Visit to Kaya

Yesterday we went to the village of Kaya, where they are known for their leather products.  One of the local artisans walked us through the whole process, from buying the animals at the livestock market, to soaking the pelts, to the workshop where they treat the leather and turn it into purses, belts and jewelry.  

It was interesting to see how different this village was from the other ones we have visited.  The geography was very different from Naton or Po, because it had “mountains” and the earth was bright read.  Also, unlike the other villages where men and women worked side by side in the field, women were clearly not a part of the leather industry.  When we went to the livestock market, Tammy and I attracted a lot of attention, partly because we are “nasara” (white) but also because we are women. There were no women at all in the market.  

This experience made it all the more clear to me why it is important to create micro-credit loans for women - they are simply not invited to be a part of industry or given the same opportunities as men.  

The pelts are soaked for about 3 days 

The pelts are then scraped to take off all the fur.  At the bottom of this tree, there is a big pile of discarded fur, mixed with mud.

I stepped in the big pile

After the pelt has been scraped, it is soaked again of a couple of days, but this time in a mixture containing crushed seeds.  We are crushing the seeds.  The guy offered me a job to work as his wife.  Tempting....

Grinding millet into flour

Awesome Baobab tree