Dressing Local
7th Feb
There is a costume party tonight, the theme is “Local Dress”. I wanted to dress up as donkey, we see alot of them - not very easy to find anything useful for this. David, Alistair and I explored Bahir Dar Market. First stop was getting Alistair's bag fixed by one of the many streetwise men with sewing machines...it took less than 2minutes and the guy didn't even charge him!
Almost makes up for the hole being therenin the first placed- two men in a tuktuk cut his bag open and nicked his phone :( Alistair and David were in search of football shirts which are very obviously cheap copies. We are about 15mins walk from the market, and walked straight into the clothing department of it too! David found a tshirt shop, it didn’t have the tshirt he wanted. The man in the stall, took him to ‘his stall’, just down the road. Still not the right shirt, so we went to the next one. Essentially the Ethiopian tshirt seller escorted us round t-shirt shops until David found the perfect Chelsea t-shirt. He put it on and wore it round the market.
It was an instant talking point. David become the favourite farenji -cat calls about Chelsea, conversations about Chelsea, photos with the farenji in the Chelsea shirt…the difference was amazing! I gave up on the donkey idea and decided I would just accessorise like a local. Just round the corner from the clothes department was a water container department! Exactly what I was looking for. I bought myself two empty yellow cooking oil 5l bottles - 40birr ($1.20)and some rope holding them together. These yellow bottles and jerry cans are what people carry water in. We usually pass them either carried by people, donkeys or on a cart. Next for a dress. I found one that had elephants on it, and seemed ‘african coloured’. The man took me through the back with his sister and showed me other dresses, cheaper dresses/more expensive dresses. I kept telling him, i didn’t mind too much which dress - I just minded about price. In the end he asked what I would pay for the one i picked. I said 400. I am not very good at the bargaining thing - like with my Luxor scarf. If they want to know what I will pay,I tell them. He wasn’t very impressed and said that’s not how it works here, I say 900, you say…. Essentially we went back and forwards with me saying,’But 400 is what I will pay.’ Eventually the answer was no, I walked away. He followed me out and said 550. Still no. I did really consider 500, but it’s just for fancy dress! We walked away, into the spices section. After about 5mins he appeared next to me and sold it for 450! I wasn’t expecting him to follow, bargaining seems to work better when you can walk away from the deal. The market was busy but not heaving. There was a materials and clothing region, a kitchen/pots and pans section, vegetable section and a spices section.
The tomatoes here look delicious. The onions are plentiful. They lay their produce on a mat on the floor, and have a set of scales in the middle. The stall owner then sits on the ground behind the stall. Most of the sellers are pretty dirty, and have dirty clothes. I would be interested to know how they stand in the social system.
I was wearing my loose Canterbury shorts and a sports top. I think I overestimated the Ethiopian liberality, I was maybe blinded by the comparison with Sudan. Peoples eyes were definitely on my leg - male and female! One lady was halfway through her chant about the cost of her produce when she saw me a let out a little yelp! I got quite a few ‘I like your style’ - while looking down at my legs, and a handful of ‘Sexy’ from the men. Well, it makes a change from when I am cycling. Twice since arriving in Ethiopia I have had men call after me ‘What is this? Is it male or female?’!. I like to think it’s because they are so impressed with my cycling that they think I am male, rather than a reflection on my appearance. Alistair even found a stick shop! The majority of the local men and boys here carry a stick about the same height as them. The stick is a versatile accessory. It can be used for herding livestock, resting on, looking important, hanging over your shoulders, and most importantly for wielding at, and hitting, passing cyclists. The stick stall was relatively busy. There were at least four men inspecting the sticks closely, weighing how they felt when being held, when rested on the ground. Looking at the type of wood. It looked like an important decision, which stick to buy. Alistair chose a shepherds crook type thing - 300birr, he then went for the garden cane looking stick - 50birr. Sold.
Walking down the road with his stick, feeling a bit smug at our costumes characterising the locals, Alistair was stopped by a lady. She was greatly amused by his t-shirt tan, but moreover needed to correct his stick carrying…it was upside down! Seems we have a bit more to learn before we can characterise the locals!
