Market Day





Mtonda market



Mtonda village is typical of hundreds of villages all through Malawi. Six days of the week, it is a wide spot in the road, with a few shops and services for the locals to buy sugar or to have a phone charged, to have tires serviced or to drink beer. But one day a week, it becomes a thriving business center. That is market day. Everyone anticipates market day for buying and selling and visiting with friends. Vendors come from the outlying area in trucks loaded with charcoal, eggs, produce, plastic plates, bowls and buckets, with used clothing, and electronics. Locals come with freshly butchered meat and fresh fruit and produce in season. Some have “shops” of wood frames and grasses that sit empty along the road until market day. Others sell from the back of their trucks or spread plastic tarps on the ground and display their goods. The number of “portable shops” multiplies to several hundred for that one day each week. Local residents count on this. They walk, ride bikes, or catch rides on the back of the trucks coming to do business so they can shop and visit.  

  

Tuesday is market day in Mtonda. I was in the area for other business and took advantage of the opportunity with Charles and Alinafe and my friend Rev. Njala. Rev. Njala had suggested Tuesday for our trip, knowing it was market day. We carefully drove the car through the crowd conducting business on the edge of the road and the trucks in the center of the road unloading or repacking until we could find a parking spot. Then we joined the fray as we began looking for bargains ourselves. Rev. Njala informed me the area is Ngoni territory (one of the large local tribes) and as such we should experience Ngoni food. That meant pork. I could smell it cooking as I stepped from the car. That was one of the reasons for his wanting to come. He is Ngoni and this is his home. But before we got to the pork, we came to the potatoes, another specialty of the area. Irish (white) potatoes, as they are called here, are expensive in Blantyre. They are much more affordable where they are grown. While I shopped for a small quantity, Rev. Njala negotiated for a 50kg bag and the lady selling carried it to the car, on her head - just part of the service. Cathy, Charles’ daughter, spied the “chips” (French fries) being cooked and stood in line, hoping her father or grandmother would buy some for her. I did. She munched as we walked and shopped. This contributed to the carnival flavor of the outing. The music blaring from the shop selling beer also promoted that atmosphere



Rev. Njala buying his cooked pork



A few yards beyond the potatoes, someone was selling eggs from the back of a pickup truck. I was surprised when the vendor greeted me by name. Then I recognized him as the Ncheu Presbytery treasurer. This is his “other” job, traveling from market to market in the area selling his eggs. We three pastors and the treasurer chatted about Synod events for a few minutes and were preparing to move on when Rev. Njala was greeted by an older gentleman. He introduced us to his uncle. Of course we talked for a while before proceeding to the main event for Rev. Njala – the pork. He negotiated for raw meat as well as cooked, joyfully eating the cooked from a small plastic bag as Cathy had her chips. His mission was accomplished. We finished the tour of the vendors and headed back to the car. Charles stopped to buy cabbage and Alinafe purchased mangos from the session clerk’s wife, who was earning a little extra cash for the family by selling the fruit from their tree. We all came away with some treasure of the day. It was profitable for us and for the vendors – a good market day.