By Jove

It is so very difficult to write these blogs as something less than a novel. Every single interaction, each event that I witness is worthy of some tale. I often wish I had some hidden camera, some Ed TV, to follow me around to document for you and for me, exactly what it is like here. Oh, where to start?

On Monday I had that follow-up meeting with my counterpart. Well, I show up and off we go to meet the coops. I thought I was showing up to discuss my fete idea and fix a time to meet with the cooperatives. Not what I expected. I am dressed in cargo pants and a mandarin collared, long button down tunic. Western but culturally appropriate, meaning my crotch is covered. Appropriate, I should say, for a meeting with my counterpart, a man accustomed to Peace Corps volunteers, but not as I would have dressed to meet a group of women for the first time. Oh well, what would one expect from the woman who runs around town bareheaded.

We walk around the corner and into a little boutique that I have passed many times but never noticed. He introduces me to a half dozen women, a couple of whom speak French. They are the principal’s of a Union comprised of 13 cooperatives, called L’Union des Femmes L’ Autosuffisane , Union of Self-sufficient Women (I think). Well, this is a good start. I like the idea. I am ready for a change from all of my, up till now, interactions with the men of this town. A group of women in a union of self sufficiency might just be the ticket. Just the boost I need. Please god, let things be looking up.

My counterpart, Mohamed ould sompin sompin sompin, (a most definite exception to the above statement) helps me with the translation. Note, he is translating from Hassaniya (an Arabic dialect) to French, so as you can imagine, I may or may not have my facts straight. The eldest woman, Zeinebou, does their marketing. Mind you, she might just be the oldest women in the world at this moment so I am curious as to her ability. But let me not judge a book by her cover. They are lovely, patient and engaging. We have tea. They show me an array of their handmade products: tie-dye, leather pillows (like the one my family in Boghe gave me as a parting gift), woven bowls, and some square quilted thing they kept calling a petit tante. A little aunt? It’s for infants. Do they sit the kid on it? Do they tie them up with it? Bear in mind that I am in Mauritania where infants are dragged around by an arm or a leg much like a sack of potatoes. Support their head? Are you crazy? What for? There is little supervision even for the littlest tike. Par example: one day Morella came rounding a corner and before her stood a toddler with a plastic bag on his head having a gay old time. There were loads of adults standing around, some watching. Now we’ve all seen the warning that a plastic bag is not a toy. But apparently they haven’t seen that particular warning here. The tike pulled the bag off, found it was less fun, and pulled the bag back on his head. Aghast, she marched over, ripped the bag off the toddlers head and lectured the adults, those that spoke French, that is was NOT a good thing. Very dangerous! Probably to no avail. Another day, Heather came home to her compound and found an infant all alone, tied to the leg of a chair, WITH A BRA. Possibly his Ma didn’t want him crawling off somewhere while she was away. So I have no idea what this contraption is for but I am certain this petite tante is not an enrichment toy.

The ladies explain that they are low on stock as they have a tent at the “exhibition” and also sell at the airport on Sundays. According to my notes, the exhibition is manned on Saturday and Sunday as well as 3 women go to the airport on Sunday with some goods. Wow, I am impressed. I have been thinking that the airport might be a good opportunity to capture the tourist market, but I have yet to go see for myself what the setup is like. I have been reluctant to go as I have been through 1 Mauritanian airport and have been here long enough to not get my hopes up when it comes to facilities. Also, I don’t want to be arrested for being at the airport without a ticket. (Not that I have heard that happens) Since I am the SED volunteer, I put on my business hat and try to ask some intelligent questions. How many members do they have? Do the members pay a percentage of their sales to the Union or a flat rate? The answer is flat rate. Do they work with the tour guides to bring tourists to them? Well, this question got a strong reaction. Mohamed was out praying, so I’m a little fuzzy on the reason, but the word moushkeila came up a number of times. It is one of the 5 Hassaniya words I do know. Aaron and Christine, volunteers in Akjoujt, (see flikr photos of S. African tourists in Halloween set) named their new kitten Mouchkeila. Moushkeila means problem/trouble. If I understood correctly, the tour guides try to negotiate the price of their goods too low. ChaChing, my business brain chimes. We need to build the value of these handmade goods in the eyes of the buyer. See boys and girls, all of those years of sales training were not wasted

The ladies are also anxious to meet our other volunteers and enlist their services. BINGO. As I have said in a previous blog, it can be difficult to find organizations with which one wants to work, and I may have just found one. I am conjecturing that Zeinebou has worked with us in the past as she asked specifically for a health volunteer and about Moringa. Moringa is a nutritional supplement that PC RIM supports. I got a whiff of some during training and it smells very similar to that Super Food stuff you purchase at Trader Joe’s for $50 a pop. Moringa contains loads of protein, vitamin c, iron, vitamin a, etc; so a couple of Tbs can boost the nutritional content of this cuisine. And, what’s more, the Moringa tree is supposedly easy to grow in this climate. Anyway, that Zeinebou is familiar with this product is intriguing.

I make a plan to go see the “exhibition” the next day at 10 and to return on Thursday at 4 with my health volunteer in tow. Not a bad day’s work.

It just so happens that my APCD, PC RIM staff person who runs SED, is in town the following day. She is new having just come onboard at the end of August. She comes along to meet our counterpart and visit this “exhibition”. Someone described this site to me as a place where a bunch of old women sit and sell their wares. In my mind, it is going to be some variation of the Senegalese souvenir shops that popped open for the tourist season. These shops are, frankly, full of crap. Wooden crap, metal crap, plastic crap. Mass produced crap. No wonderful little artifact with which to remember your Mauritanian adventure to be found amongst the crap. Reason number one that none of you have received gift. There is nothing to buy here but crap. Dusty crap at that.

Around 10 am, the Peace Corps car rolls up at the appointed location. We whisk away Mohamed and one of the ladies and off we go. The lady explains to my APCD that she will show me her cooperative, but won’t introduce me to the rest. I meant to ask her for more of an explanation as to why, but forgot. The exhibition is in a big sand lot with a high wall and contains 8 – 10 hyma’s (tents). It is an exhibition of “Femmes Artisan” (or something like that) but not much ambiance. Each tent houses a different cooperative or group of cooperatives, as my ladies are, sadly selling identical handmade items. But much to my delight, many of the items are quite lovely. They have wooden bowls, woven plates of various sizes made from some part of the palm tree. There are also woven funnel shaped things that look like hats, but are in fact steamers. Metal steamers are used in the south as the climate is more humid and I assume these organic steamers mold. But up here, the steamers are woven from, again, some part of a palm tree. In my defense, the town nut wonders around with one on his head, so truly they could and do double as hats. They also sell nattes. Nattes are big floor coverings. The nattes in my house (see flickr photos of Chez Moi and look at my floors) are made in China from plastic. These seem to be made of wood. As well as tie-dyed fabric, jewelry (nicer than what I have seen in the market), tea pots, tea casses, leather tom toms (drums), leather pillows and much, much more.

After about 45 minutes and a parting gift later, we take a tour through the rest of the tents. I learn more about the nattes and the other products. The nattes are hand woven, without a loom, out of palm and leather. The leather is sometimes painted with a pattern. One of the intricate ones, probably about 2X3 was marked at 20,000 um (250 um to a US$). At first I thought this was a big high, but then I learned that it was hand woven without a loom, then painted. See above, building value. I also saw a basket of what looked like skeins (can’t spell that), balls of yarn. DeDe, they were spun from camel hair/fur using a drop spindle. I believe that I impressed my APCD with my knowledge of textile arts. They knitted the camel yarn along with mutton yarn into a tent. Weaving, camel yarn, improving the lives of women by purchasing their handmade goods; by Jove, I might be onto something. My mind is reeling. The stage is set. The cast has most of its characters. It just needs a Director. I envision live demonstrations of how pieces are made, storytellers, dancing, drumming, tea serving, camel sheering (ok, that may be overboard). Here is my cultural fete waiting to happen. One little hitch in our giddy up. There is a communication gap between the Hassaniya speaking women and the French speaking tourists. Imagine that. But we don’t need much language. Picture in your mind story boards in French with photos about the cooperatives; the steps to fabricate these various pieces; explanation of the materials; each piece tagged with the name of the woman who created the piece. How do you say, “Made by Hand by Fatimatou” in French? Can one print calendars with photos in the RIM? If not, does Kodak ship to Mauritania? And if so, how much and how long? Let’s give these Frenchies something to buy with those lovely euros. Etc, etc, etc.

Next step, my plan is to observe the interactions with the tourists at the exhibition on Saturday. And on Sunday, observe what happens at the airport. Think leaflets with a map to the exhibition.

Praise Allah, I may have found work. Inshallah.

Happy Hanukah