Into the market

On Saturday, I went to the market in Tamale to buy a pair of Jeans and a few T-shirts.  I will describe the day quite vividly in order to give you a bit of an idea about realities here.  I would get up in the morning, get up from the mattress and crawl out of the mosquito net.  I will get ready, and then go out.  I was introduced to egg and bread on the first day in Tamale and since then, I have grown quite fond of it along with a drink called ‘Milo’ which is quite sweet but a good alternative to coffee and black tea. 

So, as most days, I went to a street vendor just on Gumani Road and will bought 2000 Bread, 2 Eggs and 1 Milo.  To explain this apparently high price, even though the currency devaluation from 1 Old Ghana Cedi = 0.01 New Ghana Cedi has happened some years ago now, many people still calculate in old Cedis and so 2000 is actually 0.20 GHC.  After paying, I crossed the street and waited for taxi to come by that was going into town.  To hail a taxi that you want to share with other people, you simply stretch out your right hand and open and close four fingers several times as if you were waving to someone.  The driver will slow down, stretch out his hand out the window and signal and call the number of seats he has free and to know how many are in your party.  Once he pulls up, you inquire as to his destination and if it matches where you want to go, then you get in.  The price from the Gumani house to the centre of Tamale is between 0.40 and 0.50 GHC. 

I exited the cab right in front of the market and entered the hustle and bustle of a busy Saturday market day.  Since Tamale is quite a large city, it has a market day on almost every day of the week and since it was 11:00 a.m., everyone was already busy negotiating, talking and shouting.  The first time that I came to the market, I remember walking through a narrow alley that was quite dark but still filled with merchants on either side of the alley selling fruits and vegetables.  All around me, the space was filled with activity.  People pulling and pushing heavily laden carts through narrow passageways, water sellers with water on their heads shouting, “Here is pure water!”, women carrying large loads on their heads who you can admire for their grace with which they balance the load and the strength that it takes to carry it for long periods of time.  The paths of the market are also quite uneven which makes walking without stumbling a bit of a challenge in itself.  A definite obstacle toward buying things is first, not knowing the approximate price of objects, and second, not knowing whether the object you would like to buy can be negotiated for or not.  I approached a pants seller to buy a pair of jeans.  After some searching, he had found a pair in my size and I had negotiated a price from 7 Cedis down to 5 Cedis.  Then, I looked for shirts.  I searched for quite a while and found shirts ranging between 5  and 30 Cedis each. I purchased two shirts for a total of 11 Cedis which I thought was quite a good deal but judging by the somewhat mocking smile of the merchant, his invitation to come back anytime and the comments I overheard after, I paid way too much for them.  While browsing for the shirts, I also witnessed a small fight that erupted due to a traffic accident.  I did not witness the event itself but just the aftermath.  The intensity and energy with which the fight erupted definitely surprised me.  I had seen people have quite intense arguments before but then calming down quite quickly after.  However, a crowd gathered immediately and separated the two which I thought was quite a positive sign of communal problem solving and resolution.

Then, I sat down a bit to rest in the hot noon sun.  I sat at the entrance of the taxi yard and just observed the steady flow of taxis in and out.  It was quite interesting to observe the flow of taxis which would occasionally culminate in a massive traffic jams that were resolved in intense yelling.  However, they would always dissipate quite quickly and the way would be free for more taxis to enter.  I thought, wow, this system is so much more chaotic and less organized than anything you might find in North America or Europe but still it works.  People enter and leave the city from the outlying areas, sell and buy goods and then leave.  It made me think deeply about applying home country ideas and ideals to Ghana and the balance of accepting vs. challenging the existing structures.

Finally, I hailed a taxi and returned home after a very successful and productive day.   Back next week from the village with probably many new experiences.