CoCoNuTs

Walking through the markets can be overwhelming. There is no escape from the heat, no shade and rarely a cool breeze. The streets are either concrete, so the heat just hangs in the air, or they are dirt, so you sweat and the dirt sticks to you. People are shouting out the price of their goods, they grab your arms and tell us they want to marry us. “Obruni, you’re beautiful.”

On the one hand, you can buy anything you have ever needed on the street; shoes, clothes, material, bags, food, water, mobiles, computers, phone and internet recharge cards, spoilt for choice, but if you want something specific, like a certain type of deodorant, or shampoo, you’re out of luck. The markets stretch for miles it seems, and to me they still all look the same. There is no sign saying “Welcome to Kaneshi market.” Or not that I have seen. It’s as if you are on a street with no market, then suddenly BOOOM there is a huge market, with people everywhere; yelling, laughing, cars honking. The way the vendors get your attention is by making a smooching sound. At first it feels like a cat call, but it seems to be the ‘agreed upon’ form of attention raising.

As I said, it can be incredibly overwhelming. The perfect antidote, for this kind of retail therapy is a fresh coconut. It seems that stalls move around, and when you found a coconut stall at this corner last week, this week it is somewhere else.

A pile as high as my knee, or sometimes higher and about one to two meters long on the pavement houses the coconuts. They are not what you find in the supermarket in Australia, or anywhere I have seen really. These are baby or not mature coconuts. They are green, and about twice the size of a regular coconut. They are prepared while you wait. Not, peeled, not chopped, I guess they are shaved? Using a really sharp machete (long knife). The top is sliced off, and then handed over. The coconut contains about 500mLs of juice, which pretty much tastes like water. Pure water full of vitamins and it fills you up. Once you finish drinking it, they cut the whole coconut in half, and slice off part of the skin. The idea is you use the piece of hard skin to scoop out the flesh. Satisfying after a long day negotiating the markets.

As the day goes on, the pile of whole coconuts depletes, and the pile of discarded coconuts grows!