Day 33: Medina Kouta 1

This morning I woke up to the sound of roosters and goats. I looked around the room. It was barely light outside, and it was pretty much dark inside my hut. I unsuccessfully tried to go back to sleep. However, during that ten minute period, I heard some noises which I thought were coming from inside of my room. I discovered that a chicken had somehow managed to get into my hut and was wandering around. I didn’t really know what to do, so I just kind of watched. Later, upon further examination, I would find a hen sitting on her eggs behind the table in the corner of the room…

I laid around and read until I was “awakened” by my father here. I came out of my hut and viewed the compound. Altogether, there are 5 or 6 huts surrounding the center area. The huts are relatively large, probably about 15ftx15ft at least. They all have thatched roofs and cement walls. None of them have windows. As for animals, there are probably about 15 chickens, 8 goats, and a dog. The whole compound is fenced in to make sure that the animals can’t get away.

After sitting for a while, my father showed me to the toilet, which was actually not that unpleasant. He also gave me a bucket of water with which to wash. I washed up and came back to the center area for breakfast. I was given the fine grain stuff that I had been given for dinner, but I was also given a small loaf of bread with a cup of coffee (I think.) Note: There is a huge difference between the bread here and the bread in Yoff. In Yoff, all of the bread is in the form of baguettes, the kind you might expect to find in Paris. They have a crusty shell and soft insides, full of air. The bread here is much more dense (probably more nutritious as well) and tastes more like whole grain bread.

After breakfast, my father and I walked to the center of the village where we had been dropped off by the van the night before. We waited for a while and eventually met up with the other American and Senegalese students. After a while of sitting around and doing introductions with the village elders and such, we embarked on (what turned out to be) a really long walk. They called it a tour, but we just walked for about 30 minutes till we reached the planned site for an ecotourist area, and then walked back.

Lunch was eaten with our families, and I received my first good meal here. It was strange, because it was pasta with sauce that tasted a lot like the way my grandmother makes it (and she’s Italian…) The pasta was served on top of white rice and fish. After stuffing myself, I had an hour long conversation with the only French speaker in the family. (when I was in an honors French class, I could carry on a conversation for no more than 2 minutes. I must be learning something. Also, necessity plays a role: communicating in French was my only option, thus I was totally and utterly forced to speak it…)

I then returned to the village center where we broke up into groups to discuss a concept with the villagers called AI, or “appreciative inquiry.” AI is basically a way of community planning that involves the whole community. Rather than just go in to a village and start a project, first, go and collect lots of information. Figure out what the community wants for itself. Find out what the successful projects have been. Plan a project to be started. Figure out a way to make that project sustainable. And voila, you have AI.

The village decided that their 4 main priorities were education, agriculture, health, and eco-tourism. In the health group, we discussed the health issues in Medina Kouta with the two Peace Corps volunteers here, the guy in charge of health in this village, and about 5 other villagers. This afternoon was spent figuring out what improvements have been made already here, in terms of health. Tomorrow, we will complete the rest of the AI steps. Note: There’s a huge effort to keep everything positive, ie. Discuss the successful programs, not their weaknesses. One of the main objectives in AI is to keep people motivated, and optimism is a very important part of that…

For dinner, I had planned to eat with Mambui (because she was having Yassa, which I love) but my father wanted me to eat dinner with them. He brought me to Mambui’s hut after they had already fed me pasta and some meat (from which animal? I do not know…) I hung out with Mambui and a couple of the Americans for about an hour, got kind of lost trying to get home, but eventually made it back to my compound. Once again, it’s extremely hot inside this hut. Outside however, it’s pretty cool, and there are SO many stars. Rural Africa…you can’t beat that when it comes to zero light pollution. I mean, there’s no electricity here…

Before I end this entry, just let me say one thing about the people in Medina Kouta. They are SO nice. Without a doubt, the people here are nicer (and I think happier) than those in Yoff. This isn’t to say that the people in Yoff aren’t nice; it’s just that sometimes people on the street can be harassing and obnoxious. Here however, there are no streets, nor are there any people harassing us. My family is incredibly kind, my father has taken me in as his own (even though I’m only staying here for one more night) and he has even named me: Bilal Ifie (or something like that.) Pretty much no one speaks French, (only one person in my family) and it’s pretty frustrating not to be able to talk to much of anyone. However, I’m learning a little bit of Pulaar, the language that they speak here. Time to go, 11PM is way too late to stay up if you get up at dawn with the roosters…