Mission for the Poor: Serving the people of Flores and Timor Leste

We thought we would give you an up to date overview on shopping in Labuan Bajo as seen through the eyes of the locals. Since we first visited the town in late 2010, the number of shops in Labuan Bajo has grown exponentially due to the popularity of the nearby Komodo Islands. There are now ten times the number of supermarkets as there were then, there are now four or five hardware stores, a new market place and many pharmacies. All of these serve the influx of tourists, and the increased population that has moved to Labuan Bajo due to the rise in tourist related jobs. Despite the growth in the town, poverty is still a major social issue for Labuan Bajo. Thus, it is very important for the Missionaries of the Poor to continue their work, serving the poor of the town, through teaching, caring for the disabled and lame, and offering spiritual and corporal assistance to as many families as possible.

Hope you enjoy the shopping through Labuan Bajo and we will see you next time with more updates: signing off for now, Trevor and Tina Lambkin (4 September 2016) on this day of the Canonization of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who, very much like Missionaries of the Poor, was a dedicated servant of the poor.

Very good and famous Flores Kopi (coffee) at the supermarket Roxy Mart

Some more very nice robusta coffee-Roxy Mart, Labuan Bajo

Supermarkets are very different from what we remembered during our first trip to Labuan Bajo in 2010-many tourists now

Yes very different, now mainly due to tourists and investors-at Roxy Mart

These cold Bintang do look good up here in the tropics

As we leave Roxy Mart, a fair well from owner Olivia with Tina

At the markets, plenty of chilies

Dried fish stacked high at the fish markets

Greens for sale at the local markets with palm sugar wrapped in dried banana leaves

Still at the markets, a little organised chaos

Where we buy our rice at the markets

We visited one of the hardware stores downtown

You just about can buy anything at this store

Br Marc is looking for something

We even try having a look, but we find a brush cutter with METAL blades not plastic line, a tad too dangerous

We then went to another hardware store and found garlic sold with toilets and plastic stools

Timber handles for sledge hammers maybe, but timber handles for picks and shovels are impossible to find in Labuan Bajo

With some floor and wall tiles

Another local hardware store

Yet another local supermarket uptown

Confusion in the shaving aisle, the brothers refer to disposable razors as shaving sticks which means something different here in Australia

Cigarettes are also packaged grimly in Indonesia, notice the skulls hovering around the smoker’s head

Paying at the store and packing up the shavings sticks

Outside the supermarket

The IT store

Working a deal out on a new printer

One of the local pharmacies

Another one of these local stores among dozens that seem to sell just about everything

This local store is just near the monastery where we buy the sugar for the brothers

The ever increasing night dining along the water at Labuan Bajo

Late for work, maybe? Labuan Bajo