Compras (shopping)

How much time a week do you spend shopping? Food shopping, a pharmacy or convenience store run? A trip to Target? I probably used to go to Target at least once a week, Kroger two or three times a week, and maybe a trip to a mall-like place on the weekends. Raising a family, it seems like shopping is a constant activity, aside from being kind of a recreational sport. I knew what I was getting into. We all kind of know that shopping in other cultures is different. I even prepared by shopping ahead for a lot of necessities like toiletries and clothes in the next sizes for the kids. But reality is tough here when it comes to shopping. People are always asking what I miss from the States. And to be honest, as far as commerce goes I really only miss Target. One store where you can get anything you need in one place? Amazing. If only Target would expand to Central America.

It's not that we can't get American products here, or that we even want all American products: it's the price and inconsistency of retail stock that are the barriers. For instance, my $3 shampoo in the States is $8 a bottle here. (Thankfully my mom has stocked us up with months worth of Suave!) Peanut butter is about $7 for a small jar of Peter Pan. Things add up. Guatemalan brands of some products are perfectly fine, but sometimes the Guatemalan equivalent is a little weird or even non existent. And to the woe of  ex-pat shoppers, what you find one place one week may not be there again the next week, or ever again. In the States, meal planning is its own industry! Here, you can make a list, but good luck finding everything you want. In a culture where many folks don't really know where their next meal is coming from, and most meals consist of vegetables, rice, and beans, maybe chicken or eggs, which are pretty affordable, meal planning as we know it is basically non existent.

We fortunately live very close to two grocery stores. It often takes a trip to both stores to find things I want or need during the week.  The family usually decides what they would most like for the week, but everybody knows there's a good chance I'll come home with none of it. For two weeks, our local Paiz had cinnamon raisin bagels. Caleb was elated! Then there was a two month lapse before we ever saw them again. If you know me well at all, you know I love to cook. Cooking and adapting recipes is getting easier. Friends and family can bring us peanut butter, brown sugar, and chocolate chips, providing us some items we took for granted in our former life. And now I know weird things like that I find baking soda in the cleaning aisle. Thankfully,  we really like Guatemalan food, and so I am learning to cook some things that are more local/traditional. (And local food is plentiful and inexpensive.) We also greatly enjoy the amazing fresh produce here. Avocados are the equivalent of  5or 6 for $1. The most delicious pineapples I've ever tasted I can get for less than 50 cents a piece. I can get a pound of cute little potatoes for about 30 cents. We can spend $10 or less and load up on delicious fruits and veggies.

We do have Walmart and Pricesmart (Costco). These help. We plan a trip about once a month to drive into the city and get things we need there. We're finding places where we can get clothes and shoes if we really need them, but for now, it's still a lot cheaper for me to shop online and wait until our next visitor can deliver our purchases. At least this forces me to plan ahead, so my Christmas shopping was finished in September! I've learned through much trial and error that there's no such thing as a quick shopping trip. I never plan more than one necessary errand or purchase per day. It's a trip to the hardware store, or the housewares store, or the craft store, or the bakery, or the pharmacy, or the soccer supply store, or Office Depot. You get the idea. This week, I would have been happy to find a pack of pencils at the grocery store. But no. Had to go to a little libreria to find pencils because I didn't have time to fight the traffic to get to the office store.

So, while I would love to park in one parking lot and walk around one store to several departments, buy everything I need and leave, I'm learning to navigate  shopping here. And there is some really fun shopping here as well. Local markets, the Artisans market, specialty shops of  all varieties make up some of the recreational shopping I was so used to. I spent 200q of my Christmas money (about $24) and enjoyed major retail therapy in Antigua. I bought some new pottery, a new scarf, and some pretty market baskets.  I'm trying to let go of my American desire for efficiency and convenience above all else and embrace the Guatemalan lifestyle. And if all else fails, you'd be amazed what you can find at a neighborhood tienda! (There's gotta be a whole other post about that...)