java and sijangs

ok when I give directions to my apartment I tell the cab driver song jong dong bun gae sijang. Song Jong Dong meaning my district and bun gae sijang which means lightening market. literally every morning, rain or shine, men and women set up their stands or lay out their blankets to form this market. this market consists of nothing but fresh food with the exception of people selling snacks they package as they make it (although that's fresh too right?). anyways these men and women sit or squat, calling out their prices and products to people passing by, many barely even pausing. First off let me tell you about the array of fresh food sold at this bun gae sijang. There is everything from seafood on ice, beans, dried peppers, lettuce, cabbage, pumpkins, onions, squash to apples, berries oranges, the infamous korean pear, grapes, to even an array of nuts, especially chestnuts. I must also tell you about the men and women actually doing the selling. every morning these older men and women, some women are elderly to the point where they are hunched over, spread out their wares for people to survey and buy. some of them barely make two or three dollars a day, yet each day, rain or shine they return. when it rains they set up these huge umbrellas that would be much coveted by beachcombers in North Carolina. The women, especially, are something to behold. Their faces are slackened with the effects of gravity, most of them have more wrinkles and lines then a shirt that just came from the wash, and all of them have mastered that shuffle of the feet that all older people seem to pick up along the way. what is most striking though is their hands. although their hands are wrinkled and so ridden with rheumatism, one can tell these are strong hands. hands that are not strangers to field work, even now, which is evident in the way these women shell beans, or pull and prune their fruits and vegetables so as to draw attention for sale. what might be a bunch of brusque sellers in heavy competition under a veneer of niceties at home, is an understanding and friendship between the people here. of course there is competition, but these people have a bond between them and have created a sort of community at this market. it's like this every morning, but saturday mornings are even more chaotic because people are off of work and can actually take advantage of the sale.Chaotic in a good way in that it's a smaller city, so people of the local community still flock to these street markets rather than give all their business to the bigger marts sprouting up.