And so another adventure begins....: Toubacouta: a proposed itinerary

As with anything in Senegal during the rainy season, any attempt at a schedule is contingent on the cooperation of the weather.
In my opinion, because the Senegalese don't seem too big on schedules, the Senegalese weather gods are not at all happy to hear of a bunch of American students acting against Senegalese custom by trying to follow a pre-set itinerary. The itinerary was a little too overachieving- if my father and I couldn't fit 4 things in one day (with paved roads and contained wildlife), what makes WARC (our center of study here in Dakar) think that 30 university students can get it done?

-the road from Dakar to Toubacouta, the prettiest stretch. The local roads were INCREDIBLY bumpy. I think all of us had motion sickness by the time we got to Toubacouta.

DAY 1:

stopped in Sokone, a town of about 12,000 people. It is where I will be doing my internship starting at the end of October. We had lunch at mayor's house - where I refereed/judged a watermelon seed spitting contest. Americans just can't eat watermelon without making it into a competition, and yet the Senegalese thought we were crazy for it.

- market in Sokone
- the best bread EVER!!! Breadsmith needs this recipe!

Afterward walking around the market in Sokone, we headed to the hotel to just chill out. We got one of the buses stuck in the mud and ended up having to pull it out with the other bus. I had a major slip in the mud while gawking at the bus- got my whole right leg scrapped up.

The hotel was super fun! It is an eco-lodge, with small cabins for 2-3 people scattered around, a pool and a bar. There was a zebra-donkey-mule on the propery and monkeys jumping in the neighboring forest! Not to mention gorgeous birds flitting about- metallic and super bright colors.

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OKAY... so this trip was about two weeks ago at this point and so I just need to get this post done. Meaning the trip isn't going to be separated into days anymore and extended commentary is basically going to be few and far between.

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GOVERNMENT:

We met the Prefect de Toubacouta, an official appointed by President Abdoulaye Wade to oversee Toubacouta and the surrounding region, and later we met the elected representative, . le President de la Communauté Rurale. They kind of tag team the whole leadership thing, but the elected President gets to run the show and the Prefet just oversees to make sure nothing too crazy or completely illegal is going down.

- each village has an "arbre de palabre" where the villagers gather for celebrations and discussions. Under the tree, everyone has a voice and can speak freely. These trees are HUGE! (granted, I am quite small- but even for someone big, they are tall) Nobody can cut them down and the area around them has to remain clear. No one can just stage a semi-coup d'etat by building their house around the tree.

HEALTHCARE:

Later we checked out the Poste de Sante in Toubacouta and a Cas de Sante in the neighboring village of Ndoumboudj. The cas de sante is the first resource for the local population. Literally just two rooms, it is a way to get healthcare to the nearby villages. The Poste de Sante is the next step up on the chain of health care. Next is the hospital in Kaolack (the capital of the region) followed by the hospital in Dakar.

- the new addition to the cas de sante

The resources available were a shock to witness first-hand. The Poste de Sante has an ambulance, for example, that has been inoperable for over a year. There is simply no money to fix it. The Cas de Sante has no refrigerator for vaccines because of lack of infrastructure, and the Poste de Sante is hit with frequent power outages, like the rest of Senegal. The midwife at the cas de sante in the village said that they were fearing the day that a woman would go into labor during the night and they would only be able to see by candle light.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT:

Later we met with a group of women from Sokouta, a village in the area. They had organized to be able to raise money and start a savings and lending account. They would then take out loans from the group funds to send their children to school or university for example. They had been extremely succesful in getting grants and loans from numerous international organizations to expand their efforts in harvesting mussels and fish from the delta.

CULTURAL EVENTS:

That evening- la lutte! We were all crammed into the group vans and taken to the village of Nemanding. With us were university students of the large university in Dakar who were from the region and spending their school holidays with their family. It was crazier than anything I could have expected.