What a good day!
Today is to be our final day here in Bamenda. So we decided to go to the market (fabric), have lunch at Fremal Restaurant; visit Titus and head back home for dinner.
The day was so nice. I must’ve been in sync with the universe. It wasn’t too hot or cold, and people weren’t as rude as they usually are. We made it to the market at a pretty decent hour. As soon as we entered I was off and running; wanted to find more fabric to give to Titus for cargo and dress pants.
The first booth I entered had some really nice fabric, but I wasn’t feeling the vibe there. However, the second booth and I clicked. I found two pieces of fabric that I really liked, thought I’d be able to make cargo pants out of one of them, but turns out their both only good for dress pants.
So the price was about 3500 CFAs per meter for one, and 2500 CFAs per meter for the other. Since I needed a meter and a half, it would’ve cost me like 5250 CFAs for one and 3750 CFAs for the other; a total of 9000 CFAs for both. I figured the best thing to do with most of the vendors is to let them state their best price. Of course this means most will just say what the regular price would be, but you’ve gotta keep them going to a lower price.
Well, I kept my guy going until I finally decided to suggest that I would give 4500 CFAs for the higher priced one. Of course it was too low for him, but I stood firm and stoned faced until he finally gave in. I let him cut this fabric, and we moved on to the next fabric. I told him, I’d give him 1750 CFAs for this one, knowing it was a little lower than anyone would’ve accepted. Naturally I got the story of how it was too low and would not yield a profit for him. I played the waiting game deciding, “Well, maybe I’ll go up slightly.” After hemming and hawing for a few minutes, I finally tell him that the most I can afford now is 2000 CFAs.
He persists in telling me that its too low, but after five minutes of me standing in silence, his colleague – who is negotiating with another customer; even more hardnosed than me – discusses something in another language, then the guy begins to cut the fabric. Of course thinking, “I didn’t agree on a price with him, what’s he doing?” I wait until he’s finished and ask what are we agreeing on for this one. He accepted my offer. Why didn’t I stay at 1750?
I take my prize and move on to a few other booths until I finally find one that had the perfect cargo pants material. I saw about four that I liked, but decided on two. Negotiating with this vendor was quite difficult. He was really not trying to give in, but I did notice one thing. I believe he intended to give me my asking price all along. As I’m saying my price, and he’s saying his, he began cutting the material. “What? We’re not finished.” Both fabrics are 2500 CFAs per meter, so it would’ve cost me like 7500 CFAs for them.
He wanted to charge me 7000 CFAs, I wanted to pay 6500 CFAs. So for the next fifteen to twenty minutes, we did the “no that’s too low, no that’s too high dance.” At this moment, Akilah and Becky come in, and Akilah joins in on the negotiation with me. While we’re doing this, she sees a bit of fabric left (the last of it in the booth) and tells him, if he accepts my offer for 6500 CFAs, she’ll buy the last of the fabric she likes for 2500 offering that it was more than fair.
I believe that fabric would’ve been at least 2000 CFAs per meter. Of course he still wants his price to be 500 CFAs more than what we wish to pay. However, within ten to fifteen minutes she just tells him that we’ll need a “one mille” bill for change, because we were going to give him “ten mille.” He’s still resisting, but after about three minutes of charm from her, he finally digs in the draw and pulls out a “one mille.”
After playing around by trying to act as if he’s giving me 500 francs for change, he finally gives the “one mille” and we part after taking down his stall number (no. 18) and name so we can refer folks to him. This vendor is Nigerian, most specifically, Ibo.
So we head over to Fremal and I have string beans mixed with carrots and red onions and Becky and Akilah have ndoly and plantain; I can’t have any because they’ve got nuts in them and I’m allergic to all types of nuts. Lunch was good. Afterwards we head to Titus to place an additional order that it turns out won’t be ready until after I leave, but that’s cool. Or maybe I can just stay here until it’s completed? Hmmmmm.
We don’t get back to the house until just after nightfall. We were out much longer than what we planned. By the time we reach the house there’s another person here; Nick. This region we’re in is actually his primary region or in this case, it’s his case. We all talk off and on with him; Becky, Akilah, Patty, Olga and myself.
The trio of us decides to warm up the left over beans and make some new tortillas for dinner. It was very tasty; I now know how to make tortilla shells. It was good once again. Once we completed our after dinner talk we played trivial pursuit once more. This time Sean & Sandra joined in. It was a good game. Last night Becky one, but of course, she, Akilah and I were not playing according to the rules of the genius edition. We decided it could almost be like twenty questions in order to give the person hints to win that roll.
Anyway, we also snack on some foods. I purchased a Choco Coco bar for like 860 CFAs while in the Vatican Market earlier (they’ve got some nice stuff). It was worth all the money I paid for it too. The chocolate was made in Germany I believe, so of course I was looking for any sign that it may have been made with nuts. Most German chocolates are.
When we’re almost done, Becky turns on the hot water heater for me. Though this place does have hot water, they actually turn off the water heater after a certain amount of time to prevent it from burning out. It’s a small one. But next we hear the door open and in come Jeff, his sister, and her husband. They’re too late for a bed, but there are plenty of mattresses around.
Well we played teams, with Becky and Steven being on one and Akilah, Sandra and myself as the other team. We won; well at least we got the most pegs before proceeding to the center. I always thought you had to land exactly on the center, but because everyone was so tired, its understandable.