A Shopping Trip in (mostly) Pictures

Since so many people have questions about grocery shopping while we're in Haiti, I thought I'd give you all a little glimpse into a "normal" shopping trip!

Our morning started at 5:00 am. I drove the quad to the Wesleyan Station to meet up with the others who were making the trip. Streets were not busy at that hour, but there were some up and about!

At the Wesleyan Station, we loaded our coolers into a truck and headed to the boat dock.

This morning it was still a bit drizzly as it had been raining all night. Here, they're getting the boat ready to board.

Part of our 1.5 hour trip across to the mainland - one highlight (of many) is seeing the sunrise :)

Then we load up into another truck and drive the 1.5 hours into Port au Prince.

Don't forget the coolers!! (Very important for keeping our frozen and cold food from spoiling on the journey home!)

This is a supermarket called Giant. There are two main, bigger supermarkets. One is Giant and the other is Caribbean. You are able to buy almost everything that you would buy in the States. However, to give you an idea - most name brand cereal will cost you around 300 goudes which is about $7 for a small box.  Everything is a bit more expensive than in the states. There are also a lot of little grocery stores - DeliMart, BelMart, etc. that you can get most of what you need, but they are much smaller.

All of our purchases are then boxed up and marked with our names so we know whose house to deliver which box to. Then we loaded them onto a TapTap - Haitian Taxi. The TapTap then took our groceries to the boat dock and waited for us to arrive. (We just prayed that everything would make it!)

All of our "goods" loaded up and ready to go!! (Minus a couple coolers that we kept for our second stop)

This is the entrance to Caribbean Supermarket. Nice and air conditioned and they even have a fantastic French Deli where we had lunch. I had the most amazing turkey pesto sandwich!

Just a glimpse of our 1.5 hour drive back to the boat dock. :)

Back at the wharf, we load all the groceries back onto the boat and then get ready for our 1.5 hour ride back to the island - which usually includes a few minutes of sleep if you're lucky :)

The groceries all covered up for the trip to the island.

What I didn't document with pictures is what happens from here. When we arrive to the island, there is a truck (or two) waiting to help unload the boat. Then we drive to the Wesleyan Station, unload their groceries (sorting through all the boxes to find the right names) and then take the truck to our house and unload the boxes.

We made GREAT time! From start to finish, it only took us about 10 hours!!

Whew. Good thing that only happens once every month :)