Women Make the Market (and the World) Go Round

"A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water." - Eleanor Roosevelt

When I lived in Africa, my mom made a profoundly simple observation...we driving around my adopted town of Arusha, Tanzania and she said "It looks like it's the women here who do all the work.  The men just seem to...sit around".  I laughed out loud at this acknowledgment, because not only was it funny - it was 100% true.  Women do make the world go round.   I don't mean to throw men the world over under the bus or anything, but if you travel extensively - you'll quickly see that it's the women who seem to be doing the lion's share of work in a lot of places.  Idleness is not in our genetic makeup.  We are multi-taskers, we are silent warriors and we get things done.  We might not get all the glory and (globally speaking) we might not have all the power, but no one can deny that the world would be lost without us and our work.

My Uncle Tom made a similar observation about women at the Spice Market in St. Georges, Grenada.  Women young and old are doing it all - selling, wheeling, dealing and making things happen.  Some are hawking their goods like used car salesmen, while others sit quietly; patiently waiting by their produce for the right buyer.  Of course plenty of men are off doing work as well, but if you look closely, particularly here in the Caribbean, it's women pushing things forward.  There are a disproportionate amount of homeless men to woman begging in the street, you'll rarely (if ever) see a woman sitting at the bar whiling away the daytime hours getting drunk and you'll almost never see a woman who is not in some way, shape, or form working .  I truly believe that if society's listened more closely to their women, this world would probably be a much nicer place.   Just sayin'.

I love the market mama's the most.  Their faces and hands tell a thousand stories. 

Love,

Brittany & Scott