Market Day!
One of my favourite things about Camp Nomade (on top of wildlife & birds…) is the cuisine. Trained from scratch by American chef Jamie, chef Abdoulaye, sous chef Guido and the food are renowned among guests and guides. Bearing in mind this is a hot, land-locked, predominantly Saharian country, putting fresh veggies and salads on the table is a super big task! I feel challenged and honoured (and slightly intimidated)! The big food order for our camp will come from Chads capital, N’Djamena, by plane. Our logistics guy will arrange it - although nothing is ever guaranteed. But in 40 degree + heat, the produce won’t keep a week. So I go out of the park, into the the nearest town, Am-Timan, about 70km away. There, our tourism manager and general ‘saviour’ in terms of staff, meetings and supplies will go to do shopping for fresh stuff before we run out. I’m going there to get an idea of what is available on the market and in the little shops. To give you an idea of the level of misunderstandings that occur when you give someone your shopping list: one of the researchers requested chips. Crisps, potato-chips. ‘Oui oui, bien sur!’. She added: ‘Et si possible, saveur Salt and Vinager? Sel & Vinaigre? Cinq ou six sacs, s’il vous plait!’. She got zero bags of crips and 6 giants pots of salt and 6 giant bottles of vinegar…
DIY package for Salt & Vinegar chips
Whenever Willem and I self-drive in a country that has markets I’ll whine about wanting to go there. For fresh local veggies, eggs of someones well looked after chickens. It’s a long process and it often doesn’t make the cut. But this means I’m very excited for Am-Timan. There is no tarmac, everything is dirt road. Some parts soft, some parts carry the sings of water and bump heavily. On the way we pass the main entrance to the park and settlements with giant herds of cows. ‘That’s the road to N’djamena!’, I’m informed. It’s a dirt path, going another 400 KM until it meets up with a tarred road to the capital. We are far off of any map, the ‘bubble’ as referred to in the previous blog is real.
Am-Timan is just like any other African market, but it reminds me most of a 1999 train tour through Tanzania. The small shops of Ifakara and Mogorogoro. It’s dusty and the people have the same weird look on their face when they see you. We are probably the only white people here today. Or quite possibly this week. Or like the town of Mumbwa in Western Zambia, or that market just outside Kafue along the M9. Like I said, a market is a market in Africa. And I love it. Am-Timans market is as vibrant as everywhere. That’s the terminology for ‘come prepared’, and as always in Africa there are surprises. I don’t understand where the power comes from and how there is power to supply two giant speakers pumping music but no power to supply for a fridge or a fan? It’s crazy hot and all the produce is cooked in the 40 degree heat.
We start by placing a meat order with another photogenic Chadian. I ask if I can take his photo, as photography is very sensitive in public. He poses proudly and approves of the result. The 3x3x3 half-open shed outside the meat market is too sensitive to take a shot of. The walls are stained with blood and bone. No wonder, considering a butcher is hacking unidentifiable pieces of animal to chunks. I’m intimidated on all levels: the sight of all that precious meat lying on his workbench (a skinned, giant Neem tree) the noise of cracking bone, axe-on-wood, buzzing flies and chattery of people, the smell of flesh and blood, the heat, the uneven paths...
Butcher
Prices are difficult to understand to begin with as 1300 CFA is the equivalent to 2 euros. My French is limited, but my counting is OK. But the ladies that sell produce only speak Arabic and my Arabic is not sufficient. This makes for hilarious conversations and I happily laugh at myself. The best technique seems to show money, point at a product and look at the vendor. I offer 100 CFA and ask what I get for that. Ah, 1 grapefruit-like citrus. Perfect, I’ll take 10. A bag of dried chili? 250. Buying in bulk is definitely cheaper, 1000 CFA buys me and my wing-woman Domique, Giraffe researcher and the victim of the Salt&Vinegar incident, a huge bag of fresh rocket (Djirdjir in Arabic), another unexpected but very welcome source of vitamins in the semi-dessert!
Tomatoes!
A rare gem is that all the tomatoes are the highly sought after and incredibly tasteful Coeur du Boeuff type. The malodroit thing about them is that they’re fragile. So fragile they usually arrive as gozapacho gone off. I buy from this lady, who also allowes me to photograph her & her produce. She’s expensive and negotiation is impossible, but at least she’s in the semi-shade. Semi-shade is about as much as there is in Camp Nomade... We’ll make a plan!
X IRIS
Ps. Speaking of GEMS in the dessert, look what I found!
❤️ Calvé
