An Overwhelming Shopping Dichotomy

Game is a South African version of Wal-Mart. I went in Kampala on Saturday and went to Game to look for an XD card for my digicam. And it was totally bewildering. I walk in and It all white and Wal-marty, and there’s so much stuff that I feel like I should buy something, but the pure abundance makes me unable to think. And there are white people everywhere, which is weird because usually I know all the other white people, and also I had no idea that there were so many other muzungus in Uganda. So I wandered around, dazzled by the florescent lights and the rows and rows of stuff and left without buying a thing. It was just too much.

So then I went to Oweno Market. I had been meaning to check it out for a while; it’s a huge market by the taxi park. And it is huge! Everything is sold there, food, pots and pans, used clothing (which was my main reason for going; I got a shirt and a skirt). It’s dark and crowded and muddy and maze-like. There is a musty small to the whole thing, but every now and then the smell of spices or fresh oranges from a stall will hit you. Everywhere I walked people in the stalls were calling out to me, “Muzungu! You look here!” or “Sister, sister, look at these sheets!” And when I the owner of one stall talks to her friends in luganda as I look at clothes, laughing, and the only word I can understand is “Muzungu.” I seemed to be providing them with lots of amusement, anyway.

Overall, the contrast of the two shopping experiences in just one day out in Kampala was overwhelming, to say the least.