Owino Market

Uganda and I think East Africa in general has a huge market for used clothes. Buying used is usually better than buying new as the used clothes are from the US and Europe and are much better then the new clothes (which I think are the lowest possible quality) from China. The best place to get used clothes was Owino market, the most amazing informal market I have seen. You can get everything in Owino from clothes, backpacks, shoes, paper, rice, curtains, plates, etc, etc. The first time I went into Owino I was pretty much overwhelmed and could not spend much time there. However, it only took a few visits to realize that the place is brillant and that there is quite a lot of organization and LOTS of great stuff!

My friend Tess and I had planned to go and spend 12 hours in Owino to figure out this organization and make friends(hopefully getting better deals in the future :) ) However, on Feb 25th there was a fire that burnt down Owino market and everything in it. It is very likely arson as the bus company next door wanted that land to expand and the market would not give it to them. The fire started at 2am when nobody was in the market and the vendors lost all of their merchindise as well as money that they hid in their merchandise.

Amy, Kristen and I went to visit the market the afternoon after it burned down and took these pics. It was pretty humbling to see all the ash and loss. However, it was very inspiring because even though the embers were still burning, they were rebuilding the market. People gathered together to reconstruct the market and were slated to open about 3 weeks after it had burned to the ground, evidence of the attitude of perseverence in disasters.