Lunchtime at Owino Market

I went to Owino market today hoping to find some fabric to have made into a concert dress and although I came back empty-handed, nevertheless it was quite an experience.
Owino market is the biggest market in Kampala, and it's at the bottom of the hill beyond the Old Taxi Park, where Hiace vans jostle to fill up with passengers so that they can get on their way to their destination.  I have no idea how you find which taxi is going where you want to go, or how they get out since they are jammed in nose-to-tail.

I followed my nose through Kampala's busy shopping district to find the market - I'd seen the large grey sloping corrugated steel roofs from the Old Mosque so knew roughly where I was heading.  There are two Sikh temples or Gurdwaras nearby, one pink and one cream,  and their ornate spires also serve as useful landmarks.

As you go down the hill you pass large multi-story indoor shopping malls - they look a bit institutional with concrete floors and staircases with thick metal railings.  Each building houses shops that sell similar wares, so there are several selling electronics all together, and another cluster selling car spares, including tyres.  You can enter from one street and then walk through and exit on the street behind.  All over Kampala similar types of shop always seem to be clustered together.  On one street everyone seemed to be hand-embroidering the long white shirts that I've seen for sale in several Kampala markets.

I got to Owino market about 1pm, which is lunchtime here, and there were ladies scurrying everywhere delivering lunches on china plates to the vendors, with banana leaves on the top to keep the food warm.  After lunch the ladies scurried about collecting up the plates and taking them away piled in plastic washing-up bowls.

Although the market is huge, you can't really get lost since the entrance runs up the leftmost edge and the roofed areas run perpendicular, with gullies running along the ground in the gaps between the roofs, for rain and other run-off.  You can buy the usual foodstuffs at Owino market; I wandered into the area where they pluck chickens and beat a hasty retreat! There are also stalls selling two foot-long bars of soap - white, brown and bright blue. I saw several stalls selling vessels made from calabashes (gourds) and clay pipes, dried plants, barkcloth and dodgy-looking things preserved in bottles - I'm wondering if they were witch doctors.
There are lots of stalls selling second-hand clothes, which are piled on the floor like a massive jumble sale.  They even have stalls that specialize in used bras and nighties...not for me, thanks! In the clothing areas there are banks of women working at sewing machines - it looked like half of them were altering or re-hemming trousers and the other half were making gathered skirts from gaudy cotton fabrics.  I couldn't find any fabric that was suitable for a concert dress today - but I'm sure I'll be back.