A day in the life of a supply buyer

Brant is out the door by seven o'clock to get a head start on the day's shopping. We have 7 things left on the list for this order - 15 pipe joints, a stainless steel pipe for a satellite internet system, 4 loaves of bread, 4 kg of chicken, 12 green bell peppers, 5 kg of yellow onions and 25 kg of potatoes. The flight is tomorrow, but it all has to be done by this afternoon so we can weigh it in at the hanger for the flight. Brant visits the hardware store first on his motorcycle. He is able to get the pipe joints. The stainless steel pipe comes from another hardware store on the other side of town. He heads over there, but they don't have any - it will have to be ordered from another store out of town and is promised to be delivered early the next morning. He runs by the bakery, but they only have 2 loaves of bread - come back in the evening and they will have made more, they say. He calls a co-worker in town to ask for help getting the chicken - it has to be purchased at a grocery store 45 minutes away - none that is available in town is safe to eat. The grocery store here in town just got a shipment of bell peppers but the green ones look like they've had worms the size of small children nibbling on them. He gets 6 red and 6 yellow instead and decides that's close enough. While he is out, Emily calls - an email has come in from the family in the tribe saying they also need 4 meters of PVC pipe - could we possibly buy it in time for the flight as well? So Brant heads back to the hardware store. By eleven in the morning he is back at home, takes over watching the boys so Emily can head to the open air market to get the rest of the produce. Buying the produce involves actually finding the item - but then it has to be fresh, at a decent price, and from a seller who is honest and will not try to take advantage of me because I am white skinned! Most of the stalls are small and just have a few items - it takes several visits to different vendors to find yellow onions - most here are purple and small. One vendor has 3 kg of onions; another has lots, but they are all soft and mushy. The same goes for the potatoes. I have to carry everything by hand - the paths are muddy and uneven and there are no carts. Because I can't carry that much produce, I make several trips to the car. It is hot, smelly and roaches cover most of the produce. By one o'clock I have the potatoes and onions and rush home so that Brant can get the things packed into boxes and to the airport before two. I clean up, check email again, take another order for next week and then begin work on dinner. Brant makes it home by 3 or 4 o'clock and enters receipts and does book-keeping on the day's purchases. He runs and picks up the remaining loaves of bread after dinner, then receives a call that the airplane taking the supplies into the tribe has had a "surprise" inspection by the government and will not be allowed to fly... can he come get the items from the hanger so they don't go bad in the heat and humidity? It's a good thing the flight is delayed a few days. The stainless steel pipe never showed up as promised and it took several more trips to the hardware store to locate it. :)