July 7, 2012, a day in our lives.

Saturday Shopping at the Central Marche

http://goo.gl/maps/Tkbo  This is a link to Google Maps showing the central markets location in N'Djamena, Chad.

A lot of the fruit and veggie sellers are right outside the main market. It is incredible how sooo many people get squished into such a small space.

Yes, the carrot sellers are all grouped together, as are the tomato sellers, lettuce sellers, etc.

The gold and cloth sellers. Gold jewelry is in the box's, spices that they burn during the rainy season are in a jars. Its what they burn in their homes to help with the special Oder's rainy season brings.

This is a zoom of the above photo. Notice the black on the bottom of the woman's foot. Its a henna die used to decorate and indicate she is a married woman. They also make very nice tattoos on their ankles, hands, arms and faces with it.

Can you guess? Its onions. We buy them by the pile. After the price negotiations are finished, you paid and you start to pick up your purchase, the seller normally throws in a couple of more for a gift, building good customer relations.

You can't really see the other tailors, but like the veggie sellers, the tailors all sit together as well. They might specialize in different types of work, this one makes dress'.

We just finished mango season. We saw lots of hand carts like these filled to overflowing with mango's for sale. They are very sweet, a good quick snack.

The central market is right next to the central mosque. Those are the mosque towers you see in the background. In the pre electric days or in the villages without electricity the Imam climbs the tower and chants out the call to prayer five times a day. I just learned that all mosques are suppose to do the call to prayer at the same time that Mecca does. All the cell phones sold here have the Mecca prayer times included as an alarm choice. If there is electricity they use speakers in the towers.

This is one of the round abouts used here and in many countries around the world. Its a large traffic circle, used in place of stop lights. Normally there will be four or more roads that intersect at a round about. Its a great way to let the drivers self control traffic flow. Here in Chad, on coming traffic from the right has the right of way.

This is one of the three grocery stores we normally use. They carry a lot of products westerners might use. Boxed cold cereal, canned veggies, some frozen foods, etc.

Fishermen on our local river, the Chari.

The fish market where our fishermen might take the days catch. The gal in the for ground is carrying a snack food for sale. Its sesame seed balls. A crunchy slightly sweet treat.  I am not sure what is in the bag she looks like she is drinking from with a straw.

We had a good day at the market. Hope you enjoyed our tour. We did more sight seeing this time than buying, we all enjoy people watching and new scenery.