Today I walked down to the vegetable market to, obviously, get some vegetables. It's funny how just buying a few veggies can be so fun. I shall really miss the fresh markets that are along every street. The first woman who helped me was older, probably my age, and her hands showed her years of working in the fields; wrinkled, stained from dirt but strong and solid. I bought some bean sprouts from another woman and it cost be 1.5 yuan which would be about 15 cents. The fresh, homemade noodles I bought cost 4 yuan. Everything is so cheep. Sometimes I feel guilty only giving them such a little bit of money. In fact, we buy most of our fruit from the same lady and we often tell her to keep the change. She usually refuses and tries to give us our change, but we just walk away and smile. She always waves and smiles back.
While I was walking back from the market I saw a whole stream of children coming down the sidewalk with a nurse leading them. You can tell she's a nurse, not because she is wearing scrubs but because she is wearing a pale blue lab coat and a "nurses hat" to match. She also has a red band around her arm. I was told that the children have to go to the local clinic and have their yearly exams. Haha! Wow! They didn't seem to be too worried about their visit to the clinic. I don't know if the children in the U.S. would be so excited. But anyway, as I passed them, many of them called out "hello!" Once one has the courage to say hi then many follow. So I smiled and waved hello. Again it made my day.
Here's a couple of pictures from 2 different vegetable markets. I wish I'd stopped and taken a picture of the kids with the nurse going to the clinic. I need to take a picture of our sweet fruit lady too. We love her.
Being able to just walk 5 minutes to get fresh fruits and vegetables will be one of the things I will miss the most when we leave China and return home.
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