The market and steak

After Arvind (finally) completed some work he needed to get out, we decided to take a trip to the Wuse Market.

Traffic to the market was crazy busy. I thought we were going to die of asphixiation before we made it in!

This market is quite large and stuffed with vendors hawking their wares. As we arrived rather late in the day (Arvind's fault), we had little time to actually shop, so we took the time to simply browse and explore the market.

Our driver, Ishaku, graciously volunteered to walk us around the market and show us the various areas. Meanwhile, a kid Muhamed attempted to intervene and was roundly told off by our driver. For some reason, I think Arvind and I stood out a bit and made for an easy mark!

Into the market...

There was an amazing array of goods and wares. Lots of cloth, clothing, and tailors throughout the market. Shoes, bags, belts, watches, jewlery, electronics, cleaning products, rugs, much of everything -- row after row, shop after shop.

The environment was somewhat reminiscent of my memories of our county fair. Lots of people yelling at you to come in to the shops, people stopping by to hawk their goods, carneys calling out, people moving about. A very full sensory situation.

We looked at several outfits (I can never remember all of the Nigerian terms for the clothes) as well as some raw material. At this point, we were rushed so I declined to purchase until I had more time and not be rushed by any external factors.

Ishaku then showed us to the food section of the market. Fruits and vegatables of all sorts and colors and sizes. The meat section was especially interesting -- from stacks of fish to odd looking things that I'd rather not know. Butchers were cutting up sections of meat in one area, lots of knives hacking away and flies buzzing. Probably could have gotten that goat head here!

When we took our cameras out to get a photo with Ishaku, the crowd started milling about. Ishaku was especially interested in seeing his picture! Some of the crowd would step out of the way of the photo, but would immediately surround us again. Very interesting.

Arvind was able to get him a pair of what I would call flip-flops and what others seem to call slippers for N300 (down from the proferred N600). We examined some more material and then the shops were all closing down...

That evening we spent a few hours working by the pool before hunger overcame us. Off to the Ibuku Steakhouse for a nice dinner. I hadn't eaten yet, so food was tasting very good. New England clam chowder, a steak, and some mushrooms -- after that, I was pretty much ready for a night's sleep!