To the market!

Once in a while we have to go and buy food (the Italian stocks unfortunately do not last forever) somewhere: the market.
The market is one of those typical African places you must have seen in pictures on the Internet; it's not far from the truth, not at all.  There's usually a main road and then you can just get lost in one of those small alleys which depart from the main one.
It's the pure definition chaos: weird smells, dust, people screaming, animals walking around..you have to be in good shape to go there, that's for sure.
Like yesterday, we had to go and buy vegetables but we encountered a few problems: first of all they had no bags so we had to carry 3 giant zucchini and some eggplants in our hands and then OF COURSE they did not have change. I mean just picture the scene: it's hot, it's messy, it's smelly and you have to carry around heavy groceries trying to avoid people who are carrying stuff as well (and by stuff I mean ANYTHING: animals, long pieces of wood, food,... anything).

So it's a challenge.

The payment of items is a lot of fun too: everything works with the bargain system. They obviously will not issue any receipt or some form of proof so in case you want to purchase something just name a price and see what happens next.
I found a nice skirt yesterday and i really wanted to buy it. The seller's initial price was 45 South Sudanese pounds (I mean it's not much for us but still for South Sudan standards it's quite a lot). So the bargain ritual started: "nope, i'll give you 25 SSP". The reply was "No no, let's make it 50 (yes I know it's more than the initial price but they don't really know what bargain means )' So I ended up not buying the skirt cause the price was still too much and I did not know where to put it anyways cause my hands were full!

I guess i like it better when prices are fixed and I don't have to scream and sweat over a pair of shirts and some zucchinis.

TIA people! (This Is Africa)