Street Vendors

Here in South Africa we drive on the left side of the road. That has had its own set of challenges for this North American who prefers the right side. But learning to dodge the street vendors is a daily challenge that never goes away!

To say that people sell things on the street would be an inaccurate statement. It would be more correct to say they sell them IN the street - in between traffic lanes, on the side of the road, in the middle of intersections, etc. Just about anywhere there isn't a car, there is a street vendor.

Street vendors sell anything from cell phone adaptors to hangers, ball caps and ladies' purses. My favourite is the clown on Atterbury Road who sells medical posters. I say "clown" because he's actually dressed up as a clown. He sells the medical posters you would see in any doctor's office: diagrams of the optic nerve, inner ear, or renal system. I can't help but wonder if he's successful ("Hangers? No. Rugby flag? No. Diagram of the retina? I've been looking all over town for one of those!")

Worse, I wonder if these diagrams are accurate, and if the ones in doctor's offices were purchased from some clown on the street (literally). Could you imagine a doctor in surgery... "Well the poster SAID the pituitary gland was right here!"

The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well here in Pretoria, and my driving, um, involves a lot of swerving! If only the street vendors sold car sickness medicine!