Lena: Market

Posted 07:03 AM, June 21, 2006, by lenawine

Two days a week, near Arusha, there is a huge open air market that sells primarily vegetables and fruits. Our assignment was to go and practice our Swahili as well as our bargaining skills. They gave us 500 Tanzania shillings (Tsh), which corresponds to about approximately 40 cents, and 1.5 hours to spend it.

For the first 30 minutes, I simply wandered around, trying to get the lay of the land, and more accurately, being too intimidated and too indecisive to talk to anybody. That didn't stop people from talking to me.

One person called from one of the stalls, in perfect English, "I love you mzungu." I tried to ignore him, but a lady closer by said, "did you hear him, he says he loves you?" When I made eye contact, she said, "he's my husband." I couldn't tell if she was joking or serious... I replied, "Kwa nini? Hanijui. (Why? He doesn't know me.)" and continued on my way.

As I continued to wander, I noticed a small boy, about 9 years old, following me. I found this a bit unnerving and tried to evade him, but he stayed with me as I walked more purposefully.

I turned and said "mambo," a slang greeting to him. Now it was his turn to be taken off guard. He repeated my question back to me, and I responded "poa," meaning cool. He began to laugh and then disappeared, but this was not the last I saw of him. He returned with 3 other boys and whispered something to them. One of them tentatively asked "mambo?," I responded again, and they all doubled over laughing.

Still empty handed, I bumped into a group of 3 other students, all with hands filled with bags of vegetables. I decided to tag along with them for a bit, and with their encouragement, I managed to bargain for 8 tomatoes, 2 very large avocados, 6 lemons, and a bag of hot peppers for my 40 cents. My little friend from before reappeared when I needed a bag to carry my prizes, and I paid him 4 cents for it.

All in all, I would say it was a successful day in the market, and between the 15 of us, we brought back enough supplies to last the kitchen here for awhile.

My fruits (all for 40 cents):
Fruits from the market.jpg

Outside the market:
Copy of Day 4-6 001.jpg

Comments

That was really a practical approach your group had to pu into use what you had learnt. I would expect the teasing from the market guys, they all love mzungus as this means good business. It also feels good when a stranger speaks in ones language so I guess thats why the young one found it amusing. Ask me and I will say many find the accent of wazungu when they speak in Kiswahili very interesting.

I think I would have loved to get more details on precisely how you bargained for those juicy tomatoes! Such would'nt cost so much in Nairobi.

Comment by: Oposh at July 2, 2006 08:49 AM