It’s been over three months at site and I haven’t written
about the market yet. I go there every
day! So, today, let’s take a trip
through the market of Murrupula.
Every day I walk through the market to get fresh bread and
produce. Though the selection may be
very limited at times, and some days have more options than others, we are
approaching the beginnings of the more fertile crop season and the end of the
“Tempo do Fome” (Time of Hunger), so veggies are getting bigger, and new
seasonal fruits are appearing.
The market is about a five minute walk from my house, in the
center of the Vila. Because I have too
much free time, I made a sketch of my town to try to help explain it.
So here is a quick way to orient the market in relation to
my house (the black dot). I can either
go to the market taking the path to the left or cutting through the soccer
field. The stores lining the market road
sell household products (soap, dishes, pots/pans, etc.), some food/snacks (like
soda, milk, yogurt, fish, crackers/cookies, pasta), clothes and shoes
(everything is secondhand, even the shoes.
I was trying to explain to someone that a pair of Steve Madden heels
were about $60 in America, yet only about $2 here), and other random things you
might need like school supplies, tools, nails/screws, locks, capulanas, buckets,
mattresses, fans, I even bought a shelf here.
I’m lucky as I can buy most things I would need for day to day life here
at site, or if I can’t find it here, Nampula is only an hour or two away. And if it’s not there, you can get a creative
with what you have or learn to live without it.
Walking in to the Market area, you pass usually about 3-4
people selling bolo (which means cake, but it’s basically like fried dough like
a doughnut with no frosting or sprinkles and not very sweet). Then there are about 5-6 people selling fresh
bread from big round baskets about 5 feet in diameter. Bread is 2mts for a roll about the size of
your hand. Then there are people selling
tomatoes, okra, lemons, “lettuce”, coconuts, onions, rice, potatoes, peppers,
the occasional guy selling some goat meat from a basin (Mom, think of all the
fun bacteria in there!), bananas, oranges, beans, the standard items in the
market day to day. Sometimes you might
go there and be surprised to see only one or two green peppers and no bananas,
and other times every person is selling peppers it seems! Oranges just recently appeared and I was
surprised to discover that their oranges in fact have green peels, but they are
definitely oranges and not limes.
So, I bet you’re trying to form an image of what this whole
Murrupula market experience is really like…The best way I can explain it is
like a farmer’s market where each person has their own little area where they
sell their crops, some people only selling tomatoes or bananas in a three foot
space on the concrete counter or ground, others have bigger areas occupying a
whole tarp where they display their piles of onions and tomatoes, peppers,
sacks of rice and beans. Chris, you
would go crazy here! Everyone sells
everything for the same price, there is no concept of lowering to attract
customers, no business strategy, everyone sells the exactly same things exactly
the same way (change is not widely accepted here.)
Typically, the produce is grouped into piles of 4-5 items of
equal size and the prices vary accordingly, of course bigger is more
expensive. Onions I typically buy by the
kilo as they don’t really go bad for a while, same with beans and rice. My every day purchases typically include 1
green pepper, 3-4 bananas, 4-5 tomatoes (think a little bigger than cherry
tomato size rather than huge “normal” tomato size), and 2 loaves of bread (I
have to limit myself or else I would eat way too much bread. Love getting it when it’s still warm and
soft!).
You pick your vendor, choose your pile of food, and hand
over the money. Some days I can pass
through unharrassed, a quick in and out saying a few “Bom dias” and
“Ehalis”. Other days, I swear, it’s as
if they forgot a white girl lives here and comes every single day and people
get very excited and rowdy.
A brief breakdown of the prices of things. Prices are written in metacais which equal
about 27mts to $1. While the conversions
make things seem extremely cheap in the American mindset, keep in mind, my
earnings fall in the range of a standard Mozambican teacher and permit me to
live in conditions similar to that of others in my community. No American salary here!
1 kilo Beans: 40mts
1 kilo Onions: 50mts
1 kilo Rice: 35mts
Bread: 2mts
Green Pepper: ~5mts
Tomatoes: 1-5mts (for 4, depending on their size)
Bananas: 5mts (for 4)
Cucumber: 5-7mts
Garlic: 10mts
Egg: 6-7mts
Limes/lemons (both called limao): 1 or 2mts
Pineapple: 7-15 depending on the size (pineapple season came
and went L,
now I have only seen pineapple in Nampula for 75mts)
Mango: 1mt (season also over)
1.5 L Bottle of Water – 35mts
19 oz. Beer – 40mts
Soda – bottle: 15, can: 25
1L Oil – 80 (definitely not EVOO, that stuff is way more
expensive, like upwards of 300 or 400mts)
Roll of Toilet Paper – 12.5-15 mts
Chicken (alive to kill then eat) – 130mts (frozen chicken) –
150mts
Those are pretty much the day to day things, but let me know
if you have any more questions of prices of other items or questions about life
in general.