Sketches of the market

On Wednesday and Thursday mornings, I pass through a traditional market in Santa Anita, Lima. The following are some quick sketches of people and things I see.

- Lady walking the market with a pile of upside-down, forest green large plastic containers resting on her head like an absurd, excessively large hat. Also carrying two of the containers in each hand.

- Man who is saying the same exact thing every time I pass by in his very slow, tired, but well-projected voice: "Papel higénico, toallas, un sol. Papel higénico, toallas, un sol."

- Older, thin woman with wrinkled skin, dressed in traditional dress with long, multi-layered skirt and knitted bowler hat. Kneeling on the ground behind small cloth covered with maybe 5 pots/pitchers of clay to sell. Not sure if they are hand-made or machine made.

- Younger man playing a children's sing-along about the alphabet on a small, grey TV. Surrounded by a crowd of children watching eagerly as the song teaches them about the sounds of the vowels. Two older ladies from a stall on the other side of the path yelling at the young man to turn off the damn music. I'm sure they get quite bored of listening to children's music all day.

- Cobbler's shop, which was just wide enough to fit a man and a sewing machine on a table (maybe two feet?) and just deep enough, around three feet, to fit a floor to ceiling shelving set covered in worn, well-used shoes. All in all, maybe 6ft squared of a shop.

- Man always situated at the start of the market selling individual black trash bags.

- Lines of dead chickens resting on tables ready to be cut up for meat. The feet are all lined up across the front of the table like the spines of library books on the shelves. Except this time, instead of reading the lines of a book, you can read the lines of wrinkles covering the chicken feet.

- Fish stands have a very poignant dead fish smell. You can tell from at least three stands away when I fish stand is coming. Dead half fish are littered on the table, the stand owners ready to cut off a quarter piece and a half of that.

- Stand covers of mostly primary colors. Lots of blues and yellows. A few red sides/tops stuck in every once in a while. Gives the whole market a colored, very artificial hue.

- Sauce stands - maybe 10 bowls of different sauces in varying shades of red, green and yellow. Also bottles of sauces like soy. Still not sure how buying the sauces works - do they put it in a container? Or maybe in a bag, which is a pretty common practice in Peru.