Tuesday 31.3 2020

As mentioned before, the management of our housing complex is proactive and arranges for us to receive deliveries of fresh fruit & vegetables, bread & eggs, and now also dairy products & fish.  My friends who either live in a house where they can’t get any delivery or in apartments whose management has not arranged anything yet, have had no fresh fruits and vegetables for a week. I promised them I’d get them some from here with our next delivery.

On Saturday they had delivered the beautifully fresh fruit and vegetables that I wrote about earlier; pre-selected items of fruit, salad and vegetables placed in a carrier bag and sold for a standard price.  It was very fast and efficient shopping. 

On Tuesday the same guys were supposed to be selling from in front of our block from 3 pm. I was there at 3.10 with my shopping list for friends, about 25th in the queue.  Believe it or not, I returned to the apartment with their shopping at 6 pm!   This was not fast shopping.  I stood in that heat and humidity for almost 3 hours, with the mandatory mask on my face.  A good job Misa bought me something to drink.

Why did it take so long you ask?  This time they were not selling pre-bagged items.  Each customer choosing what they wanted as if at the market, each item then being individually weighed and placed in the bag; just one salesman and one using the weighing scale were doing this, and working at a leisurely pace! 

People had apparently complained that they did not like what they had as a pre-bagged selection.  OMG, people are not realizing the seriousness of the situation in the country and the world is facing and that they are lucky to have anything at all come to their doorstep.  In fact, they had the freshest organic produce possible to buy; all Sri Lankan and all no doubt picked within the previous 24 hours.  They should be grateful for what someone prepared for them.

I quickly sorted out what each friend wanted (4 friends) and one of them and her husband who has a diplomatic car and is able to drive during the curfew distributed it for me.

In the evening I couldn’t even feel the soles of my feet.  I was so tired that night and went to bed with the kids at 9pm.  3 hours in the queue had played havoc with my body, but I was glad that I could help and the girls were grateful.

If we thought that shopping was sometimes difficult in Sri Lanka before the corona-virus, believe me, now it’s much much harder.

Rennie