Trip to the market..

It is Friday today..which means, it is the weekend!  I didn’t go to the workshop this morning.  Instead, I went to Moroccan market here in Nouakchott to buy vegetables and fruits for the week.  I went with Zeina, who knows the market very well.  We took a taxi there…and lived to tell the tale..I will leave my description of driving or riding here for another blog.  It really deserves it own page.  I can’t wait to film my commute to the museum every day.  Back to this morning…I always feel at ease in food markets.  I love going and seeing hundreds of piles of vegetables and thousands of bags with the tiniest amount of a spice or ingredient used in the daily preparations of a particular dish.  It is a common place for people to gather too. Although here, I don’t know if everyone shops or if they have their housekeepers shop. It is a quiet day for market on Fridays because people are relaxing on their day off.  Zeina showed me where the trucks come in to drop their goods.  She told me it was a short drive from Morocco to Nouakchott, Mauritania…only three days or so.  As we walked towards the main building, we passed the Malian market.  I knew it was Malian immediately because of the smells..the incense they make mixed in with tamarind and this kind of homemade soap in a ball.  There is a market in Dakar that sells the exact same items.  We walked into the inside market and it was really quite large.  Big..with lots of stands and produce everywhere.  The flies were fierce, although they were much worse outside at the fruit stands.  I am pretty sure some traveled home with us.  We walked around the market and Zeina asked for prices.  I liked listening for the change in language while she negotiated…first the local Arabic, then into Woloff and back to Arabic and a little French too.  I asked what certain words meant so I can add them to my collection of market vocabulary.  So funny I can tell you how to say tomato, peppers, parsley and carrots in Moroccan Arabic but I can’t say I am going to the market to buy vegetables. Here are some pictures of the market.  I will use these images in my paintings probably. I am always so taken with the colors, forms, the way peoples' bodies move to accomplish their tasks at hand...weighing, counting, bagging, bending, reaching, etc.

Zeina buying vegetables