Farmer's Market

I love the summer in Provo because it is the only time it is warm. Also, it is when we have the Farmer's Market. I enjoy going to the Farmer's Market on Saturdays because it is like getting out of the Provo bubble.

Every time I go to the Farmer's Market, a man from Uganda tries to sell me his necklaces, wooden sculptures, or paintings, made and painted by widows in Uganda. The paintings are so beautiful. This last time, I asked him about the process of making the paintings, and he told me it takes about two months, because the women paint the paintings on cloth, wait for them to dry, and then stretch them to look just right. I have looked at the paintings each week, and I just might buy one next week.

Three weeks ago, I met a girl who sells rocks and rock necklaces, who is originally from Montana, but lives a nomadic lifestyle, living out of a trailor and traveling from state to state with her merchant partner digging for rocks and selling them at Farmer's Markets. After Provo's Farmer's Market season is over, she and her partner will travel to Arkansas to dig for more rocks.

This last time I went to Farmer's Market, I bought some fruits and veggies, ran into

some old friends, and settled down to watch the band, The Utah Ramblers--eclectic style. This band is composed of a philosphy professor from BYU, and philosophy professor from UVU, a welding professor, some 80-yr-old man who owns a museum in Hawaii, a man who used to lead a gospel choir and has a prosthetic leg, and several other people who seem to filter in and out of the band.

While I was watching the band, I met two men my dad's age--one from South Africa and one from LA, but who is a BYU alumni. The South African started out by laughing at me in a jolly way (I don't know why, since I hadn't said anything to them) and then he tried to

convince me to join their band, since I play the flute, and because you "meet so many interesting people" when you're in a band. While we talked, we watched this

cute 7-yr-old Filipino girl (whose mom is one of the vendors at the market) gaze at one of the band members through her mom's cell phone and afterward hang around with him as if he were her favorite uncle. - Carly