Today the students continued their data entry work. They did take some time off to do some more shopping, so Barb and I also returned to the artisan market. We went back to the same shop. They had said they would find some CDs for us. They had and I bought one. I asked for the most traditional. I hope it is. Then Barb negotiated long and hard for us to buy several of a traditional game here for our families. It's played with seed pods in an ornately carved wood box. She was very tough on the shop keepers and got us a good price. Then, while waiting for the others to be ready to go, we escaped the “honeycomb” of shops to have a beer. I would have loved to browse more, but the shop keepers are such aggressive hawkers that we just wanted out.
We joined Dave and the man he had arranged to meet there. We had an interesting discussion about this man's project to create small self-insured co-ops for medical insurance. Earlier Ruth had explained to me that she is part of a circle of women who together save money to meet the needs of the women as they arise. It's a traditional Cameroonian practice. They each give a certain amount of money each month. One month of the year, each has the right to receive a lump sum for a particular need. If there is competition in a particular month, the option is auctioned, with the proceeds fed back into the collective account. She said that no one dares to fail to pay her share in this system. It's a system of mutual honor and respect, administered by the women themselves. It sounds like this insurance system would work in a similar way. As the number of members in a group increases, the medical conditions it would cover can expand. It sounds like an excellent system.
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