I have been out of the village awhile now. My recent travels included visiting my friend Sarah in her Sereer village near Mbour, Thies for In-service training (IST), Popenguine for a much needed beach day and then experiencing the magic of Dakar.
IST consisted of two weeks of sessions geared towards giving us more specific information and training to carry out projects in our villages. They ranged in variety from agricultural techniques, to douche (bathroom) building, to radio broadcasting, to funding sources and everything in between. Having been at site for about two months now, we all have a vague idea of what might benefit our village most.
The projects that I am most excited about and/or hope to implement revolve around girls empowerment and child nutrition. I plan on spending the next month completely dedicated to getting to know my community. I want to find out if they are also as interested in these areas of development, why or why not?, if not what they think is most needed, who would be motivated work partners, etc.
I would like to have an small girls group that meets regularly to discuss important topics and do fun activities. Many girls here do not have much of a childhood. It is very common in rural villages that girls do not attend school. If they do attend school they are often pulled out at a very young age to either help with work around the family compound or be married off (something I also want to address). I want to have a group that informally helps girls develop self-esteem, leadership skills, attain information about STD and pregnancy prevention, etc. mixed with fun activities and underlying female bonding. I hope to eventually do a girls camp that mixes all of this into a fun filled week...we shall see.
Child malnutrition is one of the biggest problems in my village. Overall nutrition is very poor in my area so by training new mothers on nutrition for their infants, I hope to trickle down nutrition education. One model I may use is the Hearth Model, which is a two week approach to teaching mothers of malnourished children, nutritious porridge recipes and tracking child weigh to promote behavior change. The other is the Care Group Model, which focuses on the training of trainers. It would consist of forming many small groups of people who each choose a leader. Then, the leaders would be trained on a variety of health topics and given the responsibility to meet individually with members of their small groups and train them.
These are just ideas that I am throwing around. It will all come down to what my village wants and needs, my desires, the motivation of the people I am working with, etc. Plus, Africa has a tendency so throw curve balls your way and send you down paths you never expected. I also have to keep in mind that you can only work at the pace of your community. Here in Senegal the phrase “hurry up and wait” comes to mind quite often.
Dakar is, as my dear fellow PCV and recent travel buddy, Anna Alsobrook said, “is the land of milk and honey.” There you can consume delicious food (and actually have options), hang out with American ex-pats and other volunteers, shop at the most amazing (and only) grocery store in Senegal, etc. I may have consumed my body weight in food daily while in Dakar.
We fit in some educational touristy stuff by visiting Île de Gorée and the presidential palace. Île de Gorée is an island off the coast of Dakar that was used as a port during the slave trade before shipping slaves off to Europe and the Americas. The island was full of history and culture. Currently, it is inhabited by about 1200 Senegalese (a mixture of Catholics and Muslims living in harmony) and a large number of artists that are squatters, living in what used to be French military bunkers. It gave me the bizarre feeling of being a tourist, as well as, the sensation that I was not in Senegal anymore. I also got my first residency discount (because guess what? I really live here!).
At the presidential palace Anna and I made good friends with the guards while trying to convince them to let us in to meet the president or, at least, check out the sweet crib. We talked for awhile and would have gotten forcibly removed outside the White House for the ridiculous questions we were asking. For example, exactly which room does the president sleep in? Which room is he in this very moment?, etc. The guards not only asked for our numbers, but stepped away from the palace to walk us to dinner...reminders that I am NOT in D.C.
Now I am preparing to return to my village in the morning. I'm riding a roller coaster of emotions. Being in a setting in which I have been around Americans, have a variety of food choices, speak English, have the academic learning part of my brain stimulated, and so on, have made me feel closer to America. This has, in turn, made me yearn for home even more (It didn't help that I watched Rudy today. It did not help that while in Dakar, I realized that, time wise it would take less time to get to America than it does to reach my village on wonderful (read with great sarcasm) Senegalese public transport.
Ramadan begins in a couple days. This is like the Islamic version of Lent. It is a holy month of fasting and penance. Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. I plan to try it out to see what my family is going through but who knows how long it will last. From gluttony to fasting...Ramadan take one...
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