Monday September 26th
Today we went as a group to the marché (market) as a
learning exorcise and to get our feet wet so to speak. Our language professors
came with us as a safety net, because the marché is intimidating at first. The
marché is an outdoor market comprised of many open stalls in a maze without
rhyme or reason. Women are mostly the sellers in the marché. The men who are
venders are selling electronics, hardware, or sunglasses. Women
sell everything else.
We split up into small groups with our trainers to buy some
things. A few of us wanted to get pagnes (cloth) so we stopped at a small stall
where the woman sold a wide variety. They were arranged by quality and color. The
bottom row is the cheaper pagne and the top row is the most expensive. I’m
looking forward to having some traditional clothes made so buying pagne is the
first step.
The woman first wanted $8,000 CFA per pagne and we knew this
was way expensive (about $14 US dollars). This is what is known as the yovo
(white person) price. Luckily we knew better. Three of us (Bryanna, Justin, and
I) negotiated with her back and forth until the price was $3500 for two pagnes
(which is an excellent price). I love the patterns of the cloth here; bold
patterns and colors.
After that Bryanna and I went with my language teacher,
Christian to buy buckets. Buckets are extrememely useful in Togo. There are few
showers so you take bucket baths (Sort of like a sponge bath). You also use
buckets to wash clothes (I already had one so now I have two). I paid $650 CFA
(about $1.30).
When I was at the marché I made an interesting observation.
When the Togolese are talking to each other they do not look directly in each
other’s eyes. After returning from the marché I asked the language trainers
about this. They said in Togolese culture it is rude to look someone directly
when speaking to them. This is something that we should keep that in mind when
we get to our posts or are at the marché.
It was a great day! marché
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