The morning after a heavy rainfall is the most beautiful scene one can experience in Bambu. Sunshine reflects brilliantly off of the moist grass and foliage in the rain forest, almost glimmering in my eyes. The feeling is so calming that even my persistent alarm clock halts his crowing for awhile. I have to squint when I step out of the back door as the sunlight pours down the hill behind the house, drying the muddy shirts and pants dangling from the sagging clothes line.
“Es un día perfecto para el mercado, no?”
“¡Ah, sí, que bonita ese día!” my host mother exclaimed in response. My lazy Saturday morning kicked into high gear once I left the house. It was market day in Bambu, which meant there was much work to be done and plenty of delicious food to be eaten. From the community center I could see people making their way down the winding road towards the market to see what was available.
The farmer’s market building in and of itself is impressive. The open air structure is lined by wooden columns and a sort of mesh fencing, forming an oval around two open-fire stoves and three long wooden tables where a small crowd had gathered. On the other side of the tables were multiple crates filled with bananas, star fruit and a crate of round, spiky fruits no bigger than ping pong balls, called mamones. I saw a boy I’d met the other day buying an entire bag of these exotic fruits for only 500 colones. That’s roughly the equivalent of $1.
“¿Oyé, cómo estás, Daní? ¿Lo quisieras uno?” he asked, tossing me one of the fruits. “Millón de gracias, amigo.”
I wasn’t sure how to begin eating it so I decided on impulse just to bite into it. This worked out nicely as I was able to then tear off the spiky exterior and bite into the translucent fruit underneath. The fruit itself surrounded a rather large seed like a peach, but tasted much more like a cross between a grape and a pear.
“¡Ah, qué deliciosa!” I declared as he tossed me two more.
By this time the market is not quite in full swing. The majority of the customers would arrive for lunch when the fish and tamales were cooked and they had worked up an appetite from the morning’s work. The farmer’s market in Bambu is still in its early stages of development as a successful source of income for the people in the village. However, it is growing in popularity as more and more people have heard about it and been able to enjoy a fresh, delicious lunch there or snacked on mamones for the afternoon. The main concern for the market is that it has not yet been well advertised in Bambu, or, for that matter, any of the neighboring villages. Children, Incorporated has begun to address this issue and we expect that with time the market should continue to grow and be a successful place of business for the villagers of Bambu.
