ORANGES

Nearer the coast, they grow oranges. Lots of them! The neat rows of trees extend over vast fields, and the oranges hang ready to pick.

My mate Pape Sec didn’t come to market this week. He’d managed to get some work harvesting the crop, which made good sense for him. At 5 euros an hour for picking, he was sure to earn more than he could trying to sell handbags and second hand women’s clothes, in the post-Christmas period …. and he needed the money!

Pape came to Spain from Senegal nearly 4 years ago now. He flew from Dacca to Madrid, and entered Spain on a visa which had cost him, nearly the equivalent of a years wage in Senegal. Here he shares a flat, with five other men, designed for just a couple,. That goes some of the way to explaining why he is always at market very early, sleeping in his car! The other reason he tells me, is that the Guardia look out for ‘black’ men, pull them over and hand out large fines for any minor traffic infringement, so travelling to market very early, before the Guardia have risen, is best!

Back home in Senegal, Pape has a family – his wife, a young son and daughter, and he tells me his mother lives with them too. His elder brother lived with them also, but he died last year!  He hasn’t returned to see them since arriving in Spain, and doesn’t expect to be reunited with them for another year or more! Next year, he can apply for ‘residencia’, and be able to leave Spain, to visit his family, knowing that he will be able to return, without the impossible expense of a visa! But only if he can find some employment, that pays his social security contribution. Finding such work in Spain, at this time, is going to be really difficult. Even so, he assures me that this is better for his family, than trying to live in Senegal, where for him; there are absolutely no work opportunities. For now though, he can earn a little to send back to his family, and at least he is able to speak to them by telephone each week.

Right now the supermarkets are filled with those oranges! Fruit and vegetables are sold in their season here. Fresh and  cheap – but even cheaper if you buy bags from the many roadside stalls. I like to have some with me, to share with my market colleagues or to entice the dogs back at the end of a walk.

Near the end of one early morning walk with the dogs -  I went up to the high almond fields where they love to forage for the remains of last years crop, and the crunch of shells echoes their success. Soon the almond blossom will drape its pink and white over 1000’s of acres of countryside – a most beautiful sight!  I share a mandarin with the dogs. Then I hear laughter from the road below. Catarina too, is walking her dogs. At 70+ years she has walked 3 kilometers including a very steep slope, and has a couple more kilometers to complete, but she has the energy to berate me for 'spoiling' my dogs - "they don't need a breakfast and certainly not oranges!!

In one hand, she clutches an old olive bow for the fire, in the other a large sprig of thyme. She explains that thyme is a really good to aid digestion. We chat some more! I tell her I've been up to the high slopes and it's very beautiful. She knows! When she was young, she spent many days in the mountains - gathering rosemary, lavender and thyme to sell in the market; and collecting almond branches for firewood. There was no electricity then! And no butane gas either! All we had was candles and sticks - and most times only sticks!

Although they don’t know each other Pape and Caterina have much in common – they have both known real poverty!