Toward the end of our visit we had the chance to visit the Mercato. This is the largest open air market in Africa and sprawls over many miles. Narrow paths wind in and out of crooked little stalls and take you from blankets to baskets, from pottery to spices and shoes.
Anything that you want, you can find here and we had all been very excited about a chance to visit this famous shopping area in Addis.
Incidentally, we were informed that the Government is wanting to tear down the whole thing and make more formal shopping areas...which sounds sad to me...but then I do not live there and I know that it has a huge crime problem.
Selemnah took our backpack and carried it himself, turning it around and putting it on his chest, with all the pockets tied shut. He told us to empty our pockets and lock everything in the van and he also told me to ask him when it was OK to take pictures. Even though this sounds a bit scary, it really was a great experience and we loved wandering around looking at all the different sections of the market. We saw hundreds of baskets, mounds of rubber boots, spice stalls with piles of gorgeous coloured spices and blankets piled up in wobbly towers.
Of course, the people were friendly and called out to us the whole time to come and buy stuff, joking with Selemnah and grabbing Ayana and Moses to kiss them. This custom of holding out their arms for your children and kissing them was a little different at first, even sometimes a little daunting. At one stall, an old lady held out her arms to hug Moses. I looked over at Selemnah and he nodded and said it was OK. The woman held Moses, kissing him, cuddling and crooning to him and then she said something that made Selemnah shake his head and laugh, then he told her to give him back! Finally she handed him over to me.
Selemnah told me that she said she wanted to keep Moses and that he was beautiful.
At one point a man asked if he could have his picture taken with Joshua and he told Selemnah that he thought Joshua was so cute!
The sights and smells, the array of colour and the sounds of hundreds of people shouting out their bargains and yelling at each other was wonderful, we really enjoyed the whole time there.
In Addis however, as I have mentioned before, there is always something to remind you of the ever present poverty and this market day was no exception. We noticed after walking through the stalls for about ten minutes that we were being followed by a tiny, ragged girl selling gum.
As you walk around, you are often followed by children begging or selling something, but what made this little one stand out was that she never lost sight of us. If we lingered around a stall, we would turn around and she was there. If we went into one of the covered areas, we would emerge to catch a glimpse of her peeping out from behind a stack of blankets. If we were on one side of the road, she would inevitably be trailing along the opposite side of the road, keeping an eye on us. I noticed that sometimes she would suddenly turn and run as fast as she could and I would look around and sure enough, there would be a policeman waving his stick at her....but she would then appear a few minutes later. Over the morning, I saw several people reach out and cuff her on the head as she waited by their stalls and my heart went out to this little child. Finally, Selemnah called to her and she crept over to us and he told her that when we were finished, we would buy some of her gum.
Sure enough, as we walked back to the van, she ran alongside us down the street and we of course all made a big deal of choosing lots of gum. In fact, we bought all the gum that this little girl was carrying and watched her carefully tuck the pittance of money inside her shirt.
Here she is showing us the different flavours.
This was her daily job.
She had to "work" the dangerous market selling gum, getting cuffed by stall owners and threatened by police officers.
I asked Selemnah if she had parents and she told him she had a mommy and sisters that begged in the market.
I asked him to ask her how old she was....
...she was only four years old.
I almost couldn't take these pictures because I was trying not to cry.
Oh Ethiopia, so beautiful and so tragic.
