To market, to market...

To market, to market through Bushika we go

Monday is the day for one of the largest markets around here. Other villages have smaller markets through out the week, but Monday is the big day for Bushika. Going through the area is like going to a mall in the Christmas rush. The road is lined with groups of pedestrians on either side transporting items to and from the market.

Catherine and I had agreed to do a teacher training workshop at a local Bududu vocational school. We left the guest house at 8:30 am on a motor bike boda. The boda bodas here used to be all bicycles and the travel was slow and steady. In the past two years, the motorbikes have taken over and so that change has advanced the speed of travel. And now, every village has at least a dozen motor boda bodas waiting to take you wherever you want. We have one driver, Rashid boda that we usually use for short trips. (Another driver we use when we go in a car is also named Rashid, so we must distinguish between the two when speaking of one or the other,) I had forgotten that it was market day and our program was on the other side of this market. Now remember, Catherine and I are both retired teachers and we do stick out here, no matter what we do. So picture these two older women on the back of one motorbike.
There were many people who noticed us after we passed, and we would hear calls of recognition. Much more interesting to us though was the steady parade of people carrying items of all shapes and sizes in hopes of a sale at the market. Most were walking, a few were also traveling by boda and masses of people were riding packed into a truck trying to save some travel time to the market. The scene was like a multi colored ribbon of traffic with so many bright colored fabrics on some as well as the clean, but well worn clothes of mud brown, torn or cut off shirts or pants.

So what did we see along this road?

Cows and goats being led to market,
Bicycles laden with matooke,
Chickens being gripped in one hand and flung back and forth in stride,
Cabbages in plastic bags that used to hold 50 kgs of rice
School Children carrying loads of vegetables to market before they report to school,
Baskets of chickens balanced on the back of the bicycle

Balanced on their heads, we saw
Baskets of tomatoes,
Planks of lumber
Men and women carrying 1-2 bunches of matooke (20-25 kg each)

The main part of a hand sewing machine
(Her friend was carrying the frame with the treadle pedal)
4-5 clay bricks stacked up
Jerry cans filled with 20L of water
Firewood collected and bundled


Elephant grass so thick and long that the carrier’s face and chest were not visible,
Large white bags of onions or other produce,
There were literally hundreds of people on both sides of the road.


Now many of these people were already carrying a child on their back in addition to their marketable goods. Once you get to the market, you will find that although it is overflowing into the road, it is actually very well organized into sections so whatever you are looking for can be found pretty easily.

Such departments include: nails and other hardware, kerosene and other fuels, washing materials-soaps, school uniforms, used clothing, new clothing, freshly butchered meat neatly arranged on large banana leaves, fabrics, sugar cane, basins, school supplies, shoes, kitchen supplies likes pans, plates or silverware, cabbages, greens, tomatoes, more matooke than all of Uganda could use in a year, animals (each kind has its own section where one can look over the potential sale-cows, calves, goats, chickens), Huge trucks are stopped in the middle of the road to load the matooke- they say it’s going to Mbale and or Kenya. We got into one head on situation where we had to back up and reroute ourselves-no use arguing with these big, matooke laden dump truck size trucks.



Rashid did very well to keep us balanced even when he had to walk the boda a bit. We arrived to our destination in plenty of time, did our workshop and then rode the whole route in reverse so we got yet another chance to be the spectacle of the muzungu ladies on the motorcycle. Upon reaching home, we gingerly dismounted, and decided that we had done pretty well on our ride, and that we actually preferred the motor boda to the matatu which holds from 14-26 people. It was certainly more comfortable and we had the fresh air going for us. An hour later, we walked back up the hill to our school. The watchman greeted us at the gate and said, welcome back, I hear you were on a motor boda going through the Bushika market. That’s how fast the news travels!