Crooked Cops, Well-Tailored Tops

As I was going to visit a Zidisha lender the other day, I was in a cab that was stopped by the police. Not because he doing anything wrong, more of a routine checkpoint. The cop was on foot pulling over whoever he wanted to. When my driver handed the police man - "le flic" - his papers, the cop walked away and started doing something else. The cab driver was a little frustrated, got out of the car and had a conversation with the cop.

When he got back in the car, he told me that he had to pay the cop 2,000CFA to let him pass the checkpoint. This is about $4.50 USD, so it's not extreme, but it's not chump change to these guys either. The driver also told me this happens every day and the amount is always negotiable. Also, the guy said most of the money goes straight in to the cop's pocket. yikes

My driver (in blue) negotiating with the cop:

This was my first visit with a Zidisha borrower at their business. So far, they've been coming to me, but from now on I'll be visiting them. This woman has a pretty cool story. She is from the Senegalese island of Carabane, close to the city Casamance. I've heard it's the most beautiful part of Senegal - and apparently it takes a day and a half just to get there from Dakar.

She started a sewing business on the island a few years back and has been able to employ several job-less people from Carabane. Recently, she's started a system where five students are able to learn vocational skills on her machines and observe the employees do their thing. In a couple weeks, I'll be visiting Carabane to check it out, take some pictures/video and do a write-up on it for the Zidisha site. There's no electricity on the whole island - she said the hardest part about starting her sewing operation there was getting power generators onto the island.

Her loan is being used to open up another atelier in Dakar along with some retail space to sell the clothing from Carabne on the mainland. For a while now, she's been able to do the opposite - buy clothing in Dakar and sell it in Carabane because everyone there thinks it's pretty exotic and cool. She's expecting the same response from the people in Carabane to the clothing from Dakar. Tailors are taken really seriously here and there's strong differences in local styles. It's really popular to have custom-made clothing in Senegal, especially for women, so you see tons of commercial tailors all over the place. They're really amazing at what they do.

The work this woman does is pretty cool. Here is a picture of some of the handywork she did on a man's shirt she showed me. Part of her loan money is being used to buy new thick thread. Making designs like this, it's no wonder she always needs more!

Here's one she did for a local woman. I wish I would have gotten a closer photo of this one, check out the work around the collar area and try to see what she did at the bottom of the sleeve: