Louga English Camp

The U.S. Embassy sponsors a number of Access Summer English Camps all around Senegal for students ages 12-16. This is supplementary to an Access English program that runs during the school year. A Senegalese teacher is in charge of organizing the camp but they request PCVs in order to assist with running the camp by: playing games, putting on skits, sharing American culture, and helping with community service activities. The majority of camps are in Dakar, although I decided to take this opportunity to travel a little farther north to Louga, where my good friend Sarah lives.

My sept place stuck in mud on the way up.

In addition to myself and Sarah, two new community economic development (CED) volunteers decided to help out, Karen (Sarah's sitemate) and Marsha, who lives 18km away (also from Seattle!). Before the camp started on Monday, a meeting was held in Dakar on Saturday (when I was at the mangrove reforestation in Toubacouta) with all the participating teachers and at least one PCV participating at each camp to sort out a few administrative details and talk about the upcoming week. Sunday evening, the three of us in Louga met up to chose a song to play for the campers and explain the lyrics as well as discuss potential "Jeopardy" questions for another activity later in the week. Each day the camp is from 9am-1pm with a half an hour break in the middle.

Day 1: After breakfast on the street (cafe tuba, and a pea, bean and onion sandwich), the three of us walked to the school where the camp was held. Marsha met us via taxi. This is when I met the teachers and director who would be helping us out, Babacar and Moussa. After everyone did introductions (including the students) we split the 48 students into four groups. They made team names (Lions, Fighters, Dreamteam, and Kings) and flags and then we divided into two rooms to play a semi-final round of Jeopardy. The Lions (my team!) and the Dreamteam won with the categories of: music, famous people, geography, food, and history. After a short break, we went outside and played musical chairs. After that, we went inside, the students practiced "If You're Happy and You Know It," (the media came for video and interview for the local television), and then we went over the lyrics to Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music."

"Dream Team" with their flag

Jeopardy

Musical chairs

All and all, it was a good day, but I am amazed at our little we accomplished in the given time! It's all about giving them an opportunity to be in an English speaking environment. Nevertheless, the teaching style in Senegal is drastically different than the States and it is apparent even in this camp style learning environment. This is the second year of the camp happening in Louga (there were 30 participants last year, and were supposed to be 60 this year), so there are different English levels (these camps are supplementary to English classes that are given throughout the school year) and some people who attended the camp last year. It is great to see how confident some are, whereas others are much more timid. It is really inspiring and something I do not see much in my village.

Day 2: Having modified the schedule for the week a bit, we started the day with "Simon Says." Then rather than having the students write what they want to be when they grow up, we split up into twelve groups of four and handed out scenarios to each group to come up with a skit (i.e. You are going to the market to pick up supplies for rice and fish but forgot your money...You have a visitor in Louga, tell them what to do and what to avoid...A friend is going out of town and you agreed to feed his/her cat although you hate cats...You and your three best friends get in a fight, what is it about and how do you resolve the situation). Watching what the students came up with was great! After a break, we explained how to play baseball and the importance of it in America. We split up into teams, differentiated by red and blue bandanas we handed out, and played a few (very short) games in the courtyard. Some people were REALLY enthusiastic about it, although a lot of Wolof was used to cheer people on. We finished the day by teaching a couple more verses of Rihanna.

Simon Says

Working on making up skits (or sketches as they call them here)

One of the performances

Baseball in action!

Enthusiastic spectators

Day 3: We started the day with doing a human knot (failure since it it very much a team building exercise rather than a speaking exercise), and playing "Never Have I Ever." It was really interesting to hear some of the things that came up (swam, ate pizza, made maffe, been on a boat, been to the beach, cut onions). Afterwards, we had the final found of Jeopardy with the Lions verses the Dream Team with questions in the following categories: music, grammar, sports, politics, and careers. They did really well only being stumped on a few questions in politics, careers, and grammar, although the Dream Team ended up winning. Then, we handed out papers and had them draw a picture of something that represents America and share when they were done (a few of the drawings were: hamburgers, watches, city streets & buildings, sports fields, a pumpkin, turkey, etc). We started teaching Chris Brown's "Forever," and gave them homework to come up with questions pertaining to America that we will answer tomorrow.

Winning Dream Team

With the team leaders from the "Who is the Best?" English competition.

Day 4: We started the day off with a round of Pictionary. We put together 24 nouns, and had two teams guessing. It was a really great activity! Again, occasionally, it was shocking the words they did not know. After, we opened up the floor for questions they had about America. Then, we finished presenting pictures they drew the previous day that represent America. After break, we set up and did two rounds of a "Mini Olympics." They loved it! It was a really fun day.

Pictionary!

Drawings of what America represents

Mini Olympics Event 1: Three Legged Race

Mini Olympics Event 2: Race Sack Race

Mini Olympics Event 3: Egg Race

Mini Olympics Event 4: Water Balloon Toss

Mini Olympics Event 5: Ball Over/Under Pass Relay

Day 5:After a short feedback session in the morning (what did you think about camp, etc etc), the rest of the day was dedicated to a celebration for the completion of camp and the time we spent together that week. The second year campers prepared a song for us, which was great! It is amazing how talented these individuals are (they even brought in a keyboard for musical accompaniment, it was so cool! Definitely would not have happened in village). Then, a DJ came, we had food and enjoyed a morning of dancing.

Second year Access students performing

Dancing

Group Photo

Not only was camp a really rewarding experience, but overall, Louga was wonderful! Such a nice scaled, developed, and wealthy area. I got to see where Sarah works and meet one of her work partners, get a button on a pair of pants, and bought a game for my host siblings. I enjoyed lots of good food, met easy going enough people (for Wolofs, often considered "aggressive," granted I had limited interactions with them). Most days I went to Sarah's family's house for lunch (one day we went to the cultural center), where I had a spectacular variety of traditional Senegalese food. It was very enjoyable! It is so different than my usual lunch environment (a different meal every day! Also, there were many more people! Usually I share a bowl with 3 others, here, 11!) Grabbing an assortment of food for dinner (fish plate with salad and fries, hamburger, or chawarma), one night we did make fajitas! As a reward for the week (an to celebrate our one year in country), we decided to go to St. Louis and treat ourselves to a day at the beach.

Racist? Ignorant? Rude? Cultural differences?

So here in Senegal, there is an "entitlement" factor that can become very apparent within the resident population, which can be very frustrating or an opportunity to show off your language skills by making a joke out of it; this is of course depending on what kind of mood you are in! Senegalese of ALL ages who do not know you will come up asking for something with the full expectation that, "ohh of course you will give it to them." This will be anything from money, to the sunglasses you are wearing, the bag you are carrying, or food that you are in the midst of eating. I believe this problem arises from generations of foreigners coming to visit and doing just that, or just giving random people things who do not ask for them. This legacy is something that as a volunteer, I deal with often, and nearly daily when I am in larger cities. Furthermore, to make the entitlement situation worse, it is often coupled with an obnoxious cry of "TOUBAB," beforehand. The origin of "toubab" is disputed, but the story I like best is that it is the Arabic word for "doctor;" supposedly the first white people that came to Senegal were often doctors, this word became associated with white person. However, it is also ambiguous and widely used for "foreigner" (i.e. black Americans are also considered "toubabs" whereas even rich locals can be considered "toubab" if they adopt too many "Western" practices). Where it becomes obnoxious is when HERDS of children will shout, yell, and continuously scream TOUBAB to get your attention, and then either just greet you (culturally appropriate, and they don't necessarily know what else to call you, and I have found in my local area, if you tell them your name, next time, they will yell that rather than toubab) or ask you for something. The thing is, this is one of those things that would just NOT happen in America, in either case. If someone is different from you, and you don't know them, in the middle of the city, or countryside for that matter, someone would not yell CHINESE, ARABIC, MEXICAN, EUROPEAN, (repeatedly until you are out of sight) let alone a word encompassing all of the above from BLOCKS away just to say hello, and especially not to ask for chopsticks, a scarf, hot sauce, a visa, the coffee you are drinking, the jacket you are wearing, the book in your bag that is in a language they cannot read, or for the groceries you are going to the store to go get. Silliness.

The thing is that it is clearly partially a race thing: they are yelling toubab because I am a foreigner, they are asking me for things because I am a foreigner, however, this can be frustrating because I am living in this country for two years. Clearly, it is partially ignorance, especially when children are just trying to greet you, which is a completely cultural thing. I have the sweetest old ladies endearingly calling me toubab sometimes before they ask my name. Yet, the yelling frankly nearly always comes off as rude, which I don't think they are necessarily trying to be if they are greeting you. However, if they follow your acknowledgement to toubab (or sometimes not) by asking for something, it is rude. Bottom line: cultural differences.

Mangrove Reforestation

Volunteers in the Fatick region partnered with Oceanium, a Senegalese environmental protection association, in organizing a large scale mangrove reforestation project. Last year volunteers planted over 20,000 mangrove seedlings in the Sine Saloume Delta in order to combat the deforestation that occurs in the region due to the cutting of tree to harvest oysters and use the wood to built huts. Being an agrofoerstry volunteer, it was hard to say no to this opportunity of spending time in the gorgeous delta region and the mangroves!

Evidence of deforestation problem

A total of 47 volunteers stayed at the eco-campement Keur Bamboung, before the day of the project. I had a long day of travel taking the 4am bus to Tambacounda and then meeting up with a group the following morning to take a sept place to Toubacouta at 6:30am. We arrived in time to grab lunch at a "cheb shak" (lunch booth) that was only serving "maffe" (rice with a peanut sauce), wait for others to arrive and took a ferry to the island. A twenty minute walk took us to the campement before sunset before enjoying our evening and a delicious meal of cous cous with a meaty onion sauce.

In the morning, we headed out at 8:30am taking advantage of the morning low tide. After getting the seedlings delivered, we put them in the general area where we would plant them. The goal: 40,000 over a kilometer square area. After four hours of drawing lines, pacing out spacing, and planting the seedlings (easy since the ground is so soft, e.g. no digging/shovel required, and the seedlings can be pushed right into the ground), we did it! Our coordinators Garrison, Rob, and Jamie were awesome. I am really happy I came out although was bummed that I couldn't stay another night (I am traveling north to be a help out at a USAID English camp starting Monday morning) in Toubacouta to take advantage of opportunity to play with baby lions and the nearby nature reserve!

Ramadan, Naming Ceremony & Korite

Despite living in an area with nearby Catholics and Animists, my village, like the majority of the country are Muslim. Within the Islam faith, Ramadan is a holy month (changing annually since it is dependent on the moon) in which Muslims will fast during the day, it is also the 5th (of 5) pillar of Islam. This means, no food or water during daylight hours! They will get up before the sun rises, eat and drink a lot, and then wait until the sun sets (around 7:30pm) to break fast. "Breaking fast" consists of eating a rice or corn porridge, and then eating a proper dinner afterwards, which often means late, in the 10 o'clock hour or later! Children and pregnant women are exempt, although unfortunately, some people do not skip because they do not have to "make up" the days later in the year. On my compound, the children started fasting every other day, to train their bodies, although towards the end, I found myself eating all my meals with them (since women will still cook for their kids, of course). This year, Ramadan fell during planting season, so villagers would go to the fields daily, planting and tending to their fields. Many days were cooler (in the 80s-90s) with cloud cover, but I neglected to fast since I could not imagine putting body through that eating schedule, not to mention NOT drinking water during the day! I did however do the "master cleanse" for 5 days during this time.

My counterpart's second wife, Halimatou Binta Ba, gave birth in the middle of Ramadan. A week following Isatu Lamaran's birth, a "denaboo," or naming ceremony was held. Isatu got her first haircut, and Halimatou was given lots of soap, I got her a washing board, a couple really cute baby completes, and the evening concluded with a nice meal of cheb rice (traditional Senegalese oily rice dish seasoned with tomato Adja) after of course breaking of fast once it got dark!

Halimatou with her daughters, Isatu Wuri and the newborn, Isatu Lamaran

Cooking the feast!

My host mom Adama Dian with the finished product

The last day of Ramadan is determined by the moon, and the following day is a celebration known as Korite. In my village it consisted of praying in morning by the Arab school since we do not have a mosque and then cooking all day and eating a lot of fancy food! Often, it is a time when people if they can, buy new completes (traditional Senegalese clothes). I helped my mom cook which was fun. I bought "funio," a nutritious cous cous grain, sweet potatoes, potatoes, onion and carrots to contribute to the meal. They also bought meat, so it was quite "patron," if you will! After eating lunch at our house, my host mom and I brought a bowl over to the women's group president's house along with a few other women to share dishes that one another made. So much food over two hours! There was a soccer game in the evening and was very reminiscent of Thanksgiving, watching a sport while I was completely stuffed (although very different in terms of the food, and the sport: soccer on a grass field before sunset vs a football game on television).

My host mom, her daughter Binta, and our neighbor, Binta