Mercato

Mercato

One Saturday my friends from work, Muluken and Aman took me to Mercato- the largest market on the African continent! I heard stories about it being the most dangerous area of Addis, people will reach into car windows and steal your handbags, take a necklace right off your neck, etc. Maybe there was something else going on that day, maybe I've become accustomed to crowds of people, maybe it was the two Ethiopian men who went with me- b/c that wasn't my experience at all. I didn't take pictures for fear of losing my camera and I even wore a money belt- It was totally unnecessary. People were friendly and helpful.

It was obviously a poorer area of town, shantytown like homes were crowded together surrounding the market. The market is roads and roads of small shops, cafes, stalls and merchants lining the sidewalks.The entire market is umm... pungent! Some areas smelled of donkey, others of human excrement, trash, food, etc. Mercato sells traditional clothes, chat, vegetables, cheese, silver, gold, books, lots of shoes, etc. It is said that you can find anything at Mercato- you can get a MAGURES...one handful of food that is fed to you or the joke goes, if you've lost a sandal- go to Mercato and you can find the other.