Mini Fatick Tour

Fatick is a region in Senegal south of Dakar and southwest of Kaolack. In the week between AgFo Summit and the quarterly SeneGAD meeting, I decided to go to visit a couple of friends' sites. First, I went to visit Ash in Nioxoloxo. Her village is Sereer and are really great gardeners, they have cashew orchards, mango trees, and lots of wells, in addition to peanut fields (although not in season at the moment).

The first day, I got a tour of the village and met a lot of people. It was funny because many people tried to greet me in Pulaar but only knew an initial hello, and then were speechless and laughed when I would continue to talk to them in Pulaar. Ash said her village loved it because previously, her visitors have known either French, Wolof, or English, and either would chat it up in Wolof, or seemed rather incapable in the village. That evening we went out with her family to collect cashew seeds.

The second day I was there we experimented with cashew apple food transformation. Ash was really interested in making fruit leather, so we went out, collected cashew apples with her host sister, came back, diced them up, boiled them down, added citric acid, sugar, and cinnamon, strained the mixture, and laid the mixture out on a cookie sheet covered with syran wrap. The remaining cashew apples, we diced up and made cashew applesauce. During the day I also map "lop lop" (a green mango mixture with vinegar, mustard, maggi, and onions) in the midst of the cashew goodness. It was a hit with everyone who stopped by to say hello!

Then on Wednesday, after heating up our cashew apple sauce for breakfast, we walked the 2km to the road where we waited for a car. We ended up squeezing onto an Alhum to go to Toubacouta. We went to a campement/resort place to use internet, enjoy the view of the mangroves and pool as well as a few drinks. I ended up seeing villagers from my area who were up for a meeting. How ironic! It was a beautiful getaway though and I am thoroughly jealous that these volunteers have this accessible at their fingertips! After a dip in the mangroves, that evening, I went back to Sokone with Emily, and then we went to her village, Dramine Sadabou, about 8km away.

Emily's village is about 8km away from Sokone where we got a horse drawn cart to. Her village was really nice and ended up coming together to do henna on my feet! It was quite a success, even if it was a long process (3 hours to do taping and henna application in the evening, slept with plastic bags on my feet overnight, and then peeled off the tape and henna and the morning and had my feet charcolaed and cemented for another 3 hours). I saw her tree nursery, helped her fill tree sacks, and enjoyed many mangoes. It was a short stay but very pleasant! We took a donkey drawn cart back into Sokone to meet up with Ash and have lunch with a person in their English club. I had pockets put into a dress and we enjoyed another campement with a view of some mangroves. We enjoyed dinner at one of their Senegalese friends' houses before I went on the overnight bus to Dakar.

All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend time seeing sites and getting some work in before going to the quarterly SeneGAD meeting back in Thies.

Talibe Soccer Tournament

St. Louis is rather far from Kedougou (about 18 hours by car excluding waiting times for transport), however, I needed to be head north in April anyway for the AgroForestry Summit in Thies, so I stopped by Dakar for a doctor appointment, and continued north to St. Louis for the soccer tournament. Since coming to country, I have wanted to visit the old french colonial city along the coast with beautiful architecture!

A volunteer, Richard, located up in St. Louis coordinated a two day soccer tournament for talibe that he works with at his garden. Talibe are children who are sent to learn the Koran and work for a marabout in exchange for lodging. They are commonly found on the streets begging for money that they are required to give to the marabout everyday. It's a system where it is easy to have strong opinions and feelings about since the high variation in conditions-- some marabouts treat children well however, that is not always the case (in terms of the level of expected work in exchange for learning and food, quantity and quality varying). Additionally, often children are sent to be taken care of by marabouts because their family cannot care for them.

The first day, Caitlin (who was filming the event) and I arrived to watch the qualifying rounds being played on a sand soccer field (there were games all morning and afternoon). It is such a different experience that what I am use to in village it was great to see; there was just so much more happening! There was a DJ playing music over loud speakers, children watching all around, people coming & going to see the games. It was also great because the majority of talibe are Pular and I was able to actually converse with them (since we share a similar language). Afterwards, all the volunteers who came into town went out to dinner where I had my first warthog plate!

I was impressed by the first day, but was shocked to arrive the second day to a proper stadium with turf field, and stands on either side. There was a miscommunication about the time we were able to use the field so the event was pushed back a couple hours. Two games were scheduled, a volunteer game and then the final talibe game, with an intermission of performances by a judo club, a dance group, a Michael Jackson impersonator, and "lions," a group of Senegalese performers that are kind of like clowns, but culturally are used to scare children (bizarre, I know). It came together so well! By the final game, the stands were packed with fans and ended in a shoot out with fans rushing to the field at the end.

Ohh I almost forgot to mention, these boys didn't even all have shoes to play in! (The jellies are really common footwear).

Unfortunately, the volunteers lost their game (I didn't participate in the volunteer game due to a cold I acquired in Dakar...going from above 100 everyday to 70s is hard on one's body!). St. Louis was gorgeous and I can't wait to go back, although I don't think that will be until next year's jazz festival in May!

Latrine Project Approved!

I just got an email letting me know that my project for latrines in my village was approved! A write up I did can be found here. (A few details were skewed in the description somehow, but one can get the general idea. Also, there is a donation link, although the funds are already available so no need to donate). This is wonderful! I will certainly have work to do upon returning to village and organizing for materials to be transported out. Yay!

Cooking and Crafting

This past month I have made an avid point of learning how to cook and practicing a grass weaving craft that my host aunts do. Unfortunately by Senegalese standards, learning to cook at this point consists of only watching. However, I hope after I go back to village and make them an "American meal," (I am planning on making spaghetti) I will be able to attempt a Senegalese dish on my own, or at least actually help. So far I have seen lots of rice and corn bases be made (either a corn mush, corn meal sort of thing or corn couscous) and corresponding okra and peanut sauces, and a rice porridge. I only have a few more dishes (sauces in particular) to witness and that will be my whole diet! Eeek.

As far as the grass weaving goes, I have made a coaster and am starting to perfect the picture frame (which my family things is silly although I find to be quite quaint). Typically these are larger and used as bowl covers. We used grass collected on a road to one of the "neighborhoods" in Diara Pont, and pieces of rice sacks. I think they are great! It is a really good hobby to do in the hot afternoons to pass time.

Kitchen hut in village

Working on "weaving" with my host aunt and cousin

International Women's Day and Visitor!

March 8 was International Women's Day. In order to celebrate, with a neighbor, Ibrahima, I walked around my village to each of the forty compounds in order to distribute moringa seeds to all the women. My reasoning behind this was as follows: to acknowledge the women and the hard work they do every day, give them something that they can plant and take care of that is extremely beneficial (as a live fence post in their bathrooms, and extremely nutritional leaves they like to add to food), and as an excuse to walk around my village. It was great having someone to walk around with because of the layout of my village it is easy to get confused and potentially miss or double up on a compound. I was able to go to all the compounds in two "neighborhoods" of my village, and in the evening once it cooled down a bit, I went to the other "neighborhood." The picture below is with some women in their garden in this third neighborhood.

During this time as well, I had a couchsurfer from Canada come visit. He was biking around the country before a conference in Dakar and stayed in Diara Pont for two days. It was really great having someone come visit!

Couchsurfer, Scott, all geared up and ready to go

Family photo and then some thanks to Scott!