Amongst the other obvious cultural differences, Ugandan people phrase things differently than we do.  Instead of saying, “Really?” or “Are you serious?” after you say something that is hard to believe or kind of shocking, they say, “Are you sure?”  Well, here is an ‘ARE YOU SURE?’ moment for you.

My mom has been telling me how crazy cheap she gets things, and I wanted to believe her, but it almost seemed too good to be true.  Here is a list of the fruit and vegetables we bought today on our way home from safari:

• 3 LARGE pineapples
• 1 watermelon
• 4 large avocados (they are about 3 times the size we have in Canada!)
• 12 large mangoes
• 33 small mangoes
• 2 bunches of bananas
• 32 tomatoes
• 15 cobs of corn

All that for- guess how much?  24,000 Ugandan shillings, which, when converted to US dollars, comes to $9.05.  And yes, I AM SURE!!  Oh my goodness- my parents are going to go into shock when they come back to Canada and have to pay the price on the sticker again!  If mom isn’t getting the price she knows she has gotten before, she says, “No, 2500 shillings is too much.  Last time, I got three for 1500,” and she shuts the window, and THEN they are ready to bargain.  Again, 2500 Uganda shillings is about $1 US, so it is NOT like it is a crazy amount of money we’re talking about here, but you don’t want to be paying too much!  We wanted to buy pop on our way to safari, so we stopped and people swarmed the van with their various items, and the pop guy said he was selling each for 2500 ($1 USD), mom refused and said that was WAY overpriced, and that was that.  The window was shut, and needless to say, we didn’t get any pop…  It is so funny to hear her bartering, but she has definitely gotten good at it!  We had a delicious feast of our fresh fruits and veggies for supper tonight.  Tomorrow we’re going to a craft market- we’ll see what items she deems reasonable there!!