My Experience as a Road hawker.
I was tired of sitting at home with
nothing to show as the reward, I
decided to contact my street friend
Uche who i really envy because every
weekend when he was at home he
bounced from earth to heaven and
back to earth like a big boy while the
small boys like myself in the area
looked up to him. On this very day
after i had made that determination I
went to him “Uche abeg i dey find
work,help your guy” I said as if i was
praying rubbing my palm over the
other. He was silent for some minutes
i guessed he was thinking of helping
me or not,after what seems like hours
he considered me “guy tomorrow na
Monday so you go need reach here by
5:00am if i nor see you by that time
then forget am.” he said as he picked
up his phone to answer a call. “5am
bawo” I thought, Me that 5am is the
best sleeping hours for but on the
other hand i needed money,beggars
can’t be choosers,therefore the next
day I was at Uche’s house at exactly
4:40am,things we do for money.
Getting to his house I met other street
big boys as we all started the long ride
to our workshop as they say “it is
where a man works there he shops
that’s why it is called
workshop” (pidgin).
After one hour of the drive we got to
a popular market in Lagos,before i
could say ABC guys were already out
of the “danfo”(a yellow Volkswagen
bus in Lagos) changing into another
cloth,I saw Uche too removing his
shirt and slipping on another cloth as i
didn’t bring any cloth i just stood still
observing,before I could breath in
guys were already moving towards
there area of specialization collecting
their wares into a carton while Uche
led me to a woman whom he
introduced me to as his brother,the
woman took two cartons and filled it
with gala,one for me the other for
Uche, He led me to where we were to
resume,guys were already there
running after cars,buses,bikes etc
Uche soon join the race while I
carried my own portion of the gala
like I was new in Lagos. If Nigeria
really want to win gold medals in track
event then this was the place to
picked up raw talent and groom
them,they run with skill and zeal,some
of them sold more than three cartons
a day while I had manage to sell one
and made a loss of three due to all
those wicked buyers in vehicles that
will pick one gala and drive away and I
wasn’t ready to run after them,Uche
paid for the loss thinking I was new to
the trade.
The next day we were back to the
road but sales was not really
moving,then Uche received a call on
his phone,he ended the call “them
say hold up(traffic jam) dey Oshodi o”
he told us before I knew what’s up
guys were already boarding vehicles
with their wares to Oshodi,Uche drew
me aside “this place we dey go na
danger zone o because them no dey
allow us hawk for there once you see
any vehicle watch very well before you
move close,no dull yourself o” he told
me while we boarded our own bus to
Oshodi. The hawking soon began
while we were happy with the traffic
jam people in the bus were visibly
angry but that didn’t stop them from
buying gala at least to keep their
mouth busy. I was lost in the
euphoria of making says when I heard
“Ambode boys don arrive o” I saw
guys running here and there,then
from my part of the road I saw six
boys pleading as they were being
dragged by their trousers into a bus, I
quickly carried my wares and took to
my heels. As we return back home as
guys talked about those that were
caught,I knew deep down within me
that was my last day with them.
The End.

Source: https://divinequote./2016/09/06/my-experience-as-a-hawker-in-lagos/