PAY DAY AT THE DAIRY

PAY DAY AT THE DAIRY

31.05.1994

Every month the dairy pays the milk producers for their production during the previous month. On one occasion I was asked to help out with the payments because they were short of staff and sometimes I go just out of interest, because it reveals a lot about the people.

Since the milk is collected from quite far-flung places, the people hire a "trufi" (mini-bus) or a truck and around 8.30a.m. on payment day they start to arrive at the dairy.  The earliest comers take their place in the queue while the later arrivals tend to sit around under a tree until the queue diminishes, but even those in the queue tend to squat on the ground rather than stand.  They make quite a colourful crowd, particularly the women with their bright skirts and straw hats.  There are always loads of children running around, and when I take Simon and Paddy out for a walk they are a great attraction.

Since it seemed to me that a large proportion of the people coming for payment were women and many of them could not sign their name, I decided to do a little sociological survey to see whether my observations were accurate or not.  These are the results.

Out of a total of 153 people who came for payment 87 or 56.8% were women and 43.2% were men.  However, only 18.9% of the women had the cows registered in their own name.  This would seem to indicate, though, that it is the women who hold the purse-strings just the same.  

Of 73 women who came on one particular day their social status divided up as follows:

a.     Married                              52     71.2%
b.     Single without children                    14     19.2%
c.     Unmarried with children                3      4.1%
d.     Steady relationship/no children                1      1.4%
e.     Steady relationship/with children           2      2.7%
f.     Widow                               1      1.4%

Categories c & e are really the same.  It just means that the women's perception of their status is different. Basically they are people who have not been able to afford a wedding.

Literacy figures for this group came out as follows:

Literate               50          68.5%
Illiterate          23          31.5%

Literate in this context means that they were able to sign their names and when asked said they could read and write.  However,  I doubt very much whether the majority would pass the UNESCO's test for functional literacy but am in no position to test this out.

The literacy breakdown by age was as follows:

Illiterate          10-20              0%
20-30            6.25%
30-40           30.43%
40-50           60%
50-60          100%
60-70          100%

Comparing the illiteracy rates with the quality of the milk produced, I found that there was no relationship between these two factors.  The milk is graded as class A, B & C.  

A          B          C
Literate               57.5%          35%          7.5%
Illiterate          70%          25%          5%

However, there was a direct correlation between the personal hygiene of the people concerned and the quality of their milk.

Interest in improving the quality of their milk was not affected by literacy levels either.  This is more an economic factor, because they get paid more for better quality milk.

Of the men, only 1.5% were totally illiterate and 4.5% could sign but with such difficulty it was clear that this was all they knew how to do.  Of the remaining 94% only further investigations would reveal how many were really functionally literate.

Conspicuous among the throng of campesinos is a small group of tall, white people.  These are Russian orthodox Jews who have a colony about 70Kms. away and sell their milk to the dairy.  The men wear collarless Russian shirts tied at the waist while the women all wear long ankle-length dresses or pinafores with a long-sleeved blouse underneath.  They all have their heads completely covered using scarves but they do not shave their heads.  Their cattle is the best maintained of all the people who sell milk to the dairy.