Medebar market in Eritrea's capital, Asmara, is characterised by the incessant din of countless blowlamps, hammers, saws and grinders. Here, nearly everything that is sold is made on the spot using old material, often bought in garages. Medebar is one huge recycling factory. Old metal barrels are transformed into barbecues or small stoves.
Parts taken from cars are put in furnaces and turned into scythes. Used tyres are made into ropes. Tins are converted into kitchen utensils.
Medebar, which means "together" in Tigrinya, consists of rows of cramped workshops mostly fashioned from corrugated iron.
"There are more than a thousand workshops here, and each has a minimum of two employees. This market started half a century ago," said Yonas Ghidey, owner of a workshop in which he makes and sells chairs.
"We lack space," he sighed. "And the workshops are often in the dark, for electricity is limited. That forces us to work outside, in the heat."
Workshop owners complain about a shortage of imports over the last year. The material they need, even second-hand, is becoming more and more expensive. Their objects are sold either on the spot, or via distributors.
In most workshops, young children, often below the age of ten, can be seen working. Several workshop owners asserted that they were their own children, that they were there to help. They said the children go to school in the mornings, and work on the market in the afternoons. Yonas Gebreselassie is 18. "I've been working here for three years. I spend half my time at school and half my time here. I work to help my family. I earn 800 Nakfa a month (45 euros at the official rate)."
In two hours, he transforms one metal barrel into three barbecues. Berihu Hagos shaves the damaged surfaces of tyres with a knife. "Three years ago, I was working in a garage. Here, I have my own workshop and I earn more money," he stressed.
"The principle of this market is that nothing is thrown away. Even the bits of tyre I remove, I then sell them to those who need them to burn stuff." There are only men in the workshops, but a few women also work in Medebar, selling the popular "berbere", a chili which accompanies many an Eritrean dish.
They take the stalks off the peppers, then put them in an electric grinder, and end up with a red powder. "Before grinding them we add a few spices," pointed out Helen Haddish, 17.
She left school three years ago to come and work on the market full time "to help my family". She earns 600 Nakfa (34 euros) a month. "I don't like my work, and it's bad for my health," she shouted above the noise of the grinders. The chili dust stings the eyes, irritates the throat and provokes sneezing.
Medebar's cacaphony only subsides around six in the evening, when the sun begins to set and the market shuts down.
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