Nearby, groups of men engage in the serious business of buying and selling fat, brown, long-tailed sheep, or baby goats no bigger than cats. There is a track to test-ride donkeys, and one must be careful here to avoid being run over. A huge, mustached man with a great pair of shears trims geometric patterns on the rumps of tethered donkeys. Men are also sitting on the ground getting a shave or a haircut. Women haggle over shawls, sequins, plastic sandals, T-shirts, aluminum pots and pans, and locally made earthenware casseroles.
Men sell knives, carpentry tools, shoes, farm utensils, and palm ropes, baskets and brooms.
There are carts of sweet pastries and savory bread rolls. Men make tea on improvised cook-stands, and fry balls of tamiya and slices of eggplant for sandwiches. Small bags of popcorn, pumpkin seeds, and peanuts are sold to excited children, who dash everywhere, playing tag in the crowd. Ahmed has also bought a cabbage which his daughter will stuff with rice and dill for our lunch. We hand him our purchases, and ask if he could fry our cauliflower with garlic.