Good Food Costs Less At ...........

At first sight, Arua’s fruit and vegetable market seems to offer little to the Sainsbury-trained eye. Familiar with the vast choice available in the average British Supermarket (next time you go shopping count how many varieties of lettuce, potato, tomato or carrot you can find), the limited options in Arua come as a bit of a shock.

What tomatoes shall we buy? Well, there are lots of them, but there’s only one variety, and none of them looks too good. Certainly they’d not find their way into an Asda store or on to a British market stall, and if they did nobody would buy them because they’ve got so many black marks on them.

Are carrots on sale today? Perhaps not in the market, but you might just be fortunate enough to see a woman (always a woman) on the road, carrying a bowl full of carrots, bananas or avocados, probably the produce of her own piece of land, grown to earn a few shillings to help the family income.

Potatoes, though, are here in plenty; two varieties: sweet (not the sort we’re used to) and Irish (that’s the sort we are used to). You can buy a regular bowlful, or a large bowlful, but none of them round and all impossibly difficult to peel.

But in reality you can usually get everything you need in Arua Market: onions, cabbage, lettuce, peas (sometimes) green and chilli peppers, cucumbers, courgettes (occasionally), and plenty of fruit – pineapples to die for, oranges (green), lemons (also green), passion fruit, bananas, and the most amazing avocados for 500 shillings each (that’s about 20p). Unfortunately mangoes are out of season at the moment, but only about a month to go!

There are other benefits too of shopping in the market here. Although you don’t have much choice in what to buy, there is a great deal of choice in who to buy from. The sellers are generally all very good humoured and don’t really know the meaning of the word ‘competition’ or time. This means they won’t hold it against you if you buy from someone else. That can spell problems for developing the local economy, but it does make shopping a wonderfully social activity as you meet so many different people selling their produce who like to ask where you come from and how many children you have. It also gives you a chance to practice your Lugbara (the local language) – and they love it when you try. Gales of laughter and delight greet even the most simple expression or phrase you attempt. But possibly that’s because you’ve got it wrong and are saying something truly ridiculous (or rude) without realising it!

The other great benefit of Arua Market is that everything tastes really good, and the last thing you would ever want to do is to waste any of it.