I wake up every morning, 3 am just before the sunlight begins to think of appearing around the edges with my hand-made wooden box cart “Ma Fruit aGondo” on the side. I guide it in my numerous travels across the supposed sunshine city that I somehow always find myself in its dark corners, engraved. My journey begins every cold morning with a heavily filled cart and although I travel through many neighbourhoods every working day and see different things the one thing that remains the same is my constant thought on the day’s target. The questions,
“How many Bananas and apples am I going to sell today?”, “How am i going to avoid the council guys if I come across them today? and if they do confiscate my things do I have my ‘plan B’ ready? Have I renewed my vending license?”
and a whole lot more. Usually, these questions keep me occupied as I walk through the many narrow and wide roads pushing ‘my produce’.
Just like any other business, my customers are unpredictable, to say the least, some nice and grateful for my service of providing them with fresh clean fruit(because I prioritise hygiene) and some give that demeaning look as if to try to tell me my business venture has no worth in life. I can recall on one occasion, I visited the affluent suburb of Newlands as I thought I could fatten my stained cheap pockets because of it’s the popular status of housing the rich and the famous people in the city. I went through the clean communities and kept going, as I pushed my cart to try to attract buyers one elderly white couple who seemed interested by the way they approached and stared at my cart only to inquire on whether I could try selling my fruits in the next neighbourhood and their reason?
“We prefer fruits from the local store, you know, the ones with the branded airrated plastic bags and have no bacteria..”
I knew they were trying hard not to mention the words ‘typhoid or cholera or both’ the local news had been screaming about, how it was affecting people at the time. Funny thing is, it was affecting people from my neighbourhood yet they still bought my fruits without hesitation and I myself ate the fruit and never contracted anything. I just made a U-turn and went back on my regular route and never went back there since.
At the end of the day I find myself fantasizing about developing my business into a proper set up, open up genuine shops and maybe turn it into a brand, say MaFruits aGondo Store but oh well, I decide to land my spaceship of thoughts every now and then and make the most of what I have. All I ask for is respect for my business, nothing less.
Yours Faithfully
A Dedicated Entrepreneur
