This gentleman takes good care of the senior mission sisters when they shop at Oasis. He speaks English better than the others at the meat counter and goes out of his way to always wait on us. This picture shows him making what we would call Hamburger. It is referred to here as Minced Meat. It is much finer ground than hamburger in the U.S. Nigerian cows are the skinniest most mournful looking cow creatures you have ever seen. That makes the hamburger almost fat-free.
The meat department boss is Lebanese and you can hear him hollering anywhere you are in the market if he is giving orders. We waited until he was not around to get this photo. The boss is pretty attentive to the ladies, but this man is polite and lovable. You can see it in his smile and his sparkly eyes.
This nice lady is one Elder Krupp's special Oasis friends. She manages the department with all the shampoos and girlie goo's for staying pretty. I look for her and she looks for me when we go shopping. Most patrons treat the helpers as non-people, giving them no notice or courtesy. I love them and visit with them every time we shop. Sitting on these little stools seems to be part of their job. If they are not moving or standing, they work from or rest on these stools.
Oasis is in two major levels. This ramp moves your carts from the upper level to the lower level. The meat department is down with canned goods, personal care, soaps and kitchen wares. A man like this one moves your cart down or up for you. As a customer you are not allowed to move your own cart on the ramp. Notice the 12 packs of soda pop stacked along the ramp. That's where they keep our pop. You can move up and down the stairs you see with a basket like I have in the one picture.
This is an aisle shot with Elder Krupp and Sister Jones. This aisle is fairly uncluttered. Sometimes when we shop you can hardly get down the aisles at all. There is no such thing as stocking the store at night. It all happens during the business day.
Sister Jones has obviously found something she wants to share with us. Shopping is a treasure hunt and we find unexpected things at times. One hard-to-find item is raisins. We have found them here on occasion. Twice we have found real American brown sugar in 2 pound bags. When we find a treasure, we buy all we can. We have learned not to expect to find it again the next week.
This picture shows the entrance to Park & Shop, one of our regular shopping stops. We do find parking spots at this store when we shop before afternoon. Parking is not planned or well provided for in Lagos. It is almost as if the appearance of automobiles was not anticipated. We pull in to the right of the cars you see. The driveway is wide enough for one skinny car to pass between the building and the aisle of large commercial generators that keep the lights on in the store. Many times we can not move down the narrow aisles in this store because it is plugged up with merchandise they are pricing and stocking on the shelves.
This is a picture of the outside of Opic Plaza where the Oasis Market is. The Afribank is the sign you can read to the right of center. The Oasis entrance is to the left. The mural on the wall is the only sign to announce the store. Despite the lack of signs, the place is always busy.
This is the entrance to the left of the "Welcome to Oasis Supermarket" sign. Large bottles of water are stacked to the sides of the entrance. This is very typical. Merchandise is stacked everywhere in these markets. They seem to almost take pride in how much of an obstacle course they create for the shoppers.
This man is Ali. He is the General Manager of our Oasis. His home is Beirut, Lebanon. He has given his personal cell phone number to Linda so she can call to see if they are baking wheat bread. If they are baking and we will be delayed in our shopping, he will put the number of loaves we want away until we get there. They bake wonderful bread, rolls & hamburger buns. His goal is to save a serious stash of money and immigrate to Canada, or the U.S.
