Mamadou works 6 days a week (he rests on Fridays and goes to the Mosque). Each day, he spends 3 to 4 hours in the lake, chest-high in the water, covered with shea butter to protect his skin from the cuts inflicted by the lake's harsh salinity. When his day is over, a woman, a basin on her head, unloads the day harvest from his pirogue. On average, Mamadou harvests one ton of salt; at best, he will get 300 Francs CFA (about 50 cents) per kilogram.