As I stroll down the main road from the dental clinic to the port, I pass by innumerable roadside food stands, and 'shops' (a blanket of the sidewalk with a collection of purses or other good being sold).
If I was having a lazy day I could take advantage of the ever-changing 'walking-walmart' that drifts up and down the street. Bright colourful plastic buckets adorn the heads of men, woman and children. Anything can be found. I think I need some clothes - wait, hear comes the fabric lady with a stack of fabric tied in a cube, floating through the air. Maybe I should buy my dad a hat - well hear comes the habberdasher with a stack of 10+ bowler hats balanced atop eachother, nearly defying gravity. A fan of dress shirts still on the hangers form a veil as they spill off a woman's head and down her back.
I'm hungry. Well, that can soon be solved as there is water, buns and fruit all walking towards me. If the vendor is short enough, the food will pass by at eye-level, tempting my gurgling stomach.
The pharmacy bucket has been enlarged with a cardboard cone, so that the boxes of toothpaste, soap, hairdye, and pills all stack up unside this upside-down decapitated cone, adding another two feet to the merchant's height!
In the last few days I've been bitten by mosquitoes several times, which is curious because I hadn't been bitten once in the two weeks leading up to the weekend. Now I wish I had bought some 'Afterbite' from my Victorian Walmart branch before I left. Oh well, I'm sure if I searched hard enough I could find it in a walking Conakry pharmacy bucket!
This is fun. I was always so impressed in India by what people could carry on their heads (or on bikes.)
ReplyDeleteIf you are wandering down the street, do the native people pay much attention to you, or are they used to white visitors? Do they hound you to buy their wares?
ReplyDeleteYes and no.
ReplyDelete