A cultural lesson...

We used this weekends' four hours in a land rover to go to the artisans' market in Cotonou. We had a great time there. It is basically a place for people to sell all sorts of locally made craft items - some beautiful and some not.

We bought a couple of items and learned first hand about bartering, West African style. We wanted a picture so asked how much. 5,000 CFA was the reply. This seemed quite expensive (almost $10) - anyway we left with two picture for 5,500 CFA. It felt very strange that the final price would be so much lower than the starting price. We later got down to 4,500 from a start price of 10,000 on a different item. A very strange experience for a Brit!

The whole experience was great fun though. The stall holders were friendly and, though pretty keen to get you into their hut, were happy to let you walk away without buying anything.

Here's a picture of the boys on our return - sweaty and covered in dust (look at their feet!) - playing with one of our new purchases:


Tommy