Advertisement
Published: October 18th 2009
On Wednesday this week, Alex joined the Board of the American Embassy Association of Kigali, the group that currently runs the commissary. To buy American products, like spaghetti sauce or diet pop, the commissary is the only place to go, and its conveniently located inside the Embassy.
Saturday, Alex began a quest for fresh chicken. He met up with some friends and drove all over the city (rural areas) looking for the farmer with the big, American-style poultry. After 4x4ing down some one-way trails and passing by groups of mud huts, the farm appeared. After parking the car, he walked through a banana field to the "free-ranging" (hundreds of chickens in a 15 by 15 pen) farm. The chickens had been killed that morning and were defeathered and beheaded. At this point, Jennifer became tired of waiting for the landlady to show up and joined the chicken processing line.
First the chickens were rinsed and the remaining organs removed (and donated to the housekeeper). Second, Alex cleaved off the neck and wings. Jenn took poultry shears and cut out the backbone and through the breastbone to create thighs and breasts. At this point, the chickens were still warm from being recently alive. We ended up with six chickens for the freezer.
They do have one Western-style grocery store here, but the American products are very expensive ($20 for shampoo, $20 for Snickers ice cream bars, $10 for deodorant). Most of the stores are more specialized: the butcher shop, the dairy, the drugstore. You can buy produce from people walking around the streets with it on baskets on their heads.
Today we went to the downtown market which is like an insane farmers market. As soon as we neared the market, young men began running alongside the car asking us for jobs. We hired one of them to guard the car for 40 cents. There are three sections of the huge market: textiles, crafts, and produce. Surrounding the market, there were small shops where you could buy meat (think big carcasses hanging in front or picking out your live chicken), cell phone vendors, flour/sugar/rice, and plastic from Kenya. There were rows and rows of fruits like oranges, mangoes, pineapple, apples, and several types of bananas. Available veggies included tomatoes, leeks, onions, potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, squash, and parsley. We bought bananas ($1), onions (2 lbs for 80 cents), broccoli ($1), a handmade basket ($2), potatoes ($1), and some tie-dyed fabric ($1 per foot) so that Jenn can have some skirts made. All prices are negotiable, with many having steep Muzungu markups. In case you forget your bags or you are buying a large amount of stuff, there are boys asking if they can have a "market job" by carrying your bags for you or selling you a bag. We were asked about 50 times in the course of an hour if we would give market jobs. Next time, I think we will hire one so we do not keep getting asked. Jennifer was slightly overwhelmed by the chaos, and Alex thought it was awesome.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.091s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 6; qc: 51; dbt: 0.05s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
grandma
non-member comment
are you jotting down all experiences just so you don't forget when you write your book!! with your butchering experience you should come home for Thanksgiving and help James and Julie butcher their turkeys. the material Jenn, are you wearing skirts now or are these for partytime? I have so many questions...thanks for the updates I love them!