One question I'm often asked is 'what is your chief expense there?' Answer: Groceries.
Our grocery store imports from the U.S. certain goodies, for other goods we buy in country.
Occsasionally Kendal gives the kids the chance to pick a dinner. My daughter picked my wife's famous 'cranberry chicken'. But this requires cranberries.
So first you visit the store. They are out. Not surprising, it's a seasonal thing. But sometimes you're surprised by what they do have.
So then you send out an email (technically an nntp posting) on the 'wanted' board and say 'we need one 14oz can of cranberries, does anyone have one to sell or lend?'
Soon someone will call or email and say "I do."
So tonight at dinner my wife said 'I'm very busy tonight I have a lot to do.'
Well of course she does, our hausmeri was unable to help today with things around the house because of a recent catastrophe for her family. So of course being the doting husband I say 'how can I help?'
So a few minutes later I find myself at a friend's house with 10 Kina in my pocket. This was our conversation.
"Hi Chad, Did Kendal tell you how much to pay?"
"No"
"well we don't have a price."
"okay"
"She did say to name our price."
"yes."
"Okay well how does Kina 250 sound?"
we both laugh. Apparently someone recently had tried to overcharge her and we had a laugh.
"It sounds high"
"Yes, well I was thinking, I bought some peaches this week a can of them, and it cost 10Kina, so I was thinking, THESE ARE OCEAN SPRAY, so how is 12 Kina?"
"Well, my wife told me she didn't know what to expect and gave me 10Kina. will that do or shall I put in a transfer for 12 Kina"
A transfer is our way of paying for stuff here so we don't handle cash. It makes life easier for our finance people if we don't handle much cash, as transporting large amounts of cash can be unsafe and troublesome.
"A transfer would be nice."
So.... begins the paperwork.
For reference, in the U.S. a can of Ocean Spray cranberries seems to average $1.90. 12 Kina is about $5.00 (at least that was the price I found when I looked online, I have no idea what current U.S. groceries cost).
Also it left me wondering... is Ocean Spray like the Cadillac of Cranberries?
It was a humorous exchange for me......
Another such recent exchange for us was similar, three women were trying to come up with a solution for feeding 9 people and one of my wive's friends kept repeating 'well at home I have a WHOLE can of beans' until finally someone said 'a whole can won't feed many people'.
As that friend left, they left behind with us, labelled and everything... 'a whole can of beans'.
So... we now around our house say
'well, it IS Ocean Spray."
and
'wow a whole can of beans!'
