My Foray into the Life of a Market Woman

My training (which is nearly complete) involves ‘qualifying projects’ which are basically hands on learning activities. Throughout pre-service training, we have been operating a ‘Village Savings and Loans Organization’. It is a micro-credit tool where a group of individuals who trust each other can save money and give out loans. To save money, they buy shares in the association. When the loans are repaid with interest, the earned money is divided among the group based upon how many shares they have purchased. It is a great way for women especially to have access to credit. Anyway, we have been saving money in this way and this week we took out loans to start an income-generating project. The goal was to introduce a new product or service into the local market and hopefully turn a profit. My group settled on jam making. Food security is a huge problem in Guinea. There is a long hunger season and as much as 1/3 of the population does not have enough food in quantity or quality at some point in the year. On the flip-side, during mango season, tons of mangoes are spoiled because they just cannot be consumed fast enough. On a side note, I am really, really excited for mango season. Jam is therefore a great project because it can be made during the mango season and saved for the hunger season. We slaved over a hot stove all day and ended up making Orange, Papaya, and Mango confiture (jam in French). We made about 120 little baggies of it and the next day set out bright and early with bowls of jelly on our heads and hit the market. It was a big hit. Guineans love sweet foods and literally were just squeezing the jelly into their mouths instead of waiting to put it on bread. We sold out of our product in one morning. Despite this, we only made 27,000 GF or $4. The market women here slave away for a tiny profit margin. WE had the benefit of having a good, unique product and being Fote so I can only imagine how much harder it is for Guinean women who have to do it everyday on top of keeping house and feeding a bajillion kids. To get off my soapbox,  One man did not trust me that the jelly would taste good. I convinced him to buy it using our prime marketing technique- me talking in Susu. I asked him to taste it before I left. He squeeze some into his mouth. Instantly a smile spread across his face and he put his fist out for a fist bump. Definitely the first time I have received a fist bump in exchange for preserved fruits, but will it be the last time? Probably not. A few women were really interested in learning how to make it so that they could sell it on the market. I was very excited. It was exactly what my group hoped would happen. I set up a lesson for last Sunday morning. All week, I stopped by the market stalls of the women who wanted to come to the class and reminded them of the time and to bring a glass jar. They were all eager to make their own confiture. I got a friend to who has more jam making experience to help me (I had a private and somewhat rational fear that I was going to teach it wrong and be responsible for giving an entire village botchelism). We arrived at the appointed time. We waited an hour. Nobody came. We waited another hour. Nobody came. We ended up just making some papaya jelly for ourselves. It was a disappointing afternoon, but we both knew it was a possibility. People here tell you they are so excited to come to this or that and about 75% of the time do not come. It could be because they forgot, they don’t have a watch so have no concept of time, they don’t have a calendar and so have no concept of date, or something else came up. So it was not quite the learning experience that I was hoping for, but I definitely learned some new things. Life can’t be so bad when your downside is getting to eat a peanut butter and papaya jelly sandwich for lunch.