CONNECTIONS: COMMERCE
(for visual representation, see accompanying flow chart for Commerce)
Merchant: He buys his goods in Abeche town and then resells them to the smaller sellers in the camp. He is one of the wealthier men and provides for an extended family of almost 50 people. His own cargo arrives on a truck one day. He is interviewed. There is footage of inside of his store. He is building a new house for his third wife. His son is the boy who sells juice in the market.
He is at the funeral.
He is a connected to Alfadil – eats at his place and helps build his house.
He is connected to the Baker – eats at his place and helps build his house.
He is connected to the brick maker and transporter through his house
He is connected to the juice seller – footage of him making juice
He is connected to the market, where his goods are sold.
Butcher/Surgeon: Gamar makes a good living as a butcher and earns money on the side as a surgeon (footage of him slaughtering goats and selling meat and footage of him setting dislocated bone on man and on boy and compound fracture on small boy – and Alfadil’s foot). He is interviewed as well.
He is connected to the Mullah (they are neighbors)
He is connected to Alfadil (the translator)
He is at the truck when it arrives with merchandise
He also makes rope from plastic bags
His mother grinds peanut residue for goat feed
His goat skins are sold to the tanners, who sell their hides to the amulet makers
Pharmacist: He makes a GREAT living treating patients in the camp (plenty of footage – from IV drips to stethoscopes – and money changing hands). He has a lot of medications out back (footage). He is interviewed. He circumcises the 7-year-old boy (which he also earns money for). His clinic walls are made up of old cardboard boxes that the medicine came in. One reason he has to earn so much – he has about 18 kids.
He is connected to Alfadil (the translator)
He is connected to the circumcision
Baker: This guy works incredibly hard – getting up at 4AM to prepare the dough, baking, and then selling in the market all day. He is also a tailor and a Koranic teacher. He is interviewed.
Connected to Alfadil
Connected to Merchant
Connected to religious theme
Connected to market
Connected to brick making (rebuilding kiln)
Juice Seller: son of the merchant. He makes juice, walks to market with the baker, and sells it by the glass once he is there. He does not go to school because his father wants him to make money for the family.
Translator (Alfadil): He runs through the entire footage, since he is related to over 12,000 people in the camp. He is paid by one of the humanitarian organizations to help them do their work in the camp. There is footage of him running a meeting. He also teaches English. He is in a lot of the footage involving other stories and he is interviewed extensively in English.
Connections: too many to detail.
Tanners: This is one of the worst-paying jobs in the camp. Because there are virtually no capital costs, all the profit comes from labor which is very cheap. The process is filmed. Look at their fingernails in one of the final shots.
Connected to amulet makers
Connected to butchers
Connected to knife-makers
Brick makers: Note how many of these workers are women and children, in a society where men are supposed to bring home the income. This is also a low-paying job but doesn’t require much skill and so is quite common.
Connected to cart carrying bricks
Connected to merchant building house
Connected to baker rebuilding oven
Connected to water issue- this uses a lot of precious water.
Barber: Not a really hard job, since few men have hair longer than one inch and many are shaven-headed. Women do not go to hairdressers – they take care of their hair at home, behind closed doors.
Gardener: pays 50% of his produce to the owner of the land. Long trip out to garden. Sells produce in market.
Connected to market
Connected to Alfadil (sells to him)
Pottery: Woman makes pot and then eventually fires them outside.
One of the few money-making activities for women.
Connected to Alfadil, who lights fire.
Miller: this is the highest-profit job in the camp – the miller takes 50% of the grain he mills as payment, though he sits around and does almost nothing (the guy actually running the machine is his assistant). Why? Because the mill costs money and capital is scarce.
Connected to the food distribution
Connected to the market
Wine makers: Interestingly, these are all women. They are below the camp, since alcohol is forbidden by Islam. The men sit around under trees and drink it.
Connected to religious theme
Humanitarian Laborers: non-profits hire refugees to build projects to benefit the entire population. The most common one in the Chadian camps are reservoirs. Also tree planting. In the Sudanese camps the guys who help set up the school play, etc are also workers, but at a higher level. Hadija, the cook who works for CORD in Abeche, is another example at an even higher level.