Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Soccer Balls

On our way to Bojo Beach, we bought a small soccer ball (or foot ball as they may be called). In Accra, as most busy cities in Ghana, there are tons of people selling all kinds of different items on the street. I often see fruit, toilet paper, power strips and adapters, newspapers, magazines, belts, socks, trousers, peanuts, phone cards, books, candy, maps, briefcases, ice cream, souvenirs, water bottles, pet fish, among many, many other things. We signaled to a man selling the soccer balls that he should come over to the car, but the traffic started to move. Traffic in Accra is atrocious – worse than any traffic I have ever encountered, which includes DC, LA, New York, and India. We had been standing in traffic for five or ten minutes and, of course, as soon as we decide to talk to the guy, we start to move. Luckily, we only moved about 200 feet so soccer guy came running after us carrying is big bag of balls. He told us that a regular sized soccer ball was 25 cedis ($18) which entirely too much. We haggled over a small one for a little bit, with the final decision of 5 cedis ($3.50). Mission accomplished.

This is when someone in the car mentioned that she felt sorry for the man. First of all, he doesn’t have a better job so he is forced to stand out in the sun on a busy road and just hope that someone needs a soccer ball. He’s forced to run after anyone interested. Then he has to haggle with the buyer and try to get the largest sum of money that he can get. Every sale is very important and he can’t afford to let one go.

Personally, I don’t throw pity around lightly. Everything this person said is absolutely true and it would be much better for him if he had a higher paying job that were under better conditions and paid better. There are hundreds of these sellers in Accra doing all that they can in order to make a few bucks every day. But then I think: at least he has a job. We pass people who have been subjected to unkind conditions and are now crippled and have to beg for the money. There are hundreds of farmers whose family is hungry because his crop failed or didn’t produce enough. So do I feel sorry for him? I don’t know. I know I wouldn’t want his job, but there are a lot of other jobs I wouldn’t want to do. How long has he been doing this? Does he or has he ever had other options? Does he like it? Does he only do this once a week to supplement his other, better salary? I need more information before I feel sorry for him.

Maybe I’m naïve. Maybe I’m clueless. Maybe I’m hopeful. I don’t know.

The beach was great though!

Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. Sheri HumphreysJanuary 26, 2011 at 11:58 PM

    No, no, I think he's great! He's working instead of begging. It's a good thing. He won't sell the ball at a loss. Plus, this type of sales is part of the culture. Sheri

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJanuary 27, 2011 at 9:51 AM

    I agree with Sheri to a point. Although i don't want his job either, i know for a fact that they almost never sell at a loss. The common thing is to sell twice or thrice the original price, especially to naive foreigners who don't like bargaining, so his profit is comparatively huge. The question though is, what do they do with the profits? Do they save and invest or do they just spend it? Fortunately, some do and have gone on to expand their businesses and gotten out of the sun. I know this cos occassionally, there are documentaries about those who sell on the streets. One shoemaker (as we call them in Ghana) started on the streets polishing shoes and as at the time of the documentary, he had opened a thriving shoemaking shop that was doing just fine. So maybe i will feel sorry for them only because they have to stand in the scorching sun for the beginning of what i'd call their career. But if they play their cards right and invest their money well, they will soon get out of it and expand their business, no matter the type of business it is.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)