23rd August, 1990
Meanwhile, the Mercato, the largest market in Africa, was the direst we had seen. We felt horribly conspicuous in the seething mass of begging children, lepers, and war amputees. Shoppers wrapped in white shamma shawls to stave off the morning chill moseyed between colourful injera baskets, coarse sheep wool carpets, ancient silver coins, tools and brushes. Fruit and vegetables were displayed on the ground. The impoverished and the hungry gazed longingly at produce they could not afford. The Abyssinians were building castles and writing manuscripts when Europeans were still marauding barbarians, yet nowhere in Africa had we seen so much suffering.
Two young lads had acquired a pair of bathroom scales and charged a few pence for people to weigh themselves. No-one needed to know what their bones weighed. To give the boys some business, I climbed on board and a small group crowded round to chant out the kilos. I felt shamefully obese amongst all those people flagellated by famine who weighed so little.
From Freedom of the Skies
Glimpses of the journey:
- Around the world
- Crossing the Atlantic
- Saint Louis, Senegal
- Bubaque, Guiné-Bissau
- Timbuktu, Mali
- Cottars’ Camp, Kenya
- Virungas National Park, Zaire
- Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe
- Sossusvlei, Namíbia
- Lumbo, Mozambique
- Antananarivo Madagascar
- Adis Ababa, Ethiopia
- Misfat, Omã
- Jaipur, India
- Himalaia, Nepal
- Mae Hong Son, Thailand
- Bario, Sarawak, Malaysia
- Borobodur, Java, Indonesia
- Baliem Valley, Irian Jaya
- Gimbat, Australia
- Munda, New Georgia, Solomon Islands
- Hurricane in Apia, Western Samoa
- Anaa, Tuamotu, Polynesia
- Easter Island, Chile
- Crossing the Andes, Chile-Argentina
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
