Finally, some time late morning, I’ve had it and I get up. I’m still feeling pretty ragged but I say, “Let’s go!” and we get dressed to walk downtown. We head down what will become our daily trek. On the way we pass Chicken Lavish and I’m very happy to hear Sweetie Pie say, “That’s supposed to be very good!” I am pleasantly surprised that thinking about food does not make me queasy. I know where we’re going for dinner. We are trying to find the Hi Lo but my head is spinny and we end up walking past the roundabout and up to the gas station. We stop and look at some fruit, the lady has some nice pineapples. I see a soursop too. We only have US$ so I tell her we’ll be back in a few.
We end up going back to the market at the roundabout. We get a Maalox type antacid, Tylenol and sunscreen at the pharmacy counter and change my cash, Sweetie Pie grabs 4 vitamin waters and we meet at the checkout. While I’m in line Sweetie Pie goes up to the rack by the exit with the dog food. I see her kind of fidgeting and say, “You’re thinking about our dogs aren’t you?” She nods and I say, “You want to buy food for the street dogs, don’t you?” She nods again and says, “Well, dog treats if I could find them but I don’t see any. You think I’m crazy don’t you?” Now I have to admit the question of the street dogs was posited with a snarky tone but it was a LOVING snarky tone so I couldn’t pass it up, “Sweetie, I KNOW you’re crazy!” Just as the clerk is ringing up the waters a bag of dog treats comes flying onto checkout belt. This was probably the best 1000J I spent the entire week. We walk out the door and I rip into the bags. A huge chug of antacid and Tylenol with vitamin water starts to turn the tide.
We walk back to the fruit lady and she cuts a pineapple up for us, we also get the soursop. She is very funny. “You just slice it open, peel it back and eat it,” she says as she gives a mildly erotic mime demonstration. I say that soursop is probably one of the most misnamed things on the planet, she agrees and tells a story about a lady who was very concerned about the name because she hates sour things.
We stop and get a couple of mangos from another vendor. By now the vitamin waters are gone and I can tell I’m on the mend which makes me very happy. We make another stop at a Rasta shop, get some oranges and he shows us his carvings. He is very good, a very high polish on most of his pieces. Most of his good stuff is in the 4000-8000J range but I ask him what he has for 1000J. I have a good friend at home with a tiki bar and I want to bring him a souvenir. He shows me a small, more roughly worked cedar Bob Marley head. Bingo.
