Brigades, Pushers, Bikers and Headers Part 1

The Niamey Travelling Salesmen fascinate me.
The amount of merchandise that travels around the city in wheelbarrows, attached to push carts, piled on bikes and balanced on heads is amazing.  The variety is incredible.  There have been days when I've walked the 2.5 miles from my house to downtown just to see and photograph the Niamey Traveling Salesmen.  I love it.

Wheelbarrows are extremely efficient when it comes to selling produce.  

Watermelon.

Oranges.  Peeled for the customer right on the spot.  There is certainly an art to peeling these with a sharp knife, shaving off only the finest of the peeling.  Within seconds, the whole air is perfumed deliciously with the aroma of the sweet oranges. 

White sweet potatoes.  They are already cooked and ready to eat.

Sugar cane is a popular snack.  They peel it, cut it in small pieces and bag it for the customer as they wait.

It is peak tomato season right now and the "tomato depot" is close to our house.  Everyday around 4pm brigades of empty wheelbarrows are headed to the depot to load up and take them around town to sell.  

Coconut whole or cut up for a snack.

Downtown is wheelbarrow heaven.  It works great to load up with vegetables or fruit and park it along side the road to sell.  When it's time to go home there is no packing up to be done.  

 

Keep watching for Part II in The Niamey Travelling Salesmen series.