Bananas’ Town

8 hours on African roads and I was lightly swaying in and out of sleep when the frenetic rush at the back door of the truck made me turn around on my seat. We had stopped at the side of the road. Women were fighting their way to the truck, holding their goods high up in their hands, as if selling them to God. Sam, our guide stood firmly at the half-open door inside the truck, gesturing numbers to the women. They were really insistent. Still half dreaming, I didn’t quite understand straight away what was going on. I thought the women were going to get the best out of this fight, by pushing the guide back in, running over him and invading the truck. Seeing me looking so confused, my friend exclaimed: he is only trying to buy bananas!

I don’t know the name of this town, but I do know we were far south in Tanzania, about 1 hour drive to the border with Malawi. So I called it Bananas’ Town. There were bananas everywhere! More bananas per square meter than I could ever imagine possible. Women were chilling out, chatting away in the middle of piles of green bananas; other walk around balancing a bunch on their heads, while there were vans unloading even more. I only had about 5 minutes to look around from my window’s seat while Sam made negotiations. This place was epic and a bargain as well, Sam got us about 40 bananas for just 1.50£!!! I was sure we found a monkey’s paradise!