There are a
lot of markets around my village. But that still does not mean I can just cross
one dusty road and I will get everything I need. All the markets are more than
an hour drive away, that means roughly 8 to 10km. It takes so long because of
the slow Ghanaian traffic.
I like to
go on the market. I am walking around, admiring beautifully arranged and
colourful fruit and vegetable. I am surrounded by the red aromatic piles of
tomatoes, shining green peppers, orange carrots. I could write a whole book
about the juicy, sweet and sour tastes of the fruit they sell there and about
all the nice scents surrounding the baskets. But not all
the smells are nice for my nose. Dried fish or pork hooves dyed with red preservative
do definitely not smell nicely. Also open sewer and rotting waste do not smell
like perfume. When I get used to all the
different colours and smells it is time for me to start shopping. Usually I
have whit me a list of things I need to buy, which my cook Marry prepared it
for me in the morning. I buy everything on the list, but almost every time I am
drawn by some other things which I just cannot pass without buying them.
Shopping in
the market can be a lot of fun. The costermongers are trying to convince me
about the good quality of the fruits or vegetable they are selling, and I am
saying that it is not the best quality and show them if it started to rot or
that it is a bit wilted. It all leads to bargaining about the price. I must say I am quite proud of myself whenever
I succeed in saving a pesewa or two. Anyways I usually buy fruit and vegetables
from the same costermonger that I know for a long time now. In fact we have
become real friends. Every time we see each other we first hug each other and
talk about our families and all the current topics, and then we go to business.
If I start to complain about a certain price she usually gives me some extra
pieces of whatever I am buying. Still at the end she always gives me some watermelon,
few oranges or pineapple. One of the most interesting things you see on these
markets is that people do not use scales. Everything is measured in pieces or
bunches, so you can decide how much you would like to buy only by the look not
by Kilos or pounds. Normally I know in advance how much I need, so I order: for
10 cedes carrots, for two cedes hot pepper...
Buying meet
at the butchers’ place is also something special for me. He has wooden shack with windows
protected against flies with nets. When you come in you capture the smell of fresh
meat. On the desk he has half of cow with skin and bones all together. There
are two prices of meat, meat with bones and meat without bones. Because I have
the opportunity to choose which part I would like to buy, you can imagine that
those will be the best pieces of the meat which has the highest prices in our
country.
So this is
how my visits to the market looks like.
At the same moment when you
sense the night falling in to the day, night birds go silent and leave the
stage for the day time birds. Slowly my little feathered friends begin their
own concert. I think there must be a million different birds around our
village. Everyone is different color and size than the other and each has its
own distinctive sound. Especially in the morning the concert they make sounds
like a natures’ anthem. 
