18 June 2007, by Sarah Harting in Bujumbura, Burundi-In the meanwhile I said goodbye to “mama” who was leaving for Europe for a month. The morning before she left we went to the market with Alice, my “cousin”. Alice took my mobile phone because she was afraid it would be stolen. The market is really crowded so I had to stay close to mama who would walk before me, and Alice behind me. Whenever mama wanted to buy something like clothes she send Alice to ask the price, because she looks like a schoolgirl and would get a lower price than mama.
“If they saw me the price would be even higher”, mama told me.

When we bought food some small boys came to us selling plastic bags. The lucky one followed us the rest of the time, carrying everything we bought. At the market a mixture of Kiswahili, Kirundi and French is spoken. Most sellers speak Kiswahili with each other, and many Burundians in Bujumbura have at least some basics of Kiswahili to be able to communicate with the people at the market.

At every corner you can find handicapped people installed somewhere so that you can’t miss them. Most sellers on the market are Burundians whereas in the shops you can also find many Arabs and Indians. A lot of clothes sold at the market are secondhand.

I met a friend’s sister at the market and she warned me that I might find my thrown-away underwear being sold here in Bujumbura. After shopping we went to a small shop to have a photo scanned, edited, enlarged and printed, so that mama could bring it to Europe. Then we rushed home to have lunch and drove to the airport.\n\n