Tuesday: Market Day!

10/21/08

The day began much like any other, though we were exhausted from our trip the day before. After our bucket showers, which I was incredibly appreciative of after the weekend’s living conditions, we had breakfast and headed to the roadside to wait for a tro-tro. The men who seem to spend the entire day perched on the ledge of a building at the roadside saw us coming and called to us to hurry up. One had already stopped and was on its way toward Deme but stopped again to—get this—tighten the back left wheel. We seized this opportunity, ran up and hopped in. Because the tro-tro was already full, we didn’t have to stop at the usual other villages for more passengers. We made it to Ho in just an hour and went straight to the bank (where one of the tellers recognizes me and calls out “Chris Brown!” when I walk in) and internet café to do some research for our upcoming sex education presentation (where someone else called out “Christine Brown” but I honestly have no clue who they were—I turned and said hello but did not recognize them one bit!).

Sema was planning on coming to the Market that day so we called her after we finished our research, asked where she was, and arranged to meet her a few minutes later at the entrance of the market. The entrance of the market is marked by a couple cinderblocks separating the dirt walkway between two street vendors. The cinderblock entrance is wide enough for 2 people to fit through, and you step 2 feet down to the market area. The walkways in the market are dirt pathways littered with trash and people sitting with baskets of goods for sale. You bump into a countless number of people as you meander your way through the vendors. Produce vendors monopolize the entrance of the market, casting out aromas of pineapple, herbs, spices, and fresh vegetables. This is also where you can buy cans of flake tuna in oil… one of the few ingredients used in our meals. As you walk through the market, people carry all sorts of things on their heads—baskets 3 feet high filled with anything from yams and cassava to clothing to bread to luggage bags. You might see a man push a wheelbarrow through overflowing with toothpaste with aloe, and over-the-counter drugs. At the first major “intersection” you come to, men on both sides of the walkway pound metal pots with large metal spoons in a special rhythm. People hiss and click to get your attention, and soon you’re ducking under vendor stands in another direction. I don’t know how we would have managed to get everything we needed without Sema’s guidance and knowledge of the Market Day layout.

After a very successful and cheerful shopping day at the market, we each got a small ice cream treat (I found a pineapple popsicle!) and waited by the tro-tros for the Saviefe-bound vehicles to appear. The tro-tros gather and pack themselves in a large dirt lot covered with trash and empty water pouches pressed underneath footprints. As I may have mentioned before, there is no concept of a trash receptacle anywhere in this city, or in the villages for that matter. I cannot express how much trash lay on the ground. People throw things out of windows or just drop whatever trash they have to the ground without a second thought. However, the trash isn’t the worst part of the tro-tro lot. The stench of rotting garbage and old urine permeates the air, and no matter where you stand, or how hard you try to breathe from your mouth, you cannot escape the vomit-inducing smell of waste.

After waiting for a short while (maybe an hour), the first tro-tro going to Saviefe arrived. Looking up in hopeful relief that our ride had finally come, I was overcome with the feeling of nervous disappointment as I realized this was the same tro-tro that broke down three times 10 days before… This tro-tro is meant to seat 27 people with 5 rows of 5 (including the fold out seats in the isle) and room for the driver and one person in the passenger seat. We boarded the tro-tro with the same seats we had before, though Denise was the one hanging out of the window this time. When all was said and done, we had 32 adults, 1 child around the age of 10, 3 babies, 1 guy on the roof, and 2 guys hanging on the back. A relatively small family of monstrous size reddish-orange ants crawled all over the ceiling right above our heads. After a couple freak outs, and a couple dead ants at the hands of Sema and me, we were on our way. Denise admitted, “Wow, you really do fall out this window,” and “ouch, it really does hurt when you hit your head against this thing.” Yep. I wasn’t exaggerating…

One of the guys hanging on the back of the tro-tro was Ernest, the same guy who led us to Accra busses a few days before. Going up the infamous hill leaving Ho, the guys jumped off to walk up the hill. The police are standing at the top of the hill to ensure no one is riding on top of vehicles. As soon as we rounded the bend, out of sight from the police officers, we stopped and waited. Soon enough, our guys came running around the side of the hill, took off their shirts in the process, and jumped on the back. I am happy to say that we made it to Saviefe Gbogame without any major break-downs or injuries. Denise and I were very pleased as this was the very first time we went to Ho without any major complications or disappointments, other than the monstrous ants. To top it off, we got to go shopping and we got a lot of really cool fabric. Of course, it takes coming to Africa to make me into a girl, but sure enough now all I want to do is make bags and blankets with all the fabric I’ve collected. Honestly, with all this fabric, as Denise noted, I could easily clothe the von Trapp family 2 times over.