Monday, 13 October 2025

Dar-es-Salam market

 Dar es-Salam is a big city, there is more than one market there. There is, for example, a big fish market by the sea. On markets farther from the sea one can buy things other than fish. For example rice or beans or chickens.

The chickens are sold alive but have the tip of their beaks chopped off and are kept in cages. Some cages are actually self-made from twigs, others are with wire mesh, stack one on the top of the other. Judging after the smell, the chickens don't sell very quickly. They do have enough time to poo.










Sunday, 24 August 2025

Masai cattle market

 There is a place just outside Arusha in Tanzania where the Masai buy and sell livestock.

You can see modernity entering the Masai world there. One can see some people wearing shoes and others wearing sandals made of motorcycle tyres.










Friday, 18 July 2025

Tefé marcado

 Tefé is a small town on the shores of the Amazon river, upstream from Manaus but still in Brazil. Nobody comes here in a traditional dress but many people (most, I'd say) do look like Indians.

One can buy here farinha, or granulated manioc, which Indians have produced since times immemorial. Perhaps not always it was sold in plastic bags, but it has always been added to any meal, like rice in India or China.

Of course one can buy here fish straight from the river. Some can even be consumed on the spot.










Monday, 16 June 2025

San Francisco del Alto

In the mountains of Guatemala there is a town called San Francisco, although not to confuse it with its better known namesake it has an addition del Alto. There on a market one can buy oneself a pig.

One can also buy there an elaborately woven huipil. A huipil of Guatemalan ladies is shorter than in Mexico. The Maya ladies wear it with a corte, wich is worn like a skirt.










Thursday, 15 May 2025

Oaxaca

 The market in Oaxaca is dominated by ladies fashion. This fashion is clearly different than on the other side of the Atlantic. It seems that in most cases the garment sold (or at least exhibited) is huipil, an Indian tunic, made with two rectangular pieces of fabric, woven in colourful patterns. Some seller ladies wear a huipil, others are engaged in producing a next one (it seems a perfect occupation while waiting for customers).










Tuesday, 8 April 2025

Market in Luganville

 It looks like for a market to exist one needs a town, some of whose inhabitants do not produce food and have to buy it. In some parts of the world an idea of a town like this is a new concept, brought by colonisation. In some countries, independent today, there are almost no towns. For example in Vanuatu there are just two towns: the capital Port Vila and Luganville on the biggest island. There are markets there.

There are vegetables to buy there but they are very different vegetables than in Europe. For example taro roots. Some bulbs are sold in baskets made of still green palm leaves.

Apparently there is a custom there to sit under a sand. The seller has to be visible but the rest of the family does not, so they sit under the stand.











Friday, 28 March 2025

Christmas Fair in Cracow

 In Cracow before Christmas there is a fair, which is called “kiermasz adwentowy”, in the old market square. It officially means “Advent fair”, but you can buy on it things for Christmas, like cribs (szopki) or ginger bread with “Wesołych Świąt” (Merry Christmas) written on it.