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WORLD MARKETS Nothing holds more mystery than a local market. The place where folks come together to buy and sell the stuff of everyday life tells more than a hundred books about a foreign place. Yet there's also a remarkable consistency to markets around the world. In many ways, the market in Chichicastenango, Guatemala could just as easily be in Chiang Mai, Thailand or Kathmandu, Nepal: the same rows of vegetables spread on tarps on the ground; the same prolonged examination and haggling over a few potatoes; the same vibrant colors and earthy smells. The exchange is intimate, providing a personal knowledge of the items purchased, and binding the community through gossip and news of family and events. The market is a micro economy, with
multiple tiny exchanges, and vendors willing to travel
many uncomfortable hours on a rickety bus to sell only a Chichicastenango is the quintessential market town, embodying the color, spectacle and vibrance of native markets around the world. By 8pm the evening before market, the city is an encampment of roving merchants, erecting portable pole constructions and hanging out their wares. The food tents are already in full operation, with brightly clad, Mayan women grilling tortillas on oil drum cookers, gas lights hissing, and flies buzzing over blue enamel pots filled with beans and chicken. By morning the market is in full swing:
chickens and pigs screaming from |
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