A series of unfortunate events… at Bourda Market

Culture Box
We have no problem shopping at Bourda or at any market for that matter. We must have our supply of fresh fruits and vegetables. It’s just that there are days when we cannot stand to have people shouting at us, jostling us or small children following us around begging us to buy limes, plastic bags, spices or haberdashery.

We know that if one wants to experience Guyanese culture then the market is a very good place to start. There are times when we have gone to the market and have seen vendors with small televisions viewing cricket or football matches; a number of other vendors would crowd around to watch. In recent times we have seen them watching films on portable DVD players and this is always an interesting sight; it’s like an open theatre which attracts mostly the child vendors or children of vendors.

Our last trip to the market could be described as interesting. A middle-aged vendor was so engrossed in the film she was viewing on her portable DVD player that it took a while to get a response from her to complete our purchase. There she was, head resting on her stall inches from the player, her eyes opened wide and a wide smile on her face. No question; she was enjoying that film.

Her smile was infectious and we sauntered on smiling until we stopped to make our next purchase – melon. Two vendors, a man and a woman, sat behind the melon stall and neither of them responded to our query about the melons. Then a whiff of the spliff the female vendor was sucking on wafted across our nostrils, so we thought okay, she’s out of it and turned to the man. There he was staring, no indication that he had heard our query so we asked if they were selling.

“No we nah sellig!” he said in the most angry tone.
We turned away to leave but then their neighbour stepped in.
“Come leh me sell you man, don’t worry,” she said quickly.
We told her that the man and the woman obviously did not want any sales.
“No man, he gat some problems, you know everybody does get problems at times,” she said.
She made the sale for her neighbours who all the while sat there totally out of it. This was a new dimension to the vibe we were used to getting at the market.

Our last purchase was eggs and while the vendor listened, it took a few seconds to realise that she was actually listening; she never once looked at us. We were just beginning to think that there might be a sign on us only visible to vendors that said ‘ignore me’, when she blurted out, “you does gaffa watch dem”. Oh no, we thought, was every other vendor at the market bonkers?

But then we followed the direction of her eyes and saw a young woman, who we suspected was her daughter, selling eggs to a group of rowdy young men.

Okay, no need for explanation this time. We knew what she meant. Smiling once again, we left Bourda Market convinced that its a place where there’s never a dull moment. However, we still would like not to have to be so much a part of the excitement. (thescene@stabroeknews.com)