Five Photo Friday: Wau Market

The Wau market is a giant expanse of retail goods from dried fish to wheelbarrows to orange drink. A maze of retails line the walls and floor of this marketplace.  Unrefrigerated butcheries, expensive grocery stores and small one-woman vendors with only one or two items make the Wau Market a beautiful but chaotic experience.

It was hard to take photos in this market.  People, rightfully, were suspicious of my photo taking and refused.  After a few refusals and to avoid any possible hostilities, I decided to stop taking photos there.  Here are a few of what I could take.

Pictured above: Beans for sale presented on canvas bags -  most likely imported as is most food.  Notice that the ground is sandy and unpaved – there is basically no asphalt in this city except for a few places. 

Pictured above: The wall to wall display of packaged food items at one of the more expensive grocery stores and one where you can actually walk into the shop.  Fuel prices dictate the cost of these import items which are getting more expensive daily.

Pictured above: A woman vendor next to her basket of items.  She was kind enough to let me photograph her.

Pictured above: These stones are some sort of desiccant though I couldn’t get the a real answer on their purpose.  Pictured as well are some green vegetable called “greens” and, in the far right corner, some sweet potato. 

Pictured above: A typical open air vendor shop.  Eggs are unrefrigerated, oil is sectioned into cola bottles, tomatoes are stacked into purchasable units and everything is reduced to a single serving portion.  There is no economy of scale here from what I can tell.

BONUS PICTURE – Pictured above:  Just a guy with his scales who was considerate enough to let me take his photograph.  I don’t know what he was selling that required  a scale.

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