Dreaming of Walmart

I called my Dad the other day and he said that he was in Wal-Mart. I remember Wal-Mart – clean products, shopping carts, nice parking, bright lighting, prices that don’t vary with the color of your skin, not many flies, and clean aisles that are RARELY running with raw sewage. It is a little different than my final shopping trip in CKY a few weeks ago…

Dawn C. and I had just flown in from dropping the kids off in Dakar the night before and we wanted to start the journey home that afternoon. We both had a few things we still needed to pick up – and knew that if we could leave town by 1 pm, we could easily make it to our stopping spot for the night.

We awoke to drizzling rain. By the time we were ready to head to the market, it was a DOWNPOUR – not the best shopping day by anyone’s standards, but what could we do. We really wanted to get home so we decided to go for it. By the time we reached the market, the rain had mostly stopped, but the streets were running with water. The market is right next to a large Catholic church, which was celebrating the ascension of Mary.

The place was packed, forcing us to park VERY long way away. Dawn and I picked our way into the market, splitting up to cover more ground. I needed to pick up a big box of medicine that a friend had purchased for me. I settled the bill with her and left the large box there, heading deeper into the market. There is a small channel in the only market aisle that was flowing with raw sewage and it was packed with people.

I could barely move – being shoved back and forth as I tried to make my way to the little hole of a shop I was looking for. As I shoved my way through the crowd, I had 2 goals – to hang on to my purse so I didn’t get ripped off, and to try not to step directly into the nasty water that was lapping at my sandals. I made it to my friends little shop and stood partway in the aisle as I bought large cans of green beans (the other stores were out) and other things I had missed on my list.

Flies were swarming me – delighted with the raw sewage and the chickens. I don’t mean live chickens – those were a few aisles back. These were the already butchered ones that sat in open boxes for people to buy. I did not know, nor did I want to try to imagine, how long they had been sitting there. I tried not to talk any more than necessary for fear of inhaling a fly (it has happened to me before.) I got part of what I needed, but still needed to stop for veggies and flour and sugar.

I stopped to purchase some veggies (right before the live chicken guy) and then met with a dilemma – there was way too much stuff for me to carry. I struggled to the shop of my friend who had my medicine and she offered for her son to help me. We started off down the road, picking our way around the debris.

I thought – I am never again going to be fussy about a parking spot at Wal-Mart, not matter how far away it seems. We finally made it to the truck and unloaded the stuff. It is really hard to walk with that much stuff in your hands – because I am constantly distracted by the wares people are selling by the side of the road.

I still needed to get flour and sugar so asked Mr. Bah, our Conakry assistant, where I should look and he sent me off the some other part of the bowels of the market. The aisle here was almost worst – there were parts that I could not avoid stepping in the water. It was all I could do to keep going as I imagined the parasites that were making their way in through the pores of my feet. Can someone hand me some bleach water PLEASE?????

I had to ask around but finally found a lady who sold flour. She had to keep batting away the flies as we measured out 10 kilos. I paid her and trotted off with my load to put into the car.

I had to make one more trip back so buy some tiny little potatoes that I just could not resist. I had to try them. I grabbed a few more things and took off to meet Mr. Bah and Dawn down the road. We stopped again for some veggies and took off for the guesthouse. We were still missing some fruits and veggies, but had not found what we needed.

We took off for home. About 2 hours into the journey, we pulled off to a small roadside market that sold fruit and veggies. This was better than the first market in terms of raw sewage – there was none. However, it was filled with women DESPERATE to sell stuff. The second your vehicle pulls off the road, they converge on the vehicle, SHOVING baskets of pineapple, cucumbers, oranges, lemons, tomatoes, eggplant, and various other things in your face.

I could barely open the door to get out. I bought a ton of stuff – though it was a fight to have myself heard over the din of voices. They are always amazed to find a white woman who can communicate in Yalunka so they like to discuss me while I shop. And they are always hopeful. Even if they see I have purchased a BIG basket of pineapple, they continue to shove more in my face, continually reducing the price until I am disgusted that I paid the price that I did in the first place.

Dawn C. was smart enough not to get out of the vehicle to begin with. I barely made it back in and we took off again.

Certainly shopping in Guinea is not for the faint of heart. But what fun is Wal-Mart anyway. No challenge involved – fairly low risk of catching some tropical parasite – always a good chance that what you are looking for will be there – no cashiers shouting at you or shoving products in your face. Very boring, and not much of a sport to the whole thing.

Give me Africa any day……..