Post-Demystification

Hello all,

It is Saturday and I am sitting in a cafe in Thies, using a friend's laptop and the wifi to write this posting. Yesterday, I returned from a 10 day long trip to the village of Ker Ndongo (~125 km from the city of Tamba) to shadow a health-sector volunteer. I went with the other Wolof-speaking health trainee and our language trainer. To make the 8-hour long trip to Keur Ndongo, we took a Peugeot stationwagon known here as a "sept-place" (because of the 7 seats inside) loaded with our clothes, mosquito nets, various supplies, and of course, ourselves. The road was possibly the worst road that I have ever traveled on- people who complain about potholes in the US haven't seen anything to compare to these potholes. It was like a long obstacle course on a hot, dry, windy, and dusty day. But the trip was definitely worth it.

We met the volunteer at the nearby town of Koupentoum, then drove the rest of the way (>25 km) on a dirt path to get to her host-family's house. After we arrived, we all bathed, and then rested. The next morning, we went house-to-house with the volunteer to greet the villagers, then planned out the rest of our week (which involved an awful lot of activities). The volunteer had started a women's group that met weekly, and we did a number of training sessions with her women's group. For example, we did two sessions on building a tree nursery (which involved mixing manure and sand to make soil, and then planting seeds into the soil), a session involving making a lotion out of neem leaves (to serve as a mosquito repellent), and a session involving mosquito net impregnation (in which we impregnated over 50 nets brought by the villagers). In addition to all of this, we made a trip to the nearby Health Post to shadow the Infermier Chef de Poste (basically the nurse in charge of the post) and another trip to the travelling market to practice our Wolof. We also had language classes and cross-cultural exercises (which involved interviewing villagers) sprinkled in. To top it off, we were given our final oral language test to determine whether we'd met the minimum level for being sworn in as a volunteer. As I had expected, both of us passed the test.

A couple of times during the stay, the villagers turned over some metal bowls and buckets and started beating them like makeshift drums. The others would form a circle and people would take turns dancing. That is, the women would take turns dancing. As the guests of honor, the other trainee, the volunteer, our teacher, and myself were also expected to dance. So to make things a bit more fun, each time I would have to go into the middle of the circle, I would drag one of the boys in with me and make them dance too. And they could dance really well, but they just didn't want to. It became a bit of a joke- the other kids would come to me with one of their friends and say "he hasn't danced yet. Take him now," while their friend would squirm and try to get away. The women in the village thought it was hilarious.

The village stay was wonderful and informative. We are in the dry season right now, and food is beginning to get scarce for families. The lack of running water requires people to retrieve all of their water from the well, and as the water table recedes a little bit during the dry season, it becomes harder to do this. Farming at this point involves preparing the fields for the rainy season, but this does not require a whole lot of time. As a result, the men seemed to spend most of their time sitting around and drinking tea, while the women took care of the house. And how the women work here! They pull water from the wells (albeit with some help from the men), cook meals (in 120+ temperatures), maintain the houses and compounds, and take care of the kids. They are really amazing!

I'm back in Thies now, but I still wish that I was in the village. The volunteer stressed that things wouldn't be this easy immediately at the village, but that we would have to work hard to get the villagers organized in such a way that we could get stuff done. And that will be the hard part.

I am off to Dakar tomorrow to spend the day doing administrative stuff (I think we have to go to the embassy), and will be leaving for my site in about 2 weeks. I am raring to go!

Ba benaan yoon!

-Rithvik

P.S.

The photos that I've uploaded include photos of the volunteer (with the shaved head), the president of the village women's group (seen with the volunteer), the other Wolof-speaking trainee, our teacher (seen plucking a chicken with the other trainee), assorted members of the volunteer's host family, and a photo of villagers pulling water from the well at sunset.