It sure is hard to keep up with this thing once you have the child and we are doing so many interesting things. Going to the Merkato is definitely one of them. The Merkato is the largest outdoor market in Africa. I don’t know how many city blocks it is, but I hope the pictures give you some sort of idea.
The volume of people and goods was awe inspiring. Block upon block, product upon product. It is not one giant market. It is part of the city with streets that are broken up by product type. There are areas for mattresses, tires, rugs, textiles, plastic goods and food vendors. The textile area went on forever and it bled into the tailoring area. Julia remarked you could pick out your fabric and go home with a suit in a few hours.Plastic goods abound here. We saw so many people traveling for water with two five gallon plastic jugs. Buckets are also very popular. I can’t explain to you the enormity of the place. I wish I had brought the video, but hopefully the stills will give you a grasp. We drove for at least 30-45 minutes and Massi said we hadn’t seen a quarter of the place.
We also drove through the chat section of the Merkato. Chat, for those of you that don’t know, is a leaf that people ingest as a stimulant. I’ve heard before and Massi reiterated that it can make people act a little crazy. It is easy to find a chat shack in the Merkato,
just look for a green building. We (our group) even stopped and bought a 2 Birr bundle, day’s supply, just to see what it looked like. People chew it in the afternoon. It is a little like coca leaves in Peru and Bolivia, I would assume. The way these people work, so hard for nothing, I can see why they may desire a bit of an afternoon bounce.I am really bummed that it isn’t safe enough to walk around in. It used to be the sort of place where you could walk around, but now westerners are restricted to cars and vans. Not because you are going to get stabbed or anything,
just theft and con schemes abound.
Most travel guides tell people to avoid walking through it.Massi stated that everyone comes to the Merkato. We saw donkey carts besides nice cars. Of course the goats were everywhere. Julia mentioned, and we didn’t get to go past it, that there is a recycling section where people take old things as make new products out of them. For example, hats out of soda cans, and a myriad of other things. Nothing goes to waste in this country. You actually don’t see the amounts of trash that you could, as every little scrap of something is used and used again. I would have liked to see what happens to a kaput dryer, as I had two of them last year. I’m a little bummed
we couldn’t see it.
And if you need a part from a 1972 Toyota or Peugeot, you may want to check the Merkato.
No comments:
Post a Comment