Shopping (2)

We needed some wire to fix a wooden fence, behind which the dogs would present no danger to our nervous neighbours.

I ask the driver to take me somewhere to buy some steel wire. He doesn’t seem to really understand, but eventually he is satisfied and off we go. There are hundreds of ironmongers in Kinshasa, but none of them seems to have much stock, so it’s to the market that we head.

African markets have much in common with each other – the colours (good), smell (bad), commerce (vigorous), rubbish (everywhere).

The main Kinshasa market is all of these things, though it probably has a higher percentage of rubbish and smell.

We wend our way purposefully through hundreds of little stalls, squeezed together and leaving very little room for the customers to walk around. With evident satisfaction, I am shown a stall that sells wire. But not ordinary wire – electrical copper wire. I try and explain again what I need. We set off again, and this time I am placed in front of a stall which sells more electrical wire – second hand, but they also have some chicken wire fencing which allows me to explain what I want and why.

Aha! Someone is sent off to get some and he comes back triumphantly with a coil of slightly rusty and clearly second-hand, or even third hand wire. Anyway, it’s just the right thickness: easy to bend but strong enough to do the job. I buy ten metres and we are off.

It was at that time that my eye was caught by a stall selling receipts. You name it, they had it. Blank receipts, stamped, in purple or blue: “received with thanks” from fabric shops, hardware shops, electrical shops, general stores and so on. Simple: you are sent to buy something: real price $5, write a fake receipt for $10: profit $5.

Something flashes through my mind: that receipt the driver brought last week. $20 for lampholders suddenly seemed somewhat excessive.