Salespeople In My Life

Here are some photos of various people who have tried to sell me things, usually successfully.

Tuareg jewellry seller out in the Sahara Desert behind Timbuktu, Mali. They are called the Blue Men of the Desert because the blue dye in their clothes colours their skin blue. Why would you wear that ugly yellow colour to the left when you could wear a pretty blue robe? These guys were out of luck though, because I had just bought some nice things from another fellah who wore normal clothes and brought his stuff to our hotel lobby.

This guy was a nougat seller just outside of a mosque in Fes, Morocco. His stuff is very pretty looking and nicely displayed. I asked if I could take a photo of his shop and he even posed as though he were busy stocking his shelves.

I wanted to buy a gold necklace in Luxor Egypt, and at this kid's shop there was a necklace in the style I liked, with a thin tubular snake like texture, but it was too long. Not to worry, they instantly took a pair of wire cutters and snipped off the latch and an inch or so off the end and dispensed the kid off to a dirty little room to weld the latch back to the severed end. Now I have three problems with this. First, I didn't say I was going to buy it and they snipped it the second I said it was too short. Second, welding a gold necklace into two pieces really ruins the look of a necklace particularly where the texture goes from normal to melted to a welded blotch, not to mention never being able to trust the weld or the latch again, and thirdly, I am worried about an 8 year old kid using a blow torch in the first place, much less at 11 pm on a school night when he should be in bed. Also, where's his eye protection?! Needless to say after watching this performance I told them I wasn't interested!