Synonym a Day

Adolphe Mulinowa hustles to a roadside with a few plastic bottles of pink gasoline, which he hawks alongside dozens of other street vendors. In a town of debrouillards, Mulinowa has learned to exploit tiny advantages. He has figured out that, because Goma has dozens of gasoline vendors, his chances are better two miles away at the Rwanda-Congo border. There, drivers have to slow down and are more likely to notice him. (Davan Maharaj, “When the Push for Survival Is a Full-Time Job; What Is It Like to Live on Less Than a Dollar a Day? Hundreds of Millions in Sub-Saharan Africa Know,” Los Angeles Times, 7/11/2004.)