Perspectives: Staying with It

I passed several street vendors on a corner near a park as I made my way to the center of town a couple of days ago.  It seems there is no shortage of new ideas about what one might sell in order to generate a little income.  I saw one young man with a cart, equipped with a buta-gaz cooker that enabled him to boil water.   In the water he cooked chick-peas, and another kind of bean called “fuhl.”   In the past, I have described fuhl as lima beans on steroids.   He had dish pans full of each type that had already been cooked, and packaged them in sheets of paper, rolled up to form a cone.  My carbo quotient having been met for the day, I passed on them.

The other person who caught my eye was a young mother, probably in her early twenties.  I say mother, because she had a baby less than a year old tied on her back, the traditional method mothers carry their infants; I assumed it to be her own.  At her feet lay a blanket on the sidewalk, with a large inventory of packages of chewing gum.  She continuously yelled the mantra, “jooz dirhams, jooz dirhams, jooz dirhams,” the price of the gum being two dirhams, a little less than a quarter.

When I returned to the hotel, I described the scene to Denise and commented that the effort required had to be enormous to do what she did, and the pay-off had to be minimal at best.  The volume of sales is meager, but one does have to admire her initiative in trying to earn a living.  Denise scolded me, no she chastised me, when I responded negatively to the question of whether I had made a purchase.

Yesterday, I happened by the same location and the industrious young woman was at her station again, still chanting the price and carrying her baby on her back.  In my backpack I now have a package of Ocean Fresh gum.  The quarter I spent purchased the gum and a small measure of approval; not a bad deal.  The blackberry flavor comes highly recommended.


Fred

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