Eggs [Friday, July 13]
A rainbow of colors dominated the market. Traders sold everything from live chickens to imported towels. People sold shirts from NHL All Star games next to traditional African dresses. Others cookies from Sri Lanka, Brazil, Turkey, Lebanon. Some sat in wooden stalls, others sat under umbrellas plastered in cell phone companies' logos. Some sold packets of water, others grilled chicken or beef. Some sold eggs, most of which were imported from Holland or Guinea. Today I tried my business abilities and joined the egg sellers after a busy day at HU and iEARN.
Adam, an American grad student who is staying at the YMCA while interning at Timap for Justice, befriended Ahmed, a young egg seller at the PZ market. Ahmed is orginally from Mile 91 (a town 91 miles from Freetown near Makeni) but has been living in Freetown, selling eggs six days a week. Some of the eggs are locally produced, but most are imported from Guinea or Holland. Each day Ahmed picks up his crate of eggs from his uncle, who owns Ahmed's egg stand, and carries them balanced on his head to the market. He stays from 8 am until dark, at which point the market becomes a deserted maze of empty wooden stalls.
Unfortunately, business wasn't going too well today - Ahmed blamed it on his customers saving their money due to the upcoming elections - and no one bought any eggs from us. The going price is 5 block (Le 500) for one egg, or Le 6000 for a dozen. Ahmed is just one of many egg sellers - there are several wooden stalls which are each shared by four or five different traders.
After the murky darkness descended on the market, Ahmed took us by his room, which is just down the road from the market. He lives with several other friends & family from Mile 9; as they are Timni, it was bit difficult to understand the converstation at his house. The dominant Krio lanuaage is a derivative of English, so even if I can't speak it very well, I can usually get the gist of what people are saying - but Timni was utter gibberish to me. Ahmed's view was pretty fantastic:
We then met up with Saidu, a friend of Ahmed, and went back to Kiemann's for dinner.
Adam, an American grad student who is staying at the YMCA while interning at Timap for Justice, befriended Ahmed, a young egg seller at the PZ market. Ahmed is orginally from Mile 91 (a town 91 miles from Freetown near Makeni) but has been living in Freetown, selling eggs six days a week. Some of the eggs are locally produced, but most are imported from Guinea or Holland. Each day Ahmed picks up his crate of eggs from his uncle, who owns Ahmed's egg stand, and carries them balanced on his head to the market. He stays from 8 am until dark, at which point the market becomes a deserted maze of empty wooden stalls.
Unfortunately, business wasn't going too well today - Ahmed blamed it on his customers saving their money due to the upcoming elections - and no one bought any eggs from us. The going price is 5 block (Le 500) for one egg, or Le 6000 for a dozen. Ahmed is just one of many egg sellers - there are several wooden stalls which are each shared by four or five different traders.
Adam and Ahmed selling eggs
After the murky darkness descended on the market, Ahmed took us by his room, which is just down the road from the market. He lives with several other friends & family from Mile 9; as they are Timni, it was bit difficult to understand the converstation at his house. The dominant Krio lanuaage is a derivative of English, so even if I can't speak it very well, I can usually get the gist of what people are saying - but Timni was utter gibberish to me. Ahmed's view was pretty fantastic:
We then met up with Saidu, a friend of Ahmed, and went back to Kiemann's for dinner.
posted by Paul at
12:31 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home