Grocery Shopping in Niamey

Today we did a bit of grocery shopping.  I'm weary of eating baguettes 3X a day so figured it was time to start cooking as it doesn't seem we'll be in our own home anytime soon.   There are  3 "large" grocery stores, all located in the downtown area, which are about the size of  a Walgreens (one of my favorite couponing stores!).  Remember that Niamey is a city of a million people.  Then there are countless "hole in the wall" stores that are the size of a very small gas station store but with 10X as much stuff crammed into it.  The aisles are so narrow that it's almost impossible to pass another person, so of course shopping carts are not appropriate. The challenge is to remember which "hole" has what!    One has soy sauce, one has brown sugar and one has white sugar; one has good ramen noodles and one has eggs that are kept in a refrigerator vs. in the open air.  One is a good place to buy meat and one has the best cheese. One is called "the white shack" (it's blue now) but most don't have names--"it's the one beside the..." .  The vegetables and fruit are sold outside along the street or at an open market. They are not too plentiful at this time of year. I'm told that January and February is the time when the local gardens really start producing.

We found our favorite snack:

Salted peanuts are sold in recycled whiskey bottles. No, the bottle doesn't smell anymore.   

 And this is what I fixed my dear hubby for lunch!  Yeah! for ramen noodles.

And for supper we had papaya with lemon juice.   Without the seeds, of course.

 Any vegetables and fruits that we eat raw are cleaned/soaked in a mixture of water and bleach. 

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Tom stopped at the store tonight to buy a few things.  Here are the prices translated into dollars:  (475 cfa = $1.00)

Sugar:  $1.42/kilo  (2.2 pounds)
Flour:  $1.47/kilo
Oil:  $3.16/ bottle
Eggs:  $5.53/ 15 eggs     Yikes!  Maybe chickens don't like this heat either.  

As far as I could tell, they don't take coupons, either!  So sad.