Market Adventure Part I

“Carry mi ackee go a Linstead Market

Not a quattie worth sell…”

                                ~Jamaican Folk Song

“To market, to market to buy a fat pig

Home again, home again jiggity jig”

                                ~ Nursery rhyme

Firstly, let me say I did NOT go to Linstead Market (although THAT should be exciting) and I am not a vendor of ackees (will not comment on what a “quattie” is as that currency was clearly in use way before my time). But the problem is that I could NOT find a song or poem or anything in reference to the “Kur-nation” “Cara-naa-shon” or “Curry” market as per local lingo, yes all refer to the Coronation Market. So yes, I admit, there is something askew with today’s excerpts. Anyway, there is a connection! What day is today??...Right today is SATURDAY!!! For most of the general population what does that mean? Some sort of soup for dinner...True BUT today lads and lasses is MARKET day! So I HAVE to relate my last trip to the market!

Oh by the way, I did not go to buy a fat pig – or a skinny pig – but again I cannot find any songs about onions, yams, sweet potatoes, scotch bonnet peppers, cucumbers, beetroot, carrots…  (You have my shopping list). That I did eventually purchase some fat pig’s tail after leaving the market is purely coincidental.

My excitement began the very instant I got word that my friend was going to the market! Of course I would love to go to the market!!!! WHO does not like to go to the market???!!!! All the fresh fruits and vegetables, the vibrant colors, the smells of the produce like the “Sint Andrew time and scallion” (not of the gutter water en route to the market)… the people… the cacophony of sounds… the adrenaline rush of jumping out of the path of a speeding, loaded handcart being pushed by an overly zealous, directionally-challenged handcart driver eager to drop off one load and head for another….Aaawww do I need to rouse your imaginative powers any further?? I think not…

Now my friend does not drive and so, in good old-time fashion, we went by the BUS!! YES! What could be more adventurous? Two girls going to the market on public transportation!!! It does not get more exciting! Fortunately for us, it is only one bus that takes us to the city, no need to get off and transfer etc.  We sat in our comfortable, big, bright Big Bird yellow, AC bus and headed downtown…fine style…nice and cool and at that time of the morning, not too many passengers.

Generally quiet, except for a quarrel between an elderly hombre who “cussed” out an elderly lady who accused him of almost causing her to fall (don’t know how since he was already seated long before she came on the bus). Now, I had to “rubberize” my neck to see exactly who were trading insults like that at 10:00 a.m. Finally, the man decided to get up and change his seat before, according to him, “mi lick down yuh #$%**&%!#” – Now, I wonder, isn’t he afraid his dentures would fall out in his attempt to reel off that string of choice fabrics not sold in retail stores?? Disgusting behavior from seniors…

Anyway, we get downtown safely and disembark at the terminus at North Parade. Good, just about two thousand people milling around, peddling everything from a pin to an anchor from their cardboard boxes, school children sauntering around in uniforms, ¾ naked women showing off their oversized or undersized tattooed bodies with completely bleached out faces, false eyelashes and Rapunzel like tresses or could that be Pocahontas?? …hmmmm….right, women with loooooong hair…. Btw, there are a lot of sidewalk hairdressers downtown. You see clients sitting comfortably on stools while they get the hair they obviously just purchased at the wholesale sewn to the stocking caps affixed to their heads, a couple were having the fake eyelashes glued on hopefully not with crazy glue...well, I can handle this scene!

My pal Essie knows downtown and the market like the back of her hand. I guess having worked downtown, attended school downtown, and shopping regularly at the market over the years has made her a PRO! Hence, she is one of the BEST choices for a guide/market companion, right?

After she made a brief stop at a wholesale on Orange Street we head out to our main destination. Curry here we come!!!

Walking with purpose and confidence like “I KNOW where I am going” I kept pace with Essie and we headed across a couple of streets and then up a street and through a gate. All this time bobbing and weaving between folks and stalls and produce on the ground.

“Buy something from me nuh?” “sale out, sale out pon di cabbage” …”yuh want hany gyarlic fi buy Miss? $50 a bag” “Primenta and nutmeg, primenta and nutmeg”…Fortunately I saw the pimento to know that was what he was selling.  “Nice lady, you want bammy fi buy…$100” Actually, bammy was not on my list but then he was so polite and looked desperate and Ms. Ellie does enjoy bammy…okay sure. I bought a pack and the man’s face lit up like a 100 watt bulb “Tanks you hear, tanks” ...”you are welcome”- so polite! Wow. I felt good.

So here we are moving from point A to point B then back to A then to C on our merry way, Essie in the lead and I, the happy follower, on her heels! I just tell her what I want and she knows exactly where to go or which vendor we could get things from cheap! Hey, I could really get the hang of this!

While on the hunt for yams, I hear a voice, a rather persistent one. It was a man desperately trying to get our attention, rather, my attention, how do I know this? “Pssssssssssst, hi, BROWNING, BROWNING” – now Essie is very dark complexioned so by default it must be me, right? So, I pause for a second and turn around. “Mi like yuh enuh baby”. Well, after getting over the initial shock that this man is trying to stop us not to introduce us to his items for sale but, to use the vernacular “ 'im a look sumaddy”, and a quick look at his appearance, this tall fellow, very rough looking, with his few teeth strategically placed (that explains why he was able to “psssssst” so freely…not too many teeth to block the sound!), I said “YOU like ME (imagine my facial expression here)…okay” and then started to walk off…”Wait, den come here nuh browning?” – I figured you know, let me not answer and keep going…how Jamaican men are so brazen I have no clue!

Anyhow, we finally find yellow yam, lucea yam, dasheen, and coco …whooooooaaaa!!!! Yep and, in spite of the grumpy look and mannerism of the yam/dasheen vendor, who seems to be having a bad day, we get a good deal at $50 per pound vs. $70 or $80 uptown price! This is FUN!

String beans, oh I need string beans (green beans/French beans for my foreign buddies reading this)! I spy some a little way off and we head there to get the price. “How much fi di string bean?” I said in my very best patois – mumble, mumble, stagger, stagger was the response of the male vendor. Even with the question repeated the vendor did not really respond. I figure it’s probably because a) he was roused from deep sleep (b) he is drunk (c) he was stoned from smoking ganja or some of the string bean leaves d) it was not his stall and had no clue what we were talking about (e) did not like the look of us and figured we could not afford it since we had to ask the price. In any event we decide this man was a waste of time and left.

  

 Bags are getting “weighty” with all the goodies we been buying but we still need a few items more! So far my trip is going GREAT and I do feel wonderful too! No wonder folks like to go to the market!

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Please join me later for the conclusion of the Market Adventure!