WHAT A DAY.
It was a sunny Sunday and the eve of idil fitri (the Muslim celebration of the end of the fasting period), I had gone to the market to buy my regular supply for the week when I noticed an unusual crowd at the main entrance of the market. They crowd was made up of three distinct people-shoppers, beggars and the almajiri`s. The whole place was ‘screaming’ with people and I almost turned back home but on a second thought I dared it.
I kept bumping into people and kept saying ‘sannu’ as I tried to make my way into the centre of the market. Almost every shopper I looked at the face wore a frown and I kept wandering what in God’s name was going on. I soon discovered that food stuffs like tomatoes, pepper, onion, rice, beans and meat had tripled their price. In the spirit of the celebration, the traders have tripled the prices of food stuffs in order to maximize profit. No matter what amount they increase the food stuffs to, we must buy them because ‘we are celebrating’ and we need the food stuffs to celebrate.
The beggars had more to show to anyone who cared to see. They screamed at the top of their voice “Please for the sake of God, spare something for me. God will bless you” as they extended their plates further for alms but most shoppers hurried past them with angry faces on their way home without dropping the usual 5 or 10 Naira notes into their extended plates. Some shoppers however lingered on, hoping to get cheaper price for goods by persisting and combing the market.
The almajiri boys spiced up the chaotic picture with their dirty rubber plates, dirty clothes that I can swear have not seen soap and water for the past one month or more. They all walked from one shop to the other in groups of 2 or 3 boys singing while asking for alms. It is usually that one of the boys will lead and the other(s) will respond. I could not help but notice that some of the boys have good voices that could have made them wonderful singers.
While I was still making up my mind on what to buy and what not to buy since my money cannot possibly buy all I wanted, it began to rain. The rain came unannounced and began pouring as if God had opened the cloud and was pouring water directly into the market place. They traders began to gather their wares that were displayed outside or cover them with tarpaulin while shopper, beggars and almajiri boys all began running helter-skelter. I started laughing as I watched the beggars all hurrying to take cover while some shoppers ran, people were just running and I began to wander if it was not raining where they were running to.
“This rain don spoil am por market today walih.” The owner of the shop I was at said. I just burst into laughter and he smiled back at me with his tobacco stained teeth.
“What a day.” I said.
HENRIETTA

Looks like no one likes this.

I like it, you paint a scene I can picture well

Am I kidding myself or did all these people read my story?