To Market, To Market

Akwaaba! One of my favourite things about Ghana is the ever-present market life. In Accra, there are markets dedicated to art, flower pots, obruni wawu (clothing of white people), food, beads, car parts, housewares, furniture and many other things. It's like living in one, big, open air market where life is one negotiation after another. Once we got to know the real prices of things, and the culture of bargaining (Ghanaians love and expect it...but it can be a little intimidating as they tend to be very passionate) it became even more fun to dive in and start haggling.

We have a tendency to steer clear of the larger markets that have absolutely everything in them as they are noisy, dirty, congested and chaotic, especially with four kids in tow. Carmilla went to Makola market, which covers a huge area in Accra, and she found it pretty overwhelming. At the time, we still had Douglas the driver, who would translate the comments and complaints of those nearby. Most memorably, it started to drizzle while Carmilla was moving through the market (Finn in his stroller) and the women were shouting insults at her for being a wicked woman who kept her children in the rain. It put her off Makola for a while. I have been to the Tetteh Quarshie art market several times and the concentration of clothing, fabric, carvings, jewelry and painting is rather remarkable and the sellers are not too invasive or aggressive.

Most of pictures in this entry were taken at the weekend Spintex market, which is predominantly made up of household goods, meat and produce, and second hand clothing. We are something of a novelty here as obruni are rare at this market, and many people did not want their pictures taken (I usually ask). People will pick the kids up or touch their hair, and everyone is generally very friendly. The market is filled with women and their children, and has a real sense of community and order to it, despite the overriding aura of chaos. If you can get over the surroundings, the market can be a very effective means for eating cheaply and locally. The quality is generally very good, especially since a lot of produce has a season that lasts for most or all of the year. Pineapple, for example, is always in season and it usually costs 1 cedi (about a dollar) for a couple of pineapples. Juice is cheap locally, and Fan ice cream and yoghurt are common, so we often make the best-tasting, least expensive smoothies we've ever had. Tomatoes are very common and are definitely a staple food in Ghana, with several producers of tomato-based goods right here in Ghana.

Obviously we wash everything thoroughly (there is little evidence of food handling or personal hygiene, but this is a developing nation and the average Ghanaian seems to have a higher tolerance for germs than we do) and we stay away from some items such as the open air, non-refrigerated meat that looks a bit suspect to our Western eyes. Now that we have employed a woman, Diana, to help around the house, we are pretty specific about what she should buy from the market and what we will buy from the grocery store. Of course when she buys things at the market for us, the prices are even lower and since hiring her, our grocery bill has dropped significantly. Combine this with the fact that we eat out less often because she can cook most of the Ghanaian dishes--red-red and fried plantain, palava sauce, tomato or egg or groundnut stew, chicken and jollof rice, etc.--that we would be likely to buy in a restaurant, and we are actually wealthier for having hired her. (As we spend so much time in traffic, the value of coming home to a clean house and a hot meal is also immeasurable!)

Not unlike Canada, each region of Ghana is known for different produce and goods so anytime we travel we will pass buy hundreds of almost-identical market stalls. If we pull over, we quickly get swarmed by people selling the same items, for the same price, but I'm sure that spending our money at these roadside stalls is better for the local producers and growers, and I know it's better for the environment. We are planning a couple of specific trips before the end of the year and intend to buy beads, baskets and pottery in the market of the regions that are known for them. To market, to market, to buy a...