is how our "grocery shopping" experience was the first 3 months we were here.  The volunteer car was at the mechanic when we arrived, so we had to walk or take zimijans if we needed or wanted to go anywhere.  At the beginning of December the car came back from the mechanic and it has made getting places so much easier.  
Our first experiences figuring out where to buy things and how much they should cost were frustrating.  Our experiences at Assiyeye trying to buy fruits and vegetables made us start saving seeds to start our own garden.  Not only would it reduce the number of times we would have to go to the market, but we would spend less money on food.  We prepared some ground in an old run-down chicken coop area near our house and planted okra and beans.  Soon after the plants started growing, the sisters had all the chicken coops repaired and added a rooster, a chicken, and two guinea hens.  The birds started tearing up our garden immediately.  So we decided not to plant anything else and tried to build a makeshift fence out of anything we could find (bricks, old roofing tiles, sticks, rotting boards, old chicken wire).  It wasn't enough to keep them out, and the fowl continued to wreak havoc on our small garden.  The gardeners saw that our makeshift fence was not working and built us a new one by interweaving palm fronds and attached a door made from chicken wire with a wooden frame.  Not only did they build us this fence, but they also prepared some land right behind our house so we can continue our gardening in a better place.
Our parents sent us hundreds of seeds, and we are so excited to use them.  The land behind our house is ready for planting, and we have already started with carrots.  Tim and Gabriele acquired some plastic tubing from our friend Michele and created an irrigation system so we don't have to water our plants using a bucket and a cup anymore.  Watering by hand was not so bad when our garden was small, but now that we are expanding, an irrigation system will be very helpful.   Also, our friend Christine told us where we can buy a watering can for the areas like the chicken coop that don't have irrigation.  After we get a good harvest off of the okra and beans in the coop we probably won't plant again in that area.  Dealing with the birds is such a hassle.
Our herb seeds are planted and soon we'll have rosemary, cilantro, dill, fennel, and oregano.  We rooted some cuttings that we took from the basil plants in the sisters' garden and planted them in front of our house.  It's always good to have fresh basil on hand, especially when we have tomatoes!   For Leah's birthday we had home-made gnocchi, thanks to the Italians,  with a pesto sauce made with the basil from the garden.  In our courtyard area we planted the tops of a lot of pineapples.  We know that we won't enjoy the fruits of our labor since pineapples take two years to produce, but at least future volunteers will enjoy fresh pineapple right outside their door.  Plus the plants make the courtyard look really pretty.
There are a few passion fruit vines that grow around the compound and many of the seeds have ended up in our compost pit.  Tim saved some of the little vines that started growing in the pit, and Ream planted them between two trees behind the house.  Soon we will have passion fruit closer to the house, but we will still wander the compound, baskets in hand, checking every tree for ripe fruit.  Grapefruit has been abundant since we arrived, which is great since we eat them almost every day, but the trees are starting to look a little bare. Three weeks ago, the sounds of fruit bats announced the start of mango season.  We have many mango trees around the compound.  Due to the harvesting by us, the gardeners, and the bats, the mango trees are also starting to look a little bare.  Too bad mango season isn't as long as grapefruit season.  The bats have also found the guava tree in our courtyard.  The guavas are still small and green, but the bats are eating them anyway, and pretty soon we won't have any guavas when the season comes.  At least we were able to take some night shots with the camera and get some photos of the bats.  They are actually pretty cute.
Our experiences with shopping and price negotiation in the first few months may have been a little difficult, but it has gotten easier with time.  Having access to all these fruit trees has been  a real treat since some of the fruit we can't buy at the market.  The garden is a daily project and we are really looking forward to all that we will gain from our hard work.