Iringa Central Market

Russ and I have just hiked back up the hill to our house from our Saturday trip through the Iringa Central Market. It's really quite an extraordinary place. The Iringa Central Market is one of two historical markets of its kind left in Tanzania-Zanzibar (the other is in Stonetown, Zanzibar). The main structure dates from colonial days under Germany. Picture an openair pavillion about a football field in size--add in about a hundred different vegetable/produce merchants, each little stand loaded with produce in 5- to 6-foot piles, each with its proprietor sitting atop the pile. English is definitely NOT the main language, and many don't speak it at all, so Russ and I use lots of signs and pointing. We have our own favorite dealers...one for vegies, one for avacados, one for bananas, and one for pineapples. Of course every time we arrive we're swarmed by all the other merchants as well, but we remain fairly loyal. When we first met our vegie woman, she was "great with child." A few weeks ago she disappeared with a substiture taking her place. Last week she reappeared, so we're guessing she was on maternity leave!

The Central Market is surrounded on all four sides by hundreds and hundreds of "dukas," tiny little open-front shops, each specializing in its own wares. There are dukas for stationary, baskets, kitchen utensils, fabrics, carvings, clothing, and other foodstuffs. Mixed in there are dukas for cell phones, cameras, and electronics. It's the African answer to the American mall. And it's truly a mixture of time periods. Take away the cell phone booths, and you'd swear you were standing in the middle of a prior century.

Bordering the Central Market area is the Iringa City Park. We love to walk through it...it's really lovely...but I mainly enjoy it because one corner of it is occupied by the Masai. The corner feeds into about two blocks of Masai-run dukas. You can get your hair braided there by the Masai men (their speciality) or buy traditional jewelry, carvings, and batiks. I haven't gotten my hair done--the report is that it's a bit painful--but I've certainly urged Russ to do his!