Senegal Salt
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It looks like a landscape from the moon.
Most of these photographs are by Finbarr O'Reilly, grabbed from Reuters. Correctitude demands that women and girls are doing the work though I do see some men standing up on the bank. Three of the women are identified by name: Louise Souna Dioh, Mariama Diokh, and the wee one - Madelaine Dog.
I did some shifts making salt fish, spreading rock salt on split codfish. Your hands swell up a bit, not uncomfortable except when it gets under your fingernails.
He must have been flying over in a helicopter I suppose, maybe he set out on purpose to do it, who knows? He does not identify exactly where this is. I thought I would be able to find it with Google Earth but I couldn't - must be somewhere in the salt marshes west of Kaolack, or possibly south around Ziguinchor. Salt is taken at many places no doubt - there is a well known one at Lago Rosa / Pink Lake on the peninsula near Dakar.
Madelaine Dog, 8 years old, carrying away dirt from the excavation; Mariama Diokh stooped over gathering salt crystals; Louise Souna Dioh, 56, gathering crystals; Mariama emptying a basketful, her infant nearby watching; Louise emptying hers; the last shot is from Lago Rosa, but it shows the bags filled and ready to trade.
2$ per bag of 50 kilos / 110 pounds; not sure what currency, not clear how much of the 2 dollars the workers get. Let's say they get half ... then a bagful represents the dollar-a-day absolute bare minimum with which a human can survive on this planet. How many bags a day? No idea ... could be 10 or 20, probably not; whatever, it is a pittance but it must be (just) enough because there is a baby there. Wondering ...
Tags: Senegal, Salt, Womens Work, Kaolack, Ziguinchor, Survival, Finbarr O'Reilly.
It looks like a landscape from the moon.
Most of these photographs are by Finbarr O'Reilly, grabbed from Reuters. Correctitude demands that women and girls are doing the work though I do see some men standing up on the bank. Three of the women are identified by name: Louise Souna Dioh, Mariama Diokh, and the wee one - Madelaine Dog.
I did some shifts making salt fish, spreading rock salt on split codfish. Your hands swell up a bit, not uncomfortable except when it gets under your fingernails.
He must have been flying over in a helicopter I suppose, maybe he set out on purpose to do it, who knows? He does not identify exactly where this is. I thought I would be able to find it with Google Earth but I couldn't - must be somewhere in the salt marshes west of Kaolack, or possibly south around Ziguinchor. Salt is taken at many places no doubt - there is a well known one at Lago Rosa / Pink Lake on the peninsula near Dakar.
Madelaine Dog, 8 years old, carrying away dirt from the excavation; Mariama Diokh stooped over gathering salt crystals; Louise Souna Dioh, 56, gathering crystals; Mariama emptying a basketful, her infant nearby watching; Louise emptying hers; the last shot is from Lago Rosa, but it shows the bags filled and ready to trade.
2$ per bag of 50 kilos / 110 pounds; not sure what currency, not clear how much of the 2 dollars the workers get. Let's say they get half ... then a bagful represents the dollar-a-day absolute bare minimum with which a human can survive on this planet. How many bags a day? No idea ... could be 10 or 20, probably not; whatever, it is a pittance but it must be (just) enough because there is a baby there. Wondering ...
Tags: Senegal, Salt, Womens Work, Kaolack, Ziguinchor, Survival, Finbarr O'Reilly.
