Big Money and the Bana Banas

So, you want know how to rake in a cool 4,800 CFA? Radishes, that's how. (Do yourself a favor and don't worry about the exchange rate there.)  Market farmers on the periphery of Dakar generally don't sell their produce themselves.  Instead bana banas, market women, come to the farms, buy what they think they can sell, and bring that produce to market.  Bana bana is the Wolof term for any small retail vendor, vegetable sellers included.

Last week a group of bana banas came by the Fankanta agroecology center.  They asked me, "Do you have any... " and then said something in wolof which meant absolutely nothing to me.  "No", I replied, "but we do have radishes!"

In fact we had several hundred kilos of radishes in the ground and ready to be harvested.  Now radishes are great and all, but it's hard to get excited about eating your way through even ten kilos.  I was so very happen then, that the bana banas wanted to take them off our hands.  The women even wanted to buy the whole crop - perfect.

The women went through and picked the radishes they deemed acceptable.  They ended up pulling out 150 kg.  Afterwards they crammmed an impressive amount into buckets which they carry off on their heads.  The rest they stuffed into sacks and hauled out on a donkey cart.  In all I estimate they actually ended up taking around 120 kg.

Sometimes the radish market is up and sometimes it's down.  If you went ahead and converted the CFA to USD like I told you not to you know where the market is now!  This brings to mind the following Mitchell and Webb Situation sketch that one Mr. Brett Blake showed me years ago.  A note of caution to our more respectable readers; there is a swear word!

In other exciting news, the organization I'm working with is now online! www.oasisgrowbiointensive.org. It's a bit like the death star in Return of the Jedi - still under construction yet fully operational.  Check it out. If you don't like to read, there are pictures!

Check back in next week and I'll have an important announcement for you.  Thanks for stopping by.