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| Open for business |
For more than eight years Amadou has traveled the globe in an effort to provide for the family that he left behind in Senegal. Amadou is an independent street merchant. He sells fashion purses most of which he purchases in the fashion district.As one of 14 children from his father's union of four wives, Amadou understands well the value of family.
"I have to support everybody back home - just me."And from thousands of miles across the globe he provides for his four children, two wives, his father and his father's two surviving wives. Seated on a bench in front of the Time & Life building he answers an incoming call, "Yes boss," and he begins speaking rapidly in Arabic. It is a fellow countryman currently living in Germany where Amadou himself also lived, sustained by the same trade before coming to the states.
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| keeping in touch with friends abroad |
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| Amadou shares pics of 1 of his 2 wives. |
Amadou begins his day around 2pm on weekdays and 10 a.m. on Saturdays.Yes the tourists come out early on weekends." Tuesdays he takes the day off. He has systematically positioned himself on the path to Rockefeller center from Times Sq. His roll-away tables are situated curbside, draped in tarp and spilling with purses. "I pay sometimes $20 for each. Customers do not have money, I charge sometimes $30." Amadou hasn't visited home for almost three years now. When asked about Senegal he smiles, "I miss it very much. Here I have no wife." He then pulls out his cell phone and displays his screen saver a picture of his second wife. When asked when he thinks he will return home for good he smiles and stares out into the distance, "I don't know maybe not for long time."
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