At the market

And so we finally come to the market. What an experience this was and how unique in all my time of visiting bazaars and markets in various corners of the globe.

The market is a ramshackle collection of corrugated tin huts on one side of the road, and on the other, people sat out in the sun with their sparse wares in front of them on upturned crates. It is located out of town on a windswept hillock. All around the market is desolate, just bare red earth like a scene from a post-atomic war film. There are swirling clouds of dust and rubbish being caught up in the wind and rising in the thermals from the heat.

The colours, sights and smells that assail your senses are amazing with the goats and chickens next to the clothes sellers, fruit and veg sellers and the knick-knack sellers.

As you get closer you notice the rubbish piles that are fuelling the swirling clouds overhead. The complete and utter mess of it all. Piles of plastic bags and discarded wrapping . All around the outside of the market is rubbish, piles of decay and mess waiting to rot down. In amongst it all is the ubiquitous plastic bags and wrapping. As the wind blows this is thrown up into the air along with the dust kicked up by the crowds.

On getting nearer, you can't help notice the deafening sound of salsa beat music drumming out of some of the huts at volume 11. As you pass one of these huts (and there is at least one in every row) the sound is deafening and distorted. Although the beat is good, the volume and distortion simply seem to loosen your bowels and destroy your ears. Angolans love noise.

Some of the clothes stalls have random clothes hanging up, but most are like charity shop leftovers. There are literally piles of cast off clothes in stacks on the floor. Babies, children's, adult's, men's and women's clothes. It is clearly where the clothes that you put in the recycling skips end up. Most have western slogans on the t-shirts and sweatshirts. Some are worn out, some simply worn and a few are new, but all piled up on the floor for you to rummage through. There is no attempt at sorting them in any way by size, sex or style, just a pile. We are interested in the clothes shops as we are hunting for an Angolan belt of Black and Red with the Angolan flag proudly emblazoned on the buckle. Unfortunately today is Sunday and the market is relatively quiet and the belt seller is missing. We will have to come back next Saturday.

In one area are the livestock sellers with tethered goats and chickens with their legs tied together stumbling around and falling over in the dirt. Next to them are the fly sellers. Well, I thought they were selling flies until I realised under the flies were pieces of meat. I am told there is no concept of the different cuts of meat here and you simply get a piece of meat, when you buy it, but of course, I have no idea how true this is.

Then we come to the fruit and veg – now this I do have experience of. If you enlarge the photo and look carefully at the sellers you will see that everything is in neat little piles. These are the quantities. The tomato lady will have piles of say, 5 tomatoes in each. You have to buy in quantities of 5. if you want 8 you have to buy 10. She will only sell them in the piles prepared for you. Heaven forbid you start to mix up the piles. This will be frowned upon. The lady selling onions had 3 washing up bowls of onions in front of her. We wanted 2 or 3 onions, but she was only selling by the bowlful, 10 onions for 500 Kwanzas. There is no point in offering 100 Kz for 2 onions or even 150Kz for 2 onions, she will not sell. If you think the price is too high there is no point in haggling, she will not sell. It is the strangest and most rigid market system I have ever encountered. The veg is good and there are onions, okra, carrots, garlic, aubergines, tomatoes, potatoes amongst others. The chillies are tiny, so we bought the standard small pile. Oh dear, they proved to be very potent when we made the curry later that day. Small but fiery would be a good description.

So we have our bag full of standard measures of everything we need and much. 10 onions, 5 garlics, 4 aubergines etc. I am sure you get he picture.

A group of boys follow us round the market. They keep a discreet distance and never ask for anything. This is the Angolan way. Begging is rare. We buy 2 packets of peanuts and give them to the boys. They smile and wander off.

We have finished our shopping expedition and return to the house. It is Sunday and my turn to cook dinner. We will have a veggie (mainly aubergine) curry and rice for dinner.

As we drive back we pass numerous people all dressed in their Sunday best. Church attendance is high and many are on their way to/from church. It makes for a wonderful spectacle, especially the small children and the little boys in their suits and the little girls dressed in their special Sunday frocks.