12 April 2012

.guilty.


I think it was destiny that my birthday fell on market day. If you haven't heard already market day is my favorite day of the week/event in Malawi. It's a day where tons of people in Liwonde (the big town) or smaller surrounding villages come with their produce and used clothes to sell!

I was told before I arrived to Malawi, "don't bring a lot of clothes because the used clothing market is great." It seemed like a strange concept. Used clothes? From where? Nothing is made IN Malawi.  But sure enough I arrived and there is a GREAT used clothing market. Name brand, vintage, and Euro funky clothes. WHAT?

So the story I've heard is that Malawi receives a lot of clothing donations from all over (it's funny because you can almost tell week by week where the clothes are coming from depending on the style...USA (I found a brand "Don't Mess With Texas" once. ekk.), Italy, India, etc.). Being creative entrepreneurs, Malawians have turned this into an opportunistic economy.The distributors sell clothes off by the bundle to independent vendors who come out every week and sell sell sell...bras, pants, scarfs, curtains, tablecloths, jackets, sheets, dresses, costumes, you name it! It like Goodwill on crack. swoon!!

So I hit it up yesterday and no surprise I found several things I don't need and now my floor looks like some Grandma's closet exploded. oops!

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