Market Day

This past week was our site visits so while all the trainees traveled to various regions to visit their site, I stayed in Butajira where I will be for the next 2 years. Since I am already familiar with the town, it was a pretty relaxing week for me. I was able to get some much needed rest. Also, it was nice not having all the trainees here so that I could start getting used to being here by myself. Each day I walked around Butajira and discovered areas I hadn’t yet visited and did all the necessary tasks for site visit. I met the directors of the three primary schools and some of the English teachers that I will be working closely with. I visited the administration office as well as where I met the head of the education office, the head of the financial department and the mayor. I also went ahead and set up a bank account and a post office box (so now I can get my monthly allowance from the Peace Corps and receive letters and packages!!). All this of course was with the help of my community liaison, a member of the community who Peace Corps asked to help show me around town and meet the right people.

By Friday morning I had finished all the tasks Peace Corps had assigned for me to do throughout the week. When I got back to the house my host mother was getting ready to go to the gabaya (the market) and asked if I wanted to come along. I was hesitant at first and here is why. These markets can have several hundred people in them at once, so PC has warned us about going to markets on such days just because it can feel a bit overwhelming and hectic to foreigners in the beginning. Furthermore, my first experience in an Ethiopian market had been a bit traumatizing. On our first weekend in Ethiopia, G9 traveled to the sites of current PCVs on what PC called demystification trips. The goal of this four day visit was to demystify any preconceived ideas we had about PC life. Our group got to our PCV’s site on a Friday and some of the girls wanted to visit the market. It had just rained so it was extremely muddy and we had to be careful wherever we stepped. There were also six of us so that brought a lot of attention. Everyone was watching us as we were trying to walk through the market and many kids were following us, pointing and laughing. I kept telling myself to look at the ground and watch where I was going. It didn’t take me long to fall right on my butt, in the mud, in front of a huge crowd of people. My pants were covered in mud. It was quite embarrassing. Safe to say after the four days I had been demystified.

Likewise, on this day that my host mother asked me to go to the market with her it was Friday. In Butajira, Friday is market day. I’m currently reading a book on Ethiopia and right after writing my first draft of this post I read a passage that was discussing this very topic. Donald Levine explains that, “… all parts of the country have developed local markets which as a rule meet once a week.” On market day people from nearby towns and villages come to sell and buy their produce and various other items. Levine goes on to say that, “Interconnections among many of the peoples of Ethiopia through the system of local and regional markets must have been established as far back as two thousand years ago.” Markets here in Ethiopian are an important aspect of Ethiopian culture and history.

Back to my market experience, after some thought I decided to accompany my host mother to the gabaya. I was nervous about going because there would be so many people and I would attract a lot of attention being a foreigner however, I’m going to be here for 2 years so I’m going to have to get used to all the staring and pointing that I get. And I’m going to have to buy vegetables when I live on my own because I need to eat. So it was smarter for me to accompany my host mother and learn about the gabaya and how it works then to try it out on my own once training is over.

Even though the gabaya is in Butajira it was a long walk so we took a gari. A gari is a horse drawn carriage! Don’t imagine anything fancy (I’ll try to get a picture of one and post it to a future post). It’s one possible mode of transportation here in Butajira. This was my first experience on a gari and I enjoyed it. It’s a nice change from all the walking I have to do. We took a gari to the gabaya. The gabaya is located in an open field closer to Kebele 5 (My host family lives in Kebele 1). People set up in the morning. There were hundreds of people there. Donkeys are also found everywhere in the gabaya sitting on the ground. They carry the items to and from the gabaya in huge sacks on their back. Sellers will lay out a tarp on the dirt/mud ground and lay out their items. You can find sellers sitting on their tarps next to their products. Some of the produce you can find here includes beats, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, lettuce, and carrots. All of these are used in different delicious Ethiopian dishes (I will dedicate an entire post on the amazing food I’ve had here in the future. The food alone deserves its own post!). Different spices are sold as well as coffee beans. You can also find clothes, shoes, some cooking items, and hand woven baskets. On another side of the market are the chickens which you can buy and take home with you live. Their feet are tied together and people carry them by the legs, upside down until they get home, where they become doro wot (Ethiopian chicken meal…delicious!). To a foreigner it all seems pretty unorganized however my host mother knew exactly where she was going and had no trouble getting her produce so there is a structure to the market that I haven’t gotten yet, but hopefully as I get more experience I’ll understand the ins and outs of the Friday gabaya.  

In the end I’m glad I accompanied my host mother to the gabaya. I got much less attention as a foreigner being with her then when there’s an entire group of us walking around. I got to see how one goes about buying the products and when and how you have to bargain for a good price. I’m not sure if I’m quite ready to go to the gabaya by myself, but I definitely feel a lot more confident about it then I did after my demystification trip.