In addition to sleeping late (until 9 am), one of my Sunday rituals is going shopping at the Nyamirambo market up the street from my house. Kigali has about four or five markets, which offer mainly the same things at mainly the same prices (although the prices universally inflate about 20-30% for white skin).
At the Nyamirambo market, there are about 50-100 vendors selling fruits, vegetables, meat, flour, eggs, home goods, cooking materials, clothing, shoes, sunglasses, fabric, charcoal, and more. Visiting the market is always a stimulating experience and it’s great to start off the week fully stocked up on fresh fruit and vegetables.
The market is organized in a sort of concentric squares structure, with vendors selling home goods, shoes, sunglasses, etc. lining the outer square.
Technicolor home goods
Passing into the wooden structure in the front of the market, you meet an elaborate series of vendors selling essentially the same vegetables. Sometimes I wonder why merchants don’t specialize and break up into unique clusters or cooperatives of potatoes, tomatoes, onions, etc. Following the laws of supply and competition, the prices are fairly uniform across all of the aisles. I suppose in the end it would be difficult to orchestrate and maintain a division of vegetable offerings.
Stands at the entrance to the vegetable labyrinth
Going to the market as a mzungu has not been as overwhelming as I was expecting. People occasionally call out and hawk at me but are generally calm and let me browse through the aisles at my own pace.
A merchant who sold me some garlic
There are in fact a few merchants who stick to one or two vegetables and sell in bulk, like the onions below.
Onions galore
Outside of the wooden structure there are stalls to buy raw meat like goat, beef, and chicken. This next picture may not be suitable for vegetarians…
Yes those are goat heads
Crossing into another wooden structure brings you to the fruit stands. Here is a kind woman who sells me my mango and passion fruit. The reddish-yellow oval fruit on the left is some sort of tree plum which is quite bitter on its own but delicious in juice form.
I just couldn’t not take a picture of this scene:
Walrus baby amidst plantain bushels
Heading toward the exit, you pass by several stands of used vintage shoes. These most likely come from foreign donations that end up sold to merchants or given as surpluses. Although it makes westerners feel good, sending old clothing and shoes to Africa is actually one of the worst things we can do for local economies.
Recognize any old shoes?
Sunday’s trip was quite fruitful and I left with a cornucopia of eggplants, onions, carrots, mangos, passion fruit, curry powder, and goat heads. I kid, no goat heads. (Haha, two puns in one paragraph.)
It’s unique to have such an array of fresh and succulent produce at my fingertips in addition to fully stocked grocery stores where I can buy western comfort food like cream cheese and Rice Krispies (albeit at a premium). On that note, the bagels from Friday’s culinary adventure were a great success! I ended up eating all three of my bagels within 15 hours (two for dinner and one for breakfast…don’t judge.) As I was heading to a meeting in a new part of town yesterday I passed by a megastore with a banner that read “MADE IN ITALY: IMPORTED CHEESE, WINE, MEATS, OIL, SAUCES, ICE CREAM, AND MORE.” I have a feeling that will be my next grocery adventure!
