The mother of all marketplaces

There are two places in Lichinga where EVERYONE hangs out. Firstly, the airport (on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays anyway). The only place which is crowded everyday, however, are the massive Lichinga markets. Despite Lichinga having a tiny fraction of the population of the capital, Maputo, its markets are much bigger, and wilder. Here’s a quick visual tour of that it’s like, what’s on sale (both on the stands and modeled by people), and some random murmurings ...

1. GENERAL VIBE

First of all, it is incredibly huge and crowded. This doesn’t really describe how big it is …



And whilst there is no room for trolleys, there are some inventive ways of transport …



… And the colours are awesome!




2. SHIRTS ON SALE

There are heaps of interesting, multicultural shirts! From the quasi-American (the Africans are not quite as good at piracy as their Asian cousins … yet!)



... not to mention some APPALLING shirts - even $2 was not enough to lure me to these ...



… but there were just plain weird sarongs on sale (lots of women wear sarongs here). Here is a sarong with a rather disturbing picture of the Twin Towers …!?!



A more familiar sight however, awaited me with one particular shirt walking around …




3. THE PEOPLE

There’s a lot of love going on the market (and in Lichinga in general). On a side note, each morning I walked past a school, where heaps of kids played soccer. Often there were boys huddled together, chatting and giving each other massages!



But whilst the market is incredibly crowded with many people – only some are selling, with most doing nothing (like these guys playing checkers).



The reason? The formal unemployment rate here (and across Africa, actually) is extraordinarily high – estimated at around 90%?! – which is not hard to believe when you see it with your own eyes. Particularly in cities like Lichinga, where not everyone has their own farm, very few people have jobs, many relying on the occasional pay day and the few people in the family circle (of 30-40 cousins and uncles and aunties) who happen to have jobs at that moment. (On a side note, even those who do have jobs have typically inactive ones - for example, literally standing around for 9 hours a day watching a gate, etc)

This makes me feel really strange. On the one hand, I feel desperately sorry for them – they are the victims of being part of the only continent in the world to have grown poorer over the past three decades. On the other hand – I feel annoyed at them. CAN’T YOU GUYS DO SOME WORK? HAVE SOME AMBITION? HAVE SOME DRIVE TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT? I know handouts are not the answer for these people, where every day is a weekend day.

So easy for me to say, to criticize. And – for once! – I am genuinely doing something about it. But, if anything, as I’ve seen their plight with my own eyes, I’ve grown more aware of the difficulty of the challenge and less compassionate.

Weird huh? Not what I expected …!

Blessings,
john