The Women in the Mountains
The Women in the Mountains
Yunis was the first woman I spotted in the crowd of fifty or so women gathered around a tree in what seemed to me the middle of no where. But the women in Lamgabhi and the other sites where Gone Rural trades knew exactly what day and time to assemble under the tree. They are able to do this without a calendar and without motorized or electronic time telling instruments. The Gone Rural team comes to trade every three weeks around noon. By noon the women have already formed a queue where the table will be placed to inspect the handicrafts for quality control and bright fuscia and rich brown and orange baskets are exchanged for emalangeni. The women come with fresh cut mountain grass in exchange for dyed grass for new orders. They have their babies tied tightly to their backs and the children play between the bags of finished placemats and coasters all destined for homes in London or the US - very far removed from their realities. Some women bring their unfinished work in bags, waiting in line and plaiting at the same time. Yunis was one of these women sitting patiently in the grass, twisting long strands of grass into what became a thin rope of grass as if the blades of grass used to create it were 20 meters long instead of a third of a meter at most. I sat next to her and watched her. After about 20 minutes I realized that these coasters were a lot of work. A basket typically took two or more days to complete. How much would I sell that basket for if it took me two days of my life to weave?
My second visit was to Mdlangwe where I conducted focus interviews to understand how they currently save and borrow and how we can improve their access to financial services. Most women do not have the income to save and when they do they don’t have a safe place to keep their money so they quickly transform it into less liquid assets such as groceries. And though the women are not comfortable with borrowing by forming lending groups with each other, they do regularly pool their extra money together to pay for school fees for their children, or high cost items such as cell phones. They have never had access to formal financial services but they understand the concepts of borrowing, risk, liability, and bad credit.
Each time I visit the mountains I am reminded about how simple life can be. With development comes access to options which simultaneously improves and adds complexity to every day life. It is too easy to romanticize their lives as beautiful because of its simplicity and emphasis on community. I also don’t want to see economic development strip rural life of the warmth of community and depth of personal relationships. I don’t want for these women huge apartment complexes where neighbors are complete strangers. But I also think that if mechanisms to reduce poverty also add complexity, then it is still worth it. I rather have strangers as neighbors than be worried daily about how to feed and educate my child. There is nothing romantic about poverty and in our huge apartment buildings in the west we always have the option of knocking on doors and getting to know our neighbors.