"Are you staying in a hotel?" - Mommy

I really wish I had a digital picture of where I stayed this weekend when I went to Linguere. My mom asked me if I would be staying in a hotel in the village... the place I stayed essentially couldnt have been farther from a hotel but I must say that even as primitive as it was, it was fabulous. I have truly seen two completely different sides of Africa and I am so grateful for the opportunity. It was thusfar the most beneficial and impactful part of my stay here in Senegal.

So Ablay, my translator, traveling companion, and all around life-saver, and I set out at 5:30 on Friday morning complete with 20 liters of water and my huge hiking bag prepared for up to two weeks in the village. Our travels to Linguere were uneventful (with the exception of the charette, the Linguere equivalent of the taxi, a horse drawn cart ride from the car garage to the office where we were to meet our contact). Imagine what a sight that must have been, the white woman riding through town on the horsedrawn cart. We met our contact Anne, a Lutheran missionary who runs a primary care clinic there. We bought gifts for the chief of Touba Linguere, the village where I would be conducting my research, which included 10 kilos of rice, two kilos of sugar, tea, and mangos and we then set out. Even the trip to the village was astounding to me. The village was 23 km from Linguere and we were took a Land Rover and followed a series of "roads" in the maze of sand paths to the village. I was stunned at their ability to find the village as there were absolutely no signs or obvious landmarks to speak of.

I dont know what I was expecting in the village but what I found were very ordinary Senegalese. I did not see one loin cloth, plate through ears or lips, nor bones through noses, nor weapons to speak of. I have just dispelled a common misconception about African villages. While Im sure these things could be found elsewhere, they were not in Touba Linguere. What I found in Touba Linguere were GENUINELY hospitable people who had no agenda in their hospitality as I have often found in Dakar. Ablay and I were to stay with the village chief. His household consisted of about 20 people enclosed within a fence of straw were a number of straw, cement, and clay huts. I kept my belongings in a clay hut with a straw roof but slept each night on a traditional bed outside under the most beautiful stars I have ever seen in my life. Never before have I seen so many stars. It was glorious! Not to worry about mosquitos though because I had triple protection. I lit this thing which creates smoke to keep the mosquitos away, had my bug repellant on, and literally slept wrapped in my mousticaire (mosquito net). Did I mention that there was no electricity at all? I guess thats not much different from here in Dakar as the power is out 50 percent of the time! They did have semi modern "bathroom" facilities as they had a well and a hole in the ground which served not only as a toilet but as a place to shower. Very convenient!

The mornings were probably my favorite. Woke up to typical farm sounds, horses, women pounding millet (a grain) in a huge mortar and pestle type thing, babies crying. The donkey continues to be my favorite farm sound. Was also treated to the beautiful sunrises every day on my walk to the bathroom :)

Ablay was so so so helpful. I didnt even know how to ask where to go to the bathroom and then when I did find out, it was not a setup that I was accustomed to (essentially 3 3/4 of straw walls and a long concrete slab to stand on. He was especially useful when it came time to eating, everything was 10 times more difficult than usual (especially at night with no light) and there was always the problem of the sand. My neighbors here in Dakar asked me what I ate there and got a big kick when I tell them "cere, mewe, ak suuf" cous cous, milk, and sand which was the truth. As an example of my incompetence: the first night they gave us a big bowl of cous cous, two packets of powdered milk, a sauce, and a cup. Now what the heck am I supposed to do with this? Without Ly I would have been completely lost! Each night the couscous (a grain cereal sort of thing) would go into my milk with sugar (strange I know) complete with sand. In a semidesertified area its unavoidable! Most Dakarois (people who live in Dakar) cant even fathom going to a place like this. Im trying to htink of what it would be akin to in the US but I really dont know that there are any areas as underdevelped as this one. Each morning I drank hot powdered milk into which I would put Biscuit, these little graham cracker type cookies, which actually was really delighful. In Dakar I eat a baguette in my hot powdered milk each morning so it wasnt so different. For lunch each day we got two huge bowls of ceebu gen (fish and rice) which was enough for 6 people literally. We werent sure where the second bowl came from because the two dishes were prepared differently. We assumed that the father had two wives. It wasnt until after the second days lunch that we found out that the neighbor had been sending the second bowl of food for us. No one had even told us. It was so so kind of him!

I used to think sometimes that many of the Senegalese were lazy, yes I know thats judgemental and mean of me but I see many examples of it, especially of the majority of women in my neighborhood. However, I think they just really know how to appreciate and enjoy life. But in comparison to life of Americans it is easy for me to say thaty they are lazy just because we are so accustomed to going going going going and we hardly take time to enjoy life and appreciate it. Each afternoon after lunch we would take a little siesta (little meaning 2-3 hours). Esssentially, they threw down some burlap sacks and some plastic chairs and benches under a huge tree in the yard and sat around to chat, nap, relax and drink tea. Let me tell ya, I could really get used to that. Drink tea, nap a bit, wake up, drink round two of tea, nap some more, wake up to see a chicken walk by my head, wake up to see two guys carrying by the horns a freshly chopped off cow head by me (no joke!), and round 3 of tea (there are always three cups of tea) Apparently such is life in the village.

There was the problem of transportation from Touba Linguere back to Linguere when we were finished with our work. There was an almost complete lack of cars, thus the only option was the caleche (horse or donkey drawn cart). However, people left for town on these only on Monday and Friday. Thus we determined that we would finish our work before monday, that left us two days to interview 30 people.

Onto the research. We had a lot of work to do in two days. We had 30 interviews to conduct. The village consisted of 53 borom ker's, or heads of the house, mostly centralized in one are but with 10 or so scattered up to 3 km from the village. Everyone that we met with was so welcoming and willing to talk with us. The reason that I say that this was my most profound experience is becaus it was here that I experienced what I came here to expereience. I was actually doing the stuff that I came here to do and learn about, why africans arent accessing health care and just how grave it is. You can read about it all you want but until you see a 5 year old boy with cavities in every tooth that hurt so bad he can hardly eat and his family doesnt have money to bring him to the dentist and you want to cry it really hits you. Probably 75% of the people had problems with oral health and even more had never once visited a dentist. There were a number of people who had no clue even where they could get oral care even though there is a dental clinic in the hospital in Linguere. While I havent looked into the situation enough or the possibilities I really dont see why there couldnt be some sort of mobile clinic which traveled around to remote villages to provide oral health care. One of the most stated reasons for not receiving care is the distance to Linguere. Mark my words: it is my goal to see a mobile clinic put in place!!

I had many firsts this weekend! I received as a gift my first ever live chicken! How cool is that! However, I chose not to take it with me back to Dakar and left it with my host. Potentially one of the coolest parts of my time there was my transport out of the village back to Linguere. We were up at 4:30 am in order to pack and get onto the caleche (the horse drawn cart) at 5 in the pitch black. On the road we had nothing but the stars and a flashlight to lead the way. There were many times this weekend when I sort of stopped and took myself out of the situation and thought what the heck am I doing here and how did I get here? It was so so cool. Not many people can say they have watched an African sunrise while riding on a horsecart! Fabulous!

Trip back to Dakar was relatively uneventful. However I have decided that I should never ever complain about anything again, especially in the US. We took two 7 place station wagons and each time I was in the back seat riding bitch in the middle. Brutal! Not to complain like I just said I would never do again but it was hoooooottttt, completely uncomfortable, I was hungry, tired and thirsty. However there was a man in the front seat who really looked like he was very close to death who was on his way to the hospital in Dakar with his three companions. Unfortunately for this poor man the car broke down just outside of Dakar and we were stuck there for an extra 2 hours. This poor man crawled out of the car and spent these two hours lying in the shade of a filthy corner. I can hardly think of anything worse! After nearly 12 hours of travel I arrived back at home (its crazy for me to think that I call my place in Dakar home but it really is homey, I love it!) Even after 12 hours of sleep on Monday night spent all day Tuesday recovering because turns out my weekend was actually a bit stressful for my body! Go figure!

Ciao ciao y'all! Bissous