Greetings to all,
Welcome to my Q3 2014 update email. When I last wrote, we had just opened the Saloum Store and were celebrating Ramadan. Weather right now is cooling off, with highs in the upper 90s, some rains, and elevated humidity – so this stretch of three months we’re in is just like August in DC or Missouri (feels like home). I officially hit the 1 year mark last week. It seems like so much has happened in the past year. When I arrived a year ago I remember mostly being wide-eyed and frightened by walks through the market and transportation hubs. Now at 1 year, I can haggle until the guy says “uncle”, and creaky buses shared with a neighbor’s goats or chickens don’t seem at all unusual.
Throwback photo from 1 year ago: Oh my gosh look how clean and shiny I look!
Weather in Kaolack: Who’s up for slip ‘n slide?
RPCVs are going to recognize this, it’s the infamous Cycle of Adjustment!
The Saloum Store is now up to 24 women’s groups! We’re offering some new innovative products these days, such as delicious dried mangoes, fancy handmade natural soaps, ginger chews, and a snack that looks like a heath bar McFlurry – just add yogurt. Basically, I am trying to recreate Trader Joe’s in Senegal. Honestly, I’ve been truly impressed by the way these groups have responded to my requests for innovative products. In a country where people go to the market and sit in long lines to sell the same brand of toothpaste and toothbrush as the 12 guys next to them, innovative risk taking is an extraordinary achievement, and a break with conventional wisdom.
How Saloum Store Fits in:
One of the joys of helping the Saloum Store get off the ground is getting to collect and analyze data however I want. Since opening on August 4, Saloum Store has generated 340.000 FCFA, equivalent to about $700. Not a whopping success, but that kind of cash will go a long way for our women’s groups (this amount would be equal to almost 1 ton of dry rice). Additionally, the data indicate clearly that unique products make on average 2-3 times as much money as copycat products. I’ve taken that data to the women’s groups I have been able to meet with to encourage them to continue developing new products. Plus, the data are used to create some friendly competition, with a little ribbing from our #1 seller to our #2 seller. We’ve passed the 100 products mark, with over 50 unique products!
Some analysis from our first baby steps:
Unfortunately, what appears to be a success seems to inevitably draw challenges. Last week the store was visited by the Senegalese FDA, which slapped us with a fine for labeling product expiration dates by hand. Unlike the American FDA, such a fine would go into the man’s pockets, so we didn’t pay him. Then a couple days later a man turned up saying he was with the mayor’s office and hadn’t approved our sign so we’d have to pay a “tax”. The man from the mayor’s office seemed not to notice that we had cleaned up the public park next to the store at our own expense, which was ridiculously overgrown, in disrepair, and covered in garbage. We didn’t pay him either.
After sharing the story of our boutique with a local NGO, that NGO decided to use its considerable resources to launch a local products boutique of their own without telling us. They have reportedly spent $10,000 remodeling their store and will offer the women’s groups currently producing for our boutique free packaging and labeling and free exposition in their boutique. Opportunity though it is, it’s hard to see this positively. In 2 years when their FIDA cash runs out, they’ll just close up shop and the women’s groups will not be any further along professionally. The groups will just have to go out and search for more handouts. “Sustainability”, what’s that?
I expected some tension with non-participating community members, even a degree of money-squeezing, but I had no idea we’d have issues with moneyed aid groups. I thought we were on the same team?
The Chamber of Commerce here in Kaolack had a fascinating discussion on the issue of this NGO’s copycatting. It’s apparently not the first time they’ve done this. One colleague felt we should stop trying to work with them, because they clearly don’t want to work with us. Another colleague said he thought it just indicates they think the project is a good one, but that their approach will inevitably fail due to handouts. I am of the opinion that we need to meet with them to get a sense of what their goals are. Our goal at the Chamber of Commerce ought to be supporting our clients and the economy. If this NGO puts money into marketing local products, it could be enough to lift both projects. I made the case to the team that until we had more information on their plans, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions about the harm it might do. I tried to set up a meeting with the director, but he’s spending the next couple weeks at a tropical resort I can’t afford 3 hours away (for pictures click here).
I don’t consider myself an “aid worker” because I don’t offer any “aid”, so my approach is going to be different from someone looking for opportunities to leverage funds to encourage the economy. I won’t lie that I sometimes wish volunteers had funds to lend out to get projects into motion, but without skin in the game on the part of local people, every project that involves money will fail.
Last month I took part in this year’s Kaolack Girls’ Camp in lovely Badoudou, Senegal. The week-long leadership camp brought together girls from villages throughout the region. We talked about gender roles, career aspirations, protecting the environment, proper hygiene, and sex in a safe and culturally appropriate way, while also having fun playing soccer, doing yoga, making honey facial masks and arts and crafts. It was a blast!
Last week I had the opportunity to travel to the village where my fellow CED volunteer Natalie (follow her blog here) lives to help my work partner Abdou Karim Faye encourage Moringa cultivation among farmers in Natalie’s village, with the support of local NGO Jef Jel (link here). We’re hopeful they will launch a test phase on a few acres of that super-plant Moringa so we can start selling it in Kaolack. We found out that a 200g bag of Moringa sells for $40 in the U.S., which just shocked us since we’re used to seeing the same quantity at a price of $4 here in Senegal. We’d look to export more ourselves, but right now it is difficult convincing farmers to take a chance on Moringa.
For those who don’t know, Tabaski, the biggest holiday in Senegal is coming up soon, possibly Sunday. My family has already purchased a mighty ram, who evidently does not like having his picture taken. Having sheep near Tabaski invites bandits, so after a couple kids took a pass at stealing our sheep last week we bring them inside in the evenings. It gives our place a little Bethlehem style. On Sunday I’m looking forward to helping out preparing the ram. My brother and I will probably put on our Sunday best, head over to the mosque to prayer and then bleed the ram, while the ladies get the fire going to cook up the parts we’ll eat and save the other bits for later.
Ebola update: Still no outbreaks of Ebola in Senegal!
As a reminder, you can check out my blog here: www.austininsenegal.wordpress.com. I have posted some short reflection pieces on Senegalese culture, economics, work I’m doing, the Peace Corps Senegal experience, and other topics I want to share. I’m also putting up a few photos as I go.
Take care,
-Austin
P.S. As always, to be removed from this list, or to be added if you got this as a forward, please let me know, long emails aren’t everyone’s cup of tea.
Austin in Senegal 