With Teeth, The other Side of The Road, Under the Crossbar and On the Bus

Every three weeks I make sure that I have exactly R14 in cash handy in my car. I take a different route to work, knowing that my friend will be waiting at one of the major intersections in Cape Town. At first glance, she's just another annoying seller at a traffic light- pressuring you into paying for a piece of paper that you're going to throw away with the apple-core and the empty Coke can that has been rattling around on the floor in the back for days now. But, if you look a little closer, you won't see that menace in the eyes of Siphokazi Magobiyane or Pina Ncata (two of my friends around town) that you so often see, pasted onto the faces of other street-vendors that you have denied 'doing business' with, like cheap make-up. You will see someone who is proud of her job, and proud to be earning some money by selling The Big Issue to you, if that's what you choose to do when you see her. She's happy to take a smile and a wave, too.

A lot of people don't know about The Big Issue. I remember my first recollection of the magazine when I was still a student living in Claremont. It had a headline something to do with Aliens and UFO's. That was all I knew because I didn't bother to buy the magazine- not because I was a student and didn't have any money but because I was going through a stage where I didn't have much faith in the human race- I doubted that anyone, anywhere had anything good to do in the world. My opinion of The Big Issue (and the human race) has subsequently done 'a one-eighty'.

I bought my first issue one blustery afternoon on my way back to work after popping out to run some errands. As I was clambering back into my car, trying to avoid the mean Cape winds, I noticed a R20 note sleeping in the gutter next to my feet. Being wholly human, I picked it up with a wry smile on my face...happy to have 'scored'. I left the crumpled, windswept note in my car and set off back to the office. As I idled, waiting for the traffic light to go green at the busy intersection of Strand and Buitenkracht Street, a Big Issue seller approached my car, pointing to the 'only R14' copy on the front cover, just below the headline. I did what I had always done: Shook my head, smiled and mouthed 'no thanks' to her, but that sad little wrinkly brown note caught my eye as I looked down. I opened my window and motioned to the woman to come back. That was the moment that I first experience the satisfaction that comes with buying The Big Issue. I didn't know at the time that this would help to bring in money for each person who took pride in selling their magazines. I didn't know that I would become an avid supporter of The Big Issue. All I knew was that I felt good about using the money I had found to do something for someone else, and that the woman who had sold me that first magazine had a beautiful smile, her lips plump with gratitude and the corners of her mouth turned up with pride.

Here are 'The Big Issue Facts' that you need to know: It's a non-profit non-governmental organisation that publishes a general interest magazine every three weeks. It's a job creation programme that has organised a vendor sales operation consisting of unemployed, homeless and socially excluded adults. It's an initiative backed-up by a social development programme that provides vendor support, including vocational, life and business skills training and guidance counselling. Critical to its job creation function is The Big Issue Philosophy that actively encourages and equips vendors to "move on" from the project and into mainstream society (Taken from The Big Issue, #155). If that isn't worthy of praise then I challenge you to find an initiative that does a better job and let me know.

Every issue is different but resonates with the same passion for it's cause as the last. There are a few resident authors: Lauren Beukes who writes every column 'with teeth' and always leaves you thinking very interesting thoughts; Aly Verbaan who inspires me in many different ways with her writing style; Duane Heath who never disappoints with his witty and 'uber'-male sports-style and Erfaan Dramat, a bus driver with Golden Arrow, who's writing is always surprising and highlights the things that many of us fail to notice in the first place. Then there are the guest authors, ranging from school kids to well-known journalists. One of my personal favourites is the last few pages of the magazine where current and past Big Issue vendors are interviewed or write their own stories for the magazine in the 'Streets Ahead' section. Here, vendors are featured- their stories finally told. They are honored as 'vendor of the month' and tell their stories with pride when featured 'moving on up' to other jobs having been inspired by their work with The Big Issue. What I'm hinting at with all of these words is this: The Big Issue is something worth reading, worth spending R14 on and definitely worth the smile you receive for free when that crisp magazine slides through your window and onto the passenger seat, as juicy as a ripe Litchi waiting to be cracked open.

If you think that I may be getting 'compensated' for writing about The Big Issue, you're wrong. I'm writing about it because I truly believe in what they are doing. I take pride in the fact that they are an initiative with integrity and with the fact that they help people to empower themselves- a quality that many people in our evolving country need to adopt. I'm writing about The Big Issue because I enjoy what they have to offer and, because this blog is all about me, my life and what I like doing, I wanted to share something with you that has a little more resonance than what I ate for dinner, or what my plans for the weekend are. With The Big Issue as fuel to this minute's fire, I hope that my words inspire you to stash away R14 in your car to start your own career as a Big Issue reader, supporter and fan. I'd like to think that what I have to say isn't like candy-floss on a rainy day- a sticky mess on the pavement, and that it might get a few more people to seek out their Big Issue friends on their own way to work in the mornings.

Who knows, maybe the editor, Donald Paul, will give me the opportunity to write a few of my own humble words for him and become yet another rich colour in the vibrant painting that already is The Big Issue.