oh, the african market

Sorry for the lack of blogging. As my computer is still AWOL, it is difficult to get on here. Hopefully I'll start blogging more soon. A few weeks ago I went to a large market in Lusaka called Kamwala with 3 girls I work with. We took a taxi, of course. Recently I've been tempted to try to mini-buses, but have thought better of it after some rather horrific mini-buses crashes (more to come on that). Anyway, we asked the taxi driver to take us to the area of the market where they sold chitenges (basically, bright African cloth). He just dropped us off in the middle b/c he had no idea where to take us. But did he admit that? No. He said, "It is just here". Thanks, that was really helpful, Mr.Taxi-Man.

So we ended up wandering around the market for a while till we found one shop rather than the reported "rows of chitenge shops". Eventually we decided to go into the big covered market and see if we could find more. As soon as we got into the inner market there were many young men who really wanted to help us. One lead us through the labyrinth of stalls to one that sold cloth where the vendors tried their best to charge us 5 times the fair price. After some negotiation we got them down to a semi-decent, but still ridiculous price. But, since they were the only place that sold the type of cloth I wanted I sold out to the "white tax". Sigh.

Two of the girls decided they were going to the grocery store & left. Jen & I decided to stay and explore a bit more. As we wandering around trying to find the exit of the inner market, one of the vendors heard me say Jen's name. So then he started calling after us "Jen! Jen! Jennifer!" to try to get our attention. Luckily, we just then saw natural light & escaped.

Soon most of the shops closed for lunch so Jen & I took a walk down to street to see Lusaka. It is mostly dusty & not too attractive so we went back toward the market and looked at various shops. Our favorite find was a little grocery mart that sold "Virginity Soap". It's shiny gold wrapper explained how it restored lost virginity. I can only assume it accomplished this through its pungent smell. If it hadn't been so expensive I would have purchased some.

Soon the chitenge shops began opening so we headed back & managed to actually find the row of shops we had been looking for all morning. We found some good stuff, however, the market was getting crazier & crazier as the day progressed. I'm fairly sure the alcohol the men had started drinking around 10am was starting to take effect. As we walked down the dusty street multiple men thought it would be okay to just touch my arm as I walked by them. Most were not a big deal, but one man actually ran his hand all the way from my shirt sleeve almost to my wrist before I shook him off. He was the only one I bothered to stop for & inform him that even though I was white that didn't mean he was allowed to touch me. A minute later we were talking to a lady about some cloth and hear this man saying loudly into his phone, "Yes, a Chinese & a muzungu" (Jen is actually Filipino & "muzungu" means "white person). That kinda disturbed us, so we quickly finished buying our cloth and left. Lesson learned: When the shops close at lunch, it is time to go home.