Day 34: Medina Kouta Day 2

Once again, I was awakened this morning by a chicken walking around in my room. This morning however, I was much keener on how to get it out quickly. I actually managed to sleep in some more, till around 8am. I came out of my hut, washed my face and hands, and ate breakfast back in my hut. Noticing that I hadn’t eaten any couscous the previous morning, my family gave me the coffee stuff and two loaves of bread. I ate both.

I walked alone to the village center where we met back with our groups from the day before. If you recall, we ended yesterday with discussing successful programs that have been completed here. This morning, we moved on to the “dream” phase, where we asked the 6 or 7 villagers in our group to close their eyes and imagine what they wanted the village to be like in 5 years. More specifically, what health measures were in place to improve the lives of the villagers? Listening to them tell us about their “dreams” for the future, we were able to write down certain projects that could help make these “dreams” reality. After finishing with our health group, we came back together with all the other groups and the work that had been done in each group was explained to everyone. The village elders then decided on one program for each topic that was most important.

Before we went home for lunch, the village griots came to welcome us into their village. There were four altogether, and they each had their own drum. They came in a sort of procession, and proceeded to play for us. Women came into the circle to dance as well. See pics.

After lunch, we came back and met in our groups for the final time. This time, we completed the “design” phase, where we figured out how the previously chosen programs would be executed. For example, we asked them to decide: Who would be in charge of the program? What are the necessary resources? How much would this all cost? And other questions like that. In our group, we had a hard time because the villagers had chosen “Training of midwives and “relais” (which are informal nurses/doctors).” There’s not much that the villagers can do to train these people without funding from external sources. However, NGO Cresp will help the villagers write grant/funding proposals for these projects.

Back together again, each group shared what they had come up with. Across the four topics that the villagers had chosen, it seemed that there were many good projects as well as the incentive to begin them.

After completing the AI, a few of the Americans visited the banana plantation that is here in Medina Kouta, which was really quite interesting. I’ve probably eaten thousands of bananas in my lifetime, but never saw where they came from. The plantation was Huge.

For dinner I had some really good fish and some not so great couscous (I don’t really like the couscous in Senegal because the grains are too small and it kind of tastes like sand.) After dinner, we drank some tea, and went off to the “cultural soiree” that was taking place in the village center. Also there were all the American students and many of the villagers. The griots returned and played their drums, the women danced (as well as us) and it was truly a cultural experience. Before I came to Senegal, everyone told me to “experience the culture.” If what we experienced tonight isn’t culture, I don’t know what is. It was truly unforgettable.

Before I conclude the Medina Kouta entries, let me just say that I cannot get over how nice these villagers are. They don’t resent us in any way, where as a lot of other people have come across do. What I calculated today was that these people probably live on about 100CFA (20 cents) per day, probably less. However, these are happier people than Americans I know who spend hundreds of dollars each day. Everyone always said “money can’t buy happiness.” These people are living proof. I love it here in this village, and I will be sad to leave tomorrow morning.