Salt from a Lake by the Ocean - Lake Retba

 How does salt get to your table? What kind of effort goes into getting it. In Senegal it is a tough process - for the salt miners. Here is are two places to read about it online, Here and Here.

Large wet salt mound

Small dried salt mound - I don't know if the bags came from this mound or not.

This is Ida, she is very quick to come say hello, gave me a 'free bracelet' and told me about her children, she said to take a picture of her and made sure the basket wouldn't fall of my head:)

We took off with Rebecca, Jeffrey and I in a boat called "Stress Free". 

The color of the water is actually blood red - just a little eerie to me.

The whole lake is very shallow

Salt miner works at breaking up the salt and clay so he can mine it.

Very still calm but red lake. Belnaps taking off for a short "cruise". The young man who signed the Senegal Church entity papers came with us.

Separating the clay from the salt with swirling motions

After swirling his sieve around he dumps the salt into his boat

Loading up with salt - one small basket full at a time

These workers can last for about 5 hours before it is too much

He uses the pole again to break up the salt bed, the green sieve is what he puts the salt in and swirls around to get the mud out of the salt.

Belnap's boat coming in for a closer look

Here is another basket sieve that is used to separate the clay soil from the salt

Ida, me and the boat oarsmen

Our trip to Lake Retba was educational, interesting, and just a little heartbreaking. We turned onto a very arid, dry road with mounds along the lake shore. I found they were mounds of salt drying in the sun. Some were large and some small. The minute the cars and trucks stopped, ladies and children sitting under umbrellas came to say hello. I had no intention of buying anything as I did not need any more stuff.

Ida immediately told me her name and slipped the black and white bracelet over my hand and told me about her children. She asked me about mine. I could tell she was very experienced and shrewd with the nicest smile you can give. I am not sure why people can tell at one glance that I am the sucker for any sells pitch. That grumble aside, I found she would answer any question I had. I am a curious person and it is nice to have people answer questions.

Brent and Lorinda hired boats to take us out on the lake to see the salt operations. The oarsmen pushed the boats along in the back of the boat steering and pushing us along in the still calm water. The water was red, blood red, you could not see down in it at all. 

We glided along the water for about 10 minutes till we came to about the middle of the lake and watched a man pound with a pole, then scoop up the salt and clay into a sieve, then swirl it around and dump it in his boat. Sounds simple but took about another 10 to 20 minutes.

The effort to get a basket full of salt was gut wrenching to watch. Knowing they get about $35 (US) for a ton made me think of how hard it is to build a mountain. My heart went out to Ida and all those trying to make a living in this brutal dry hot place. I knew I was going to get in an air-conditioned air and drive away. Probably with a better value on the salt I use. I asked Jeffrey for some French money to slip Ida when we got back to the shore.

She was very thankful and asked to take another picture, I drew the boat oarsmen in so I would not forget. She gave me a little bag of salt. I don't know if I can ever use it.