REINDEER BONES

During the tourist season Mekkar would encounter tourists at his families’ restaurant that catered to them. It seemed to Mekkar that the travelers were always clamoring for native knickknacks and objects to take back home with them. So Mekkar decided to be entrepreneurial and capitalize on this.

Even when he was working while waiting and bussing tables at the diner, he would bring up passing conversation with some of those visitors. Mekkar would work it by telling them how to get unique native items for gifts. Especially with Asian tourists, who seem to have always bought everything they could get their hands on. Mekkar had previously done some research. He had also heard from others that tourists from that part of the world greatly desired ground up reindeer bones for use as an aphrodisiac. So, Mekkar saw an opportunity and arranged for a cut of the profits with another person in the village who would grind up antlers for him. Another slice of the money made went to his mama. Otherwise she would be ticked off that he used the tourist business eatery and its customers as a pitch place for his little cash operation. Plus, Mekkar had an excess of supply, little storage space, and knew where to get more. It was helpful that both the male and female species of reindeer grow antlers every year and also drop them annually.

Another factor was the great amount of reindeer in the area, thus a bountiful supply to meet Mekkar’s need, and most of the natives had little use for the bones, especially the antlers. Only the people who made local native goods such as knives, etc. used some of the bones for the handles, utensils, and other such trinkets. For those items the stronger preferred internal bones were extracted after a separation process for the rich, tasty meat was completed.

It was a good thing for Mekkar that the antlers were replaced every year so they were plentiful. Mekkar would then guide these tourists to the appropriate person that he previously arranged business connections with. It was a specific individual in the village of his choosing to sell the ground up bones and antlers. The travelers’ desires were met and everyone benefitted. So, why shouldn’t Mekkar wanted to make a little money for his efforts! It wasn’t like there was a ready made market for a lemonade stand and something like that. Mekkar made it very clear regarding purchases. He would tell the buyers something to effect that we only accept cash and only certain types of money: U.S. Dollars, British Pounds Sterling, German Marks, Swiss Francs, & a few other stronger currencies. Mekkar would go on to mention that No Japanese Yen, Russian Rubles, nor other weak currencies would be accepted as payment for the products due to their lesser values in exchange. There was a lack of getting any fair conversion rate for those involved regarding those less valuable monies. Plus, few of the area banks would even bother to handle those other mediums of exchange at all.

Remember, Mekkar lived in the country not the big city where there is plenty more options. The native boy was just trying to put his creative native brain power and capabilities in action as he knew that adaptation is key to survival. This applied to many realms in such an isolated environment. The ability to use what is easily accessible to forge out a reasonable existence there.