A Tisket a Tasket, to Market for some Baskets

On Thursday, we had our last excursion with the photographer and videographer, plus some other visitors from the US and a couple of my Ugandan colleagues. I drove the party wagon to the Arapi market (pronounced Uh-rah-pie), which is about a 20 minute drive out of Soroti town. It’s a large market that takes place on Thursdays, and is complete with produce, livestock, prepared food, housewares, hardware, and second-hand clothing. It was a short and easy drive, but the road was packed with pedestrians and people on bicycles and motorcycles making their way to market.

Our main objective was to visit some business owners who had diversified their businesses and started making baskets. The baskets are made from local materials, which mainly consist of local grasses and palm fronds. On market day, they are strapped to the back of bicycles and peddled to market. However, transporting the goods can be a challenge, so some business owners have made arrangements to sell in bulk to people from Kampala who come with a big lorry to pick up large quantities all at once from the village.  

The baskets were quite lovely. Some reminded me of Easter baskets and some were like big hamper-style baskets.  

The Easter-style baskets (I bought the green & purple one at the top left of the photo) 

Hamper-style baskets

Purse baskets

Hamper style close up

While being interviewed, the business owners were busy putting the finishing touches on their baskets. Since we took up a lot of their time, I felt I should buy something, so I went with one of the Easter baskets. I’ve actually seen this style of basket used in restaurants and bars here to carry sodas and beer to the tables for serving; so if I do get it back intact, maybe I can use it for something like that!  I’m still not sure how I’ll carry it through an 8 day safari trip with my family and then on the flight home, but I figured it would be much easier than one of the large baskets. 

Wrapping palm front strips around the edge of  basket lids

How baskets are brought to market on bicycles 

Afterwards, we went through the rest of the market and visited with other business owners who had received grants from the organization. Most of the businesses we saw were actually different from what the business owners had originally received the grants.  But after making profits through their original businesses, they were able to borrow small loans from their business savings group (kind of like their local village bank) to start another small side business.

First we visited with a business owner selling mandazi, which is kind of like an East African doughnut. They are served from a platter by skewering them and then dropping them into a plastic bag. They are very tasty! We then visited with business owners selling oranges and tamarind, and another selling packaged peanuts and soynuts.

Business owner skewering mandazi (notice use of a similar basket)

Business owners selling tamarind and local oranges 

Business owner with child selling packaged  nuts 

When one of the women was being interviewed about starting this additional side business, she said “We are doing what you taught us. Business! Business! Business!”