Every monday our staff does the weekly grocery shopping. This includes a trip to Maramba market, a local "you can find everything here" market here in Livingstone. Picture crowds milling around, the smell of dried fish wfting through the air, stands filled with vegetables, food, clothes, etc. Flies hover over the dried fish and seem to follow you when you walk by. The local drunks propose marriage every 15 minutes and every taxi cab driver asks if you want a life to town (despite seeing you climb out of your vehicle). Ah, the joys of maramba market, where every day is a battle to get the local prices (they like to charge us muzungus a bit more sometimes). I know this market well, since I've been shopping here for the last 3 or 4 years. I've probably had more marriage proposals then any woman should. ;-)
Today was successful though. I fought maramba and I won! We went earlier then usual and found the market not as crowded and too early for the drunks to be out. One woman tried to charge me more for tomatoes then usual but I skillfully, and politely, talked her down. We found everything we needed and even had time to run to a few different stores before heading back to the base. I'm finally getting good at this africa thing!
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