Successful trip to market
on Geri Skeen (Rwanda), 19/Feb/2011 10:11, 34 days ago
Made my first solo trip to buy food at the market today. Till now, I’ve shopped at the tiny shops between my home and workplace, but the market is cheaper and it’s where most people shop. I was armed with various phrases my Kinyarwanda teacher gave me e.g.‘I want two hundred francs worth of beans’, ‘I want one pepper for fifty’, and the seemingly obscure ‘I want unpeeled garlic’ – that’s because they usually sell individual peeled cloves. I was prepared to have to haggle hard not to be taken for a ride. In the event, the opposite happened. The first stall I went to and asked for 100 (10 pence) of beans, I was expecting one handful as my teacher had said but in fact was given two. I bought some tomatoes from these two ladies too for what I know is the right price, 100 for five little tomatoes, and they were happy to give me a small pepper for 50, as I asked. Then they actually gave me a big onion‘for my health’ and suggested I shop there again, which I will. This was all done in a mixture of sign language, Kinyarwanda and French. I went looking for ginger and a teenage boy asked for 500 for a large piece. I suggested 100 for half the piece. He gave me a very small piece for 100. I didn’t know the price so didn’t feel I could press him too hard; I paid and put the ginger in my bag. However, the woman whose stall it was asked to see what he’d given me for 100 and then swapped it for a much larger piece, actually what I’d originally thought I’d try to get for 100. I finished my trip by buying a pineapple (30p), two avocados (10p for two) and two little limes (5p for two)– or maybe they’re lemons, but either way I’m sure a slice will go well in my banana gin and tonic this evening.