This just in...

I just spent 18,000F CFA (almost $40) and an hour and a half getting the perfect dress for new-year’s eve. Do I regret any of this? Only a tiiiiny bit. It would be good if I were better at saving my money and not spending it. But, hey, I’m stimulating the economy. And I was assured that a tourist who Doesn’t come back to the same boutique after an hour and half and laugh and chat with the same salesman in his native language would have been charged 28,000F CFA. Plus, it’s a great dress and I’ve had my eye on it for over awhile actually. But here’s the great part of the story:

While looking I went to a boutique I’ve only been in once before, with my parents when they were here. It was a one room place with just a few racks. They’ve expanded to over twice the size, with a fabulous collection of women’s, men’s and kids clothes and home furnishings. Here’s the problem with all these boutiques: great fabric, great clean lines and stylish design, but there’s Very limited sizing, and the clothes are all meant to be baggy! I know, there’s a place for that, but it’s not new years eve. And every store? Come on. Okay, back to the point. It’s owned by a French woman, but the salesman was a lovely Sereer guy who speaks perfect Wolof. And we conversed. Like, naturally, fluidly, talked and laughed. Come to find out, it’s a fair-trade operation that works with ten villages in the Diourbel region. The local proceeds go to building forages (think clean water from running taps) and heath posts (basic doctor’s offices in the bush). I was already a touch high from just running around “shopping” and chatting with a bunch of shopkeepers (a good Wolof day get’s me a bit high), and when he told me all that, I kind of lost it. Like, almost started crying, but laughed long and loud instead. I told him, “you don’t understand that’s my dream!” Well, it’s definitely one of them. “And you guys already did it! What should I do now?” He very rationally pointed out that it’s only ten villages. So I continued looking, but like I said, it was all baggy, not what I need for tomorrow. And when I left I realized I wasn’t really sold on that idea.

Here’s the thing. Yeah, it’s doing good things. But is it encouraging local culture? Did the local artisans say, "hey let's build a forage with this money!" Is it teaching any of the local artisans anything about taking development or even business management into their OWN hands? Maybe it is, and that would be great, but in theory not a smart “business” move as it would eventually make the French woman unnecessary (she wasn’t particularly kind about my inability to get my mouth to make words in her language. But hey, it’s not her country, right?) Also, maybe it’s doing good things for the source communities, but it’s doing so within the context of the “consumerism is good” mentality. I think I’ve heard something in economic theory about increased consuming being good to increase the middle class, and thereby increase economic stability for the whole country. But, this just seems so old-hat to me. “Lord knows, there’s got to be a better way.” What song is that from? Sure within a business model, if you look at national economies like different businesses, it’s good to get the little guys to play the big guys’ game and get some redistribution of wealth the process. I’m all for that, in theory. But can’t we be working for something better? I think we need a gamechanger. But I don’t know what it is. 2012, any suggestions?

This literally JUST happened. So, I’m sure I’ll be milling it over for the next while. Plus, if I did a boutique like that we’d have cuter clothes in a wider variety of sizes. And we’d be super nice to people who only speak Wolof. Or even only speak Dutch, though we’d have a hard time talking to them…