We’ve built some relationships with the local vendors that
sell goods up the road from us. They
sell everything from roasted corn to soap.
We have Frederick, our personal chip guy (he stands all day at the grill
cooking potato wedges in hot oil). We
have Lucius and James, our fruit and vegetable suppliers. We have George, our Airtel guy that sells us
airtime on scratch tickets. These aren’t
deep relationships, but they make Blantyre feel more like home when we wave and
smile driving by or walk up the road to do business.
It was a sad scene this morning as we saw police and
soldiers come through and destroy the marketplace infrastructure of semi
permanent stands built of sticks and tarps and the chipper grills constructed
of brick. As I drove by, I heard a
familiar greeting, “Ah Mr. Bill!” It was
one of the guys who sells us vegetables just standing on the side of the road and
now without a business to run.
The president of Malawi has decreed that there are to be no
roadside businesses and I believe a case could be made for such a decision: these
businesses are not tax paying, there is not appropriate sanitation, safety of
pedestrians walking by, etc.
But now there are at least a 100 people without work to
support their families and that is tremendously sad. Blantyre just got a little less
friendly.
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