Dodged a Bullet

Today my cohorts needed to buy some supplies for their sewing class. Specifically, they needed these large fabric shears that are hard to find in an average shop. Deanna knew just the place in the old market.

Ah, the Old Market. If you have any aversions to unusual smells or tight spaces, then this is not the place for you. You enter this maze from one of seemingly a thousand points of entry. There is a certain order to the chaos, where types of shops tend to cluster. Clothing on one place, tourist items on the outside, toiletries in another, and so on. The aisles have barely enough room for one person to walk without your elbows rubbing against the merchandise of the two shops on either side.

The Old Market isn’t just for dry goods. It’s also the best place for locals to go grocery shopping. You can emerge from one of these tight spaces and find yourself with a lady cutting the heads off a chicken at your feet. The aromas are quite distinct, and shockingly different from one part of the market to another.

So here we are trudging along under the mosaic of tin roof shacks to find shears. I get a little behind because it is after all quite busy. After turning a corner I hear the unmistakable, language independent sound of someone dry-heaving. You know the sound. Like when you have the flu, or perhaps just read about the chicken on the floor. A lady in one of the shops was covering her mouth and making this sound when she was walking out to the aisle… right in front of me. I quickly took a step back (which can be dangerous, you never know if someone is walking behind you with a big pot of something) and she stopped as well, obviously struggling. She walked in front of me to the shop across the hall (all 2 feet away) and threw up on the floor as I darted ahead.

The Old Market and I have a rocky relationship. I prefer to go to Central Market, where the aisles are huge and it’s a nice, big open space. Dodging a lady who was about to throw up on me has pretty much cemented my opinion about the place. I’ll wait in the car next time.