Chapter 1015 Labor is the Most Glorious
Papa and the others had guessed Xiao Peng's itinerary correctly. The next morning, Xiao Peng's car appeared at the port of Ziguinchor, waiting in line to board the ferry. As Papa and the others had said, if Xiao Peng was in a hurry to get to Dakar, the fastest way would be to take a boat.
The territory of Senegal is a horizontal U-shape, with Ziguinchor and Dakar right at the two ends of this "U". It is really a pain to go around it.
But even going to Ziguinchor was a struggle. He had to travel more than 100 kilometers east along the Casamance River from Ghibelline to Ziguinchor, then board a boat and sail west along the Casamance River for more than 100 nautical miles into the Atlantic Ocean before heading north to Dakar. It was a long way back.
When Xiao Peng arrived at the port of Ziguinchor, he was a little confused: Why is there still a traffic jam? Where are the port staff?
The traffic jam was caused by a car that couldn't start.
Is this a car?
It does have four wheels, and looks like a pickup truck, but where's the hood? The doors? The roof? The windshield?
After a long search, Xiao Peng finally recognized the car. Wasn't it the Peugeot 504 pickup truck, produced half a century ago? Who would have recognized it if it weren't for the little lion on the front? Although all of Senegal was filled with used European cars, he had never seen a car this old!
There was a man sitting in the car, struggling to start it. His right hand was bandaged, so he could only use one hand to shift gears and start the car, and he was in a panic.
"What the hell!" Xiao Peng cursed. "How can a junky car like this be on the road? This is a disaster for the world!"
Momoduo, who was sitting in the back seat, said, "Xiao, it's not like you haven't been around our country before. You must have seen cars even shabbier than this, right?"
Before Xiao Peng could say anything, Irka, who was sitting in the passenger seat, said, "That's true. We saw a car north of Tambakunda with a wheel missing that was still running perfectly."
Xiao Peng complained, "Are those people up front idiots? Push the car away! What if they delay everyone from getting on board?"
Momodo laughed, "Don't worry, Xiao, I won't be late. People in our country don't know what 'on time' means."
Xiao Peng was originally anxious, but he relaxed after hearing what Momodo said.
Momodo's self-deprecation is quite accurate. It is said that two years ago, the President of Senegal visited China and was shocked: China was completely different from what the media said! Since then, Senegal has embarked on the path of learning China's economic development model.
And the first rule their president issued is: civil servants must be on time!
In fact, the whole of Africa has this problem. People here basically have no concept of "punctuality". Even the flight departure time depends on "my mood", not to mention the ferry!
But even though Momoduo said this, he still opened the car door and got out: "These people are stupid, can't they just help push the car open... huh?"
"What's wrong?" Xiao Peng asked, seeing that Momodo had a strange expression.
Momodo asked, "The man in front looks like Kambu?"
Xiao Peng did not answer this question.
Even though he'd spent so much time in France and seen so many black people, and boasted about having no difficulty identifying people across races, it wasn't until he arrived in Africa that he realized how naive he'd been: it truly was difficult to tell apart! Even someone like Momodo, whom Xiao Peng had seen so many times, couldn't describe him. He relied more on a combination of body shape, clothing, and hairstyle to identify him.
The first thing that came to his mind was: What does Kambu look like?
Momodo ran to the traffic jam ahead and called for a cart to be pushed, and soon the traffic jam was cleared again. Xiao Peng was speechless. Why did such a simple thing cause such a long delay? It was really incomprehensible to the African way of thinking.
As a result, Momodo got off the car by himself to direct the pushing of the cart, but when he came back there were two people.
"Kambu?" Xiao Peng looked at the person coming and recognized that it was Kambu who broke his arm yesterday.
He was able to recognize Kambu thanks to what Momodo said just now: when he met Kambu yesterday, he was shirtless. Now that he is wearing clothes, who the hell can recognize who he is!
Huh? Why does this statement make people think irrationally?
When Xiao Peng saw clearly what Kambu was wearing, he almost laughed out loud. It was a red polo shirt with a white collar. On the front was written in Chinese characters: "Heping 2nd Road Machine Repair Factory" and on the back was written "Labor is the Most Glorious".
Across the African continent, there's no shortage of locals wearing clothing printed with Chinese characters. The reason for all this boils down to one word: poverty.
I remember a couple of years ago, when there were so-called "clothing donation boxes" on the streets of urban communities in China, many people thought they were for people in impoverished areas, and they started donating enthusiastically. They'd toss their old, unwanted clothes into the boxes, and they'd feel happy, feeling like they were contributing to charity.
But what is the reality?
Perhaps only one ten-thousandth of the money in these clothing donation boxes is used for charity!
The vast majority of clothing donation bins are run by businesses and individuals. Why do they do this? To make money, of course! This is a lucrative business!
The clothes recycled through the donation bins can be sold for 5,000 yuan per ton for good quality! Poor quality items like T-shirts can be sold for 2,000 yuan per ton! In China, there is no shortage of people and no shortage of used clothes! It's no exaggeration to say that if we set up 30 to 50 donation bins in crowded communities, we could easily recycle 2 to 3 tons of used clothes a day. After a little sorting, they can be sold for money!
Most of these used clothes will be shipped across the ocean to Africa. In almost every African country, you can find clothing merchants who specialize in selling used clothes from China, and there are dedicated second-hand clothing markets.
Don't underestimate these old clothes. Most Chinese businessmen working in the second-hand clothing industry in Africa are worth tens or even hundreds of millions of yuan. They sell as many as they can get. Because these second-hand clothes are so cheap, even the middle class in Africa buys second-hand Chinese clothes.
As for why it's so cheap? Is there any need to ask? It's practically a zero-cost deal!
"Xiao, I just said I thought I saw Kambu, and it turned out to be him!" Momodo said, "This guy blocked the car there and didn't let anyone in. He was just afraid that we would miss our car!"
Xiao Peng's face was filled with gloom. "Kambu, I'm sorry for injuring your hand, but I treated you and compensated you for your losses. Injuries are inevitable in wrestling matches. Why are you still pestering me? Do you think the money is not enough? Tell me, how much do you want!"
"No, no, no, you misunderstood!" Kambu said directly: "I didn't come to you for money, nor did I come because of my hand! I came to learn from you! Xiao, please teach me wrestling!"
"Oh, so that's it! This is easy!" Xiao Peng said.
Kambu's face lit up with joy after hearing this.
“I won’t teach you!”
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