Friday, November 11, 2005

Pavement Pounders (Part 10)

Đánh giy is my story today. This is a strange story of the street perhaps doesn't happen in other countries.

For 2000Vnd, you can have your shoes cleaned and they look like new shoes. There are lots of little boys doing this business, wandering around with a box or a plastic bag and some shoe-laces hanging from the top of the box. Most of them are from the countryside trying to avoid farming work, school or for family reasons. However, there are some boys who are from the city trying to earn some money for their study or for some reason or another.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Godknows,
It's so sad isn't it? I always try to do something about it whenever I got a chance to visit VN, but one person can only do so much...

Anonymous said...

yeah Michelle, we can only do so much! every time I'm in VN, I always try to give these kids some work even though my shoes/sandles don't need cleaning. If you take some time to chat with them, they are really nice kids struggling to earn a living.....

layered said...

This is fairly common in China also, although there seems to be a greater age range among the vendors there.

Van Cong Tu said...

Hi all,
Working for a bit of money is better than being a beggar. I am more than happy to give these people my shoes to clean.

Anonymous said...

VNGod

I was a shoeshine boy in the USA, it's noble work. Make sure to tip your boy, they work hard with long hours

Van Cong Tu said...

I always give them more than the going rate and appreciate what they do very much.