photo: Vanuatu fruit and veggies pickers at the Saturday market, spreading joy.

Nelson town center has been a noisy and inconvenient construction site for over six months, and nothing will change until July (?) 2027. What hasn’t changed, fortunately, is the Saturday morning market, still enjoyable, thanks in part to the musicians, amateur or not, who come to add some atmosphere to Saturday shopping. For some time now, the fruit and vegetable pickers from Vanuatu, show up at the market around ten in the morning with their instruments and spread joy all around them. It’s absolutely impossible not to smile when approaching their small group. Later, you’ll spot them at the doors of hcarity shops and other second-hand stores where they’ll spend the money earned to find something that will please all the members of their family. I get emotional every time, seeing that people who have so little (by our Western standards) manage to spread so much joy around them.