A morning visit to the central market included shopkeepers selling
everything from vegetables, clothes and cheap Chinese made accessories to
loud moto taxi drivers and a man waving a small fish at Zahra, Olga and me.
We also got to chat to a group a women selling dried tilapia, a local fish,
that’s transported on trucks all the way from Uganda.

About 80 percent of the small stalls at the market is owned by women, a
hopeful fact in a country where life for women is not always that easy.

Later, colleagues complained that the three of us arrived at the meeting
with the army force commander smelling of fish. It proved to be a good
tactic as the general kept his answers short.

Katarina Höije