To Market, To Market

Last Friday I accompanied my house father (Suban) to market to purchase vegetables for the 5 childrens homes for the next month. Considering there are some 120 kids, plus ~20 cooks, tutors, and didis who are also eat at the houses, there were a lot of veggies – tomatoes, potatoes ($60USD worth), onions, ginger, garlic, green beans, squash, bitter gourd, green onion, limes....and more. We left around 7:30 this morning, me of the back of Suban's motorcycle. In the 20 minutes it took to get to market, we travelled on one nicely paved road. The rest were in various states of bumpy. :P The market was fascinating. Most of what I write here I inferred from observation only, Suban and I didn't speak much beyond instructions to 'follow me' and 'take your tea now, I will be back soon.' The market appeared to be a wholesale affair, catering to organizations, restaurants, and the veggie wallas who roam the streets, baskets full of produce attached to their bicycles. There was an entire warehouse sized building dedicated to potatoes and onions.

I followed Suban around as he visited various stalls, scoping out the best produce at the best price. I could tell that this is a job he takes on often, he shook hands and greeted most stall owners whos produce we eventually purchased. After making the 'check out the produce' rounds, we went around again, this time to collect the bags of tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, etc. that had been prepared for us, and to pay for the purchases.

There are vans you can hire who will delivery your acquired goods and it was into one of these that we loaded our bags. I peered over the shoulder of the guy who filled out the invoice, with the name and address of the Umbrella office, under the 'price' section he'd written 375.00. I'm assuming this is the price of hiring a delivery van. 375 rupees is ~$3.75.

The market was a photographers mecca, there were so many colors of dress and people and veggies. There were bicycles and motobikes so overloaded with purchases that you wondered how on earth their owners would be able to ride them through the chaotic streets of Kathmandu, there were street kids plying through the cast-off veggies, searching for something to eat, there was the grains stall with sack and sack of lentils, beans, rice and seeds of so many colours. However, as I was conspicuous enough as the only white person, I didn't feel comfortable pulling out my camera and trying to take shots of these people going about their daily business. It was an amazing experience though and I hope I'll be able to accompany Suban again, on his next trip to market. :)