From my previous post, you would probably think that I would be dreading the trip to the Art Centre, a much larger craft market. However– that was not the case. I was excited! Even though I was still a little nervous to bargain, I was ready.
When we got there, I immediately saw a man selling sunglasses. A quick little story: I dropped the original pair I brought and the fall caused one of my lenses to chip. Therefore I needed a new pair. Professor Steeves had let us know in advance that we would visit Elinam Amevor’s brother’s shop first. I was stoked because over the summer I took a class with Elinam, and he was the best. We got off the bus and although I wanted to buy my sunglasses, I decided I should focus on buying a couple souvenirs first and then treat myself. We went to the shop and I was amazed at all the beautiful kente cloth, wood carvings, and drums. I really liked the shop, but I was on the hunt for earrings. Elinam’s brother Dela had a limited selection, and I decided I would come back later in case I didn’t find anything that I liked.
We went to the other shops and I didn’t have any luck finding earrings, but I did end up buying a hat that I will be gifting my mom! As we were walking back towards the shop, Jahlysa asked if I still wanted to buy some sunglasses and I said yes. We checked out the shop she found – the same one I noticed when we first arrived. It took me a minute to decide what pair I wanted and another little while to bargain. Finally I got my pair, but while I was buying them Jahlysa and a couple of my other peers were talking to this man. I didn’t catch his name but I was really impressed by how much he knew about Oregon. After telling us about Oregon he asked if we could check out his shop, and that we didn’t have to buy anything. We all said sure and followed him. As he was walking us to his shop he kept telling us he knows all the state capitals of the U.S and invited us to name states and he would tell us the capitals. We start quizzing him and we eventually got to his shop. We found out he not only knows the capitals of all states but all countries.
He went on to promise that if he gets a wrong answer, we’d get a cute little elephant carving from his shop for free. I appreciated the deal, however he never missed. We spent a while in his shop and got to know him. He was really nice and genuine, and I ended up buying a couple items from his shop. I finally asked him for his name and he said it’s Colin Powell. So Colin, if you ever get to read this, I hope to see you again.
Overall going to this market made me feel even more comfortable bargaining, but I think the biggest takeaway from this experience was meeting Colin Powell and hearing his story and how he became so great with geography.