"gato beyi gato beyi... ji sumaya sumaya... bi-naani bi-naani... toubabu toubabu... joli joli?..." among many other sounds, smells, and a rainbow of colors mixed by what vendors are selling or what people are wearing. Men mostly wear western styled clothes (pants and a shirt) while the women wear pagnes (long wrap skirt), a top with usually same material as the pagne if not a t-shirt, and a head wrap with the same material. I've gotten so accustomed to going through the busy market to get what I need and go, I forgot how fresh and exciting it was when I went the very first time at my homestay site.
It was myself, another volunteer, our language trainer, and a local woman from the village. It was by mere chance and luck that we got a ride to the market village down the main road towards Bamako, because another volunteer in my village had a severe migraine so we took Peace Corps transport along with him. We were dropped off about 25 minutes down the road, and walked from the main road to a side road that crossed a bridge. There was trash everywhere, crowds, and a prominent smell of fish. Below the bridge people were crossing through and fishing. We entered the market area, blocked by the sun by numerous tarps set up by vendor after vendor creating a huge blanket area of shade. Tomato seller, hot pepper, onions, peanut butter, tomato paste, salt, eggplant, etc. etc. intermittenly there will be an occassional shopkeeper working out of a small shed were you can buy a variety of things all in one location. This was my first experience in Mali were I grocery shopped, my tutor told me to buy mayonaisse and cooking oil. I was so nervous I mixed up my greetings and looked like a fool in my broken Bambara, but I was understood with the help of my tutor and we got what we needed and moved on to the next item on our grocery list.
We walked in circles. If there was tomatoes next on the list, there were tomatoes at so many different vendors I didn't understand why we were passing them all by, they looked good and ripe. But the local woman with us knew the market and knew the people with whom she bought the tomatoes, the fish, bananas, oil, plaintains, etc. from. I understand this now, because I walk the extra 5 minutes across my market to get to my garlic/onion man, who always sells me a kilo of onions for below market price and sometimes tosses in extra garlic. I have a trusted butcher; an old woman whom I like and only sells one thing I need which I can get anywhere in market, but I buy from her just so I can say hello and see her smile; the pharmeceutical man who likes me to sit and chat; the shea oil guys who are always ready to make a joke; the banana women who think I should by more bananas; the place with good rice and beans; and the occassional friend I run into wondering how my day is, is the market good, where have I been, did I have a good night sleep, how is your family, how is the market, may your prayers be answered, have a peaceful afternoon, see you later, greet them for me.
The hardest part in market that first day was understanding the money system. First they tell me the price in French, well great, but I'm American I don't know any French tell me in Bambara. When it comes to prices, shopping and selling, Malians love repetition. They say "duuru duuru", I think five five, okay... so does that mean 5 CFA, 10 CFA, 25 CFA, 5 tomatoes for 25 CFA, I'm still confused. Also the whole money system is a challenge, because it requires multiplying everything by five. When they say "tan tan" which translates "ten ten", you then have to times ten by five and the price is actually 50 CFA, but rather than saying 50 they say 10. 20 is 100 CFA (mugan), 30 is 150CFA (bi saaba), 40 is 200CFA (bi naani), and 100 is 500CFA (keme). Repeating the price is just how its done, to make sure you heard right the first time.
Once you reach 5000CFA it is now waa kelen (1000). So 7475CFA spoken in market is "waa kelen, keme naani, ni bi segin tan ani duuru", I get annoyed with extra duurus and bi duurus in market, because it makes it a hassle to get change, so when I buy high priced items I always try to keep it simple and rounded to the nearest 500CFA. Also you need to have a good amount of change with you when you want to go to market, because people are not going to be able to give you change for a 1000CFA bill if you want to buy 100CFA of tomatoes (which can usually get you 5 tomatoes). Just this evening I went to a boutique where there you would expect the owner to be able to give you change, but no I'll have to wait until tomorrow or the next time I need something from the boutique to get my change back. No worries, i'll come back.
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