A Day at the Market

Well, I wasn’t brave enough to take pictures at the market today, but sometime soon I will have to add them. A friend and I headed out to Balagon, a very large outdoor market. I am trying to make my flat cozier so we went in search of fabric for curtains, pillows, a shower curtain, etc. These things are hard to find here, so you just buy fabric and then have them made. It was really good to get off of the compound for the day. It sounds easy enough, but now home from the market I am exhausted!

The days started out rainy, as every day lately has. As for the roads, rain usually means that your best bet is to stay inside. But, we are so busy during the week, so any adventures need to occur on the weekend. We drove to the market on a road sort of like a freeway. When we got close to the market some guys had decided to create a parking lot and charge for parking. The spots that they created were actually on the overpass above the market and were just in one of the lanes of traffic. So, we paid them our 200 Naira and walked down the blocked off ramp down into the market. It wasn’t as crowded as usual due to the rain, and I try not to think about everything we were stepping in. Jeremiah, my driver walked with us until the entrance of the market to make sure that we found it ok.

The vendors have outdoor shops, some of which go back inside also. We stuck to the main drag today. There are also many alley’s that go deep into the market and I guess the prices get cheaper the farther in you go. We opted to pay a little more and not get lost or stuck. The vendors were selling everything from meat, fabric, shoes, fruit, pans, beads, etc. We got hissed at quite a bit and everyone yells “oweebo” at me which means white person. Everyone was really nice to us and just desperately wanted us to spend money in their shops. DD and I each bought a few pieces of fabric. It was hard for me to focus on purchasing because I was taking everything it.

We called Jeremiah when we were about finished and he met us at the exit and walked with us back to the car. A successful trip and now we just had to make it back to the school…Sounds easy huh.

We got on the road to head back, but the bridge that we (and hundreds of other cars) needed to go up was covered with piles of garbage that had to be at least 30 feet high. I think they were cleaning??? That’s a good thing I guess. So, we took back roads back which included driving the wrong way down several streets, driving over medians and hitting bottom as well as purchasing cell phone minutes and a new windshield wiper in the “go slow” traffic. The traffic started moving when we were buying the wiper. So, the guy selling it to us just hopped on the front of our car!!! He laid on the car while we were moving and installed the wiper!!! It later fell off again anyway.

We stopped at the GQ for lunch on the way back and met some other teachers there. I think I’m starting to get used to a quick trip to the market taking the entire day. It’s good for me to learn patience and was quite an eventful day!