Had a bit of a wobble yesterday. Got one toabab and cadauex too many shouted at me in the street. The last one was from a group of teenagers, at which point I lost my rag a bit and replied No! Ntoo mu Aminata le ti. My name is Aminata (my African name), inMandinka. It feels so disrespectful to be have people shout 'white' at you in the street. Earlier on as I cycled through Dianna village on my bike I had young kids shout taobab and then another shout Aminata, Kortanta (Are you at peace?). That last one really cheered me up, as this little boy had remembered my name and was greeting me. I was so touched by that.
So I had a good cry last night and though there was no point in doing any of this. But afterwards of course I felt much better and once again I feel recharged and keen to crack on with the assessment. I have just recruited another person to the planning team who will come along to the next meeting on Sunday. I'm pleased as he is a Fula, and that is the one ethinc group I didn't have represented in the team. We now have Mandinka, Jola, Jola-Karon, Serer and Fula. Perfect!
Apart from being singled out by my the colour of my skin in the street with the toabab thing (I know they don't mean it nastily, really I do, but it still feels bad), the other problem I was having yesterday was frustration at not being able to speak the language, which made me feel a bit lonely and isolated. I have decided to make a concerted effort today with study, but not on my own, with one of Hawa's family who she says is goood at explaining Mandinka.
There is a problem with low attendance from adults to the English language classes at Dianna English Language School. I see Hawa Touré is putting a considerable amount of effort in to lesson preparation, but despite having plenty of students who have paid up the registration fee, they aren't regularly attending class. I would love to hear from other similar schools to find out from their experience what works and how they get good attendance. Possible factors include the time of year, with people preparing the land for the rainy season, or not having money to pay for class fees, or having other jobs to do, or not wearing a watch and being distracted by another activity...
I think the needs assessment will provide useful information for the school.
Teachers from a local school have been striking this week, which has affected sheduling of English classes and caused some confusion unfortunately.
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
Monday 27 April – Day 36
Happy Birthday tomorrow to Lizzie, an Abene Karantaa trustee!
…on a high. The first meeting of the planning team yesterday afternoon got off to a great start. I wasn’t sure how many people would attend the meeting. I hoped Bibeesh, a local association leader and key informant in the community said he would be there and bring a woman with him, to have equal representation. Miri, a mother who breast fed during the meeting came through him. She was very supportive and keen to get started with the assessment. She is also on the health committee at the village clinic, earns a living from farming and a business woman, from the administrative capital in the area, Ziguinchor. Bibeesh is on the local school committee, a member of the local development bank and farmer. They both represented Abene.
Diibril Diatta, from the village Albadar was one I had only spoken to about the meeting that morning, but he came, and brought along Lamin Diatta with him. Diibril chairs the youth association in his village, is a primary school teacher and is another key informant in the team. His friend Lamin is a local shopkeeper and business man. Representing the village Dianna were two women I hadn’t met before, Kandi Diatto and Isatu Sambo, who both work in farming, and selling and watering vegetables for a living. Yousoufa Diouf, from the Gambia, but currently living in Abene, is a mechanic with professional skills also including painting, welding. The group of 8, was made up of 4 men and 4 women, including myself, and 2 people from both Dianna and Albadar, and 3 from Abene.
I chaired the meeting, thanked everyone for coming and explained my plans for the participatory needs assessment. The first difficulty we encountered was which language to speak in. I started by speaking in French, but the French spoken here is different from my limited French, it wasn’t easy to communicate, and Isatu doesn’t know French. We decided to use Mandinka, and Lamin kindly translated for me to English and from my English to Mandinka.
By the end of the meeting, following my informal presentation and group discussion, I think everyone had a good idea of what we hope to get out of the assessment period, working together in collaboration with the community, involving the whole community to identify their needs, define the priorities and work together to make a plan of action to address the needs. Together we, or rather they, I hope, will identify a community vision of the future and sustainable plans to make it a reality.
I explained that the charity in London, Abene Karantaa is focussed on educational provision, but that the assessment would cover all areas of provision, not just education for a number of reasons. For example, it is useful to get the whole picture of a community as if one thing is lacking, such as health, or nutrition, or housing, or water, etc. that will have a knock on effect on education and be a barrier to learning. Apart from being a starting point for educational development in the community, I hope the assessment will also be a useful tool in the wider development of the community, encouraging participation and empowering poor and powerless groups.
The atmosphere of the meeting was positive and enthusiastic. Miri suggested they each go and discuss the plans within their groups in their communities and feedback at the next meeting. I was keen to consider the methods we would use to generate information, including cross-checking, what information we will need to gather and who will get it. We agreed to leave such discussion and decisions till the next meeting, a week’s time. I am optimistic about the group and the outcome of the meeting. Just a few hours before I wasn’t entirely clear on what I wanted to get out of it on this first day. This is a new experience for me as well as them. But I don’t think I could have hoped for a better outcome. A few days before I wasn’t sure how I was going to put a planning team together at all. The book I am using as a guide for the whole process, Partners in Planning, Rifkin and Pridmore, talks about professionals, working with members of the local community as if there are usually a few people from an outside organisation (such as Abene Karantaa) involved in this keen of assessment, but in this case it is just me in the role of ‘professional’, and I’ve never done this before! However, I think the experience I got from setting up an animal welfare charity while I was living in Spain, has given me a good grounding in working with community members in a different culture.
The book, Partners in Planning, talks about 2 objectives for the assessment, one being to generate information, identify and prioritise needs and make a plan of action, the other to provide opportunities for community members (particularly the poor and powerless) to gain skills and experience. I wasn’t really clear on what the skills and experience were that people would get from it, until after a quick phone call to my mum back in the UK. I was looking at it from a western perspective, thinking it would look good on a CV, but I couldn’t believe anyone had CVs here and the skills wouldn’t be useful to them as employment is different here. But my mum pointed out to me that the assessment would involve skills that are easily transferrable to business planning, a skill that she had found to be lacking here from her knowledge of the area. There may be 5 snack bars in the vicinity but that doesn’t seem to stop people putting up another one. The skills they could gain from this experience would involve researching the market, making costings, budgets and planning for long-term sustainability. All of which she pointed out would be very useful skills, empowering individuals. And so I am learning as I go along. As Yousoufa says, life is a university!
Together the planning team has decided to limit the assessment to the 3 villages of Abene, Dianna and Albadar, The later 2 being the closest to Abene, at about 1.5 km distance. A later continuation of this assessment could include other villages, with potentially greater needs, but it was agreed that at this stage we would keep it manageable and be realistic about what we could achieve together in 2 months.
The next planning team meeting will be on Sunday 3 May, at 4pm in Abene’s primary school again. The group will feedback on their discussions within their community groups and I hope we will start to identify what information we need to gather, how to find it out and who will do what. In later stages of the assessment we will be able to review and interpret the information gathered.
I feel a real sense of achievement after the meeting and hopeful for the next 2 months. It feels amazing to be the catalyst of a participatory community development project. Alahamdulilahi. I am however aware that it is easier for everyone to be happy and enthusiastic at the beginning, and that we are bound to encounter difficulties. I will of course do everything within my means to ensure it goes well. Inshallah.
At the end I explained that I didn’t necessarily need to chair the next meeting and that perhaps we could have a rotating chair each week. So next week it will be someone different.
On a different, cultural note. I am living with nature. The other day I went in to the kitchen with my torch in the night and found I had disturbed a bat in the house! Then there are the over-sixed ants that share the kitchen with us, running up and down and in any direction across the walls and surfaces. The rats that gnaw at the ceiling above my bed in the night. Every time I am sure they will make a hole and fall through on top of me. But it hasn’t happened so far! The frogs that live in the well, the water I shower and cook with. The cockroach I found in the kitchen the other day and the funny shaped armoured insect I had in my hand briefly when I went to pick up a fork. Outside you are surrounded by varying numbers of chickens, goats, cows and pigs. Odd noises come out of the bush, I’m sure cows here make a different noise from the kind I was used to in Somerset! The whole village feels like a farm. Dogs lie sprawled in the middle of the dirt-track road. It’s a wonder more of them aren’t killed by the cars that speed up and down. I have seen goats standing on their hind legs nibbling at food from a high branch on a tree. Chickens sunning themselves with their wings spread out, and all of the above doing their best to make babies!
My rubbish goes in two piles, the food scraps to the animals to eat, and the plastic and tins to be burned or reused. I have found the added value in a 1,000 CFA pot of Chocopain chocolate and peanut spread (my favoured alternative to Tesco Finest Triple Chocolate Cookies). Tupperware! Hawa (my new British friend here, who I had lunch with yesterday at her house) has been getting equally excited about plastic pots. Very useful for storing food in. Protecting it from mice, chickens, sand and countless other things that would otherwise find their way in to your supplies. Lots of things, including the last things you would expect are sold in little, tiny, plastic bags with a knot tied in them. Powered milk, tiny, tiny bags, which I buy to have in my café touba in the morning, mustard powder, washing powder, ground up garlic, salt, sugar, peanut butter, even water and milk. It´s all sold in little plastic bags.
One of the women at Yousoufa’s uncle’s house (the place I am now using the blog from, as they have electricity (when there is power), but not a phone line or internet, is always asking me where my mobile phone is. She wants to swop it for hers. I have come to understand that this - like the complete stranger in the street this week who saw the cup attached to the pannier bag on the back of my bike (I bring it out with me to drink the café touba from) and said she wanted it – is just friendly banter. People’s way of getting to know you and have a joke. I’ve learnt that the most suitable response is to agree to give your mobile phone, or cup, or whatever it happens to be to the person, but for them to wait until you’ve finished with it first! A diplomatic way of saying refusing their request!
…on a high. The first meeting of the planning team yesterday afternoon got off to a great start. I wasn’t sure how many people would attend the meeting. I hoped Bibeesh, a local association leader and key informant in the community said he would be there and bring a woman with him, to have equal representation. Miri, a mother who breast fed during the meeting came through him. She was very supportive and keen to get started with the assessment. She is also on the health committee at the village clinic, earns a living from farming and a business woman, from the administrative capital in the area, Ziguinchor. Bibeesh is on the local school committee, a member of the local development bank and farmer. They both represented Abene.
Diibril Diatta, from the village Albadar was one I had only spoken to about the meeting that morning, but he came, and brought along Lamin Diatta with him. Diibril chairs the youth association in his village, is a primary school teacher and is another key informant in the team. His friend Lamin is a local shopkeeper and business man. Representing the village Dianna were two women I hadn’t met before, Kandi Diatto and Isatu Sambo, who both work in farming, and selling and watering vegetables for a living. Yousoufa Diouf, from the Gambia, but currently living in Abene, is a mechanic with professional skills also including painting, welding. The group of 8, was made up of 4 men and 4 women, including myself, and 2 people from both Dianna and Albadar, and 3 from Abene.
I chaired the meeting, thanked everyone for coming and explained my plans for the participatory needs assessment. The first difficulty we encountered was which language to speak in. I started by speaking in French, but the French spoken here is different from my limited French, it wasn’t easy to communicate, and Isatu doesn’t know French. We decided to use Mandinka, and Lamin kindly translated for me to English and from my English to Mandinka.
By the end of the meeting, following my informal presentation and group discussion, I think everyone had a good idea of what we hope to get out of the assessment period, working together in collaboration with the community, involving the whole community to identify their needs, define the priorities and work together to make a plan of action to address the needs. Together we, or rather they, I hope, will identify a community vision of the future and sustainable plans to make it a reality.
I explained that the charity in London, Abene Karantaa is focussed on educational provision, but that the assessment would cover all areas of provision, not just education for a number of reasons. For example, it is useful to get the whole picture of a community as if one thing is lacking, such as health, or nutrition, or housing, or water, etc. that will have a knock on effect on education and be a barrier to learning. Apart from being a starting point for educational development in the community, I hope the assessment will also be a useful tool in the wider development of the community, encouraging participation and empowering poor and powerless groups.
The atmosphere of the meeting was positive and enthusiastic. Miri suggested they each go and discuss the plans within their groups in their communities and feedback at the next meeting. I was keen to consider the methods we would use to generate information, including cross-checking, what information we will need to gather and who will get it. We agreed to leave such discussion and decisions till the next meeting, a week’s time. I am optimistic about the group and the outcome of the meeting. Just a few hours before I wasn’t entirely clear on what I wanted to get out of it on this first day. This is a new experience for me as well as them. But I don’t think I could have hoped for a better outcome. A few days before I wasn’t sure how I was going to put a planning team together at all. The book I am using as a guide for the whole process, Partners in Planning, Rifkin and Pridmore, talks about professionals, working with members of the local community as if there are usually a few people from an outside organisation (such as Abene Karantaa) involved in this keen of assessment, but in this case it is just me in the role of ‘professional’, and I’ve never done this before! However, I think the experience I got from setting up an animal welfare charity while I was living in Spain, has given me a good grounding in working with community members in a different culture.
The book, Partners in Planning, talks about 2 objectives for the assessment, one being to generate information, identify and prioritise needs and make a plan of action, the other to provide opportunities for community members (particularly the poor and powerless) to gain skills and experience. I wasn’t really clear on what the skills and experience were that people would get from it, until after a quick phone call to my mum back in the UK. I was looking at it from a western perspective, thinking it would look good on a CV, but I couldn’t believe anyone had CVs here and the skills wouldn’t be useful to them as employment is different here. But my mum pointed out to me that the assessment would involve skills that are easily transferrable to business planning, a skill that she had found to be lacking here from her knowledge of the area. There may be 5 snack bars in the vicinity but that doesn’t seem to stop people putting up another one. The skills they could gain from this experience would involve researching the market, making costings, budgets and planning for long-term sustainability. All of which she pointed out would be very useful skills, empowering individuals. And so I am learning as I go along. As Yousoufa says, life is a university!
Together the planning team has decided to limit the assessment to the 3 villages of Abene, Dianna and Albadar, The later 2 being the closest to Abene, at about 1.5 km distance. A later continuation of this assessment could include other villages, with potentially greater needs, but it was agreed that at this stage we would keep it manageable and be realistic about what we could achieve together in 2 months.
The next planning team meeting will be on Sunday 3 May, at 4pm in Abene’s primary school again. The group will feedback on their discussions within their community groups and I hope we will start to identify what information we need to gather, how to find it out and who will do what. In later stages of the assessment we will be able to review and interpret the information gathered.
I feel a real sense of achievement after the meeting and hopeful for the next 2 months. It feels amazing to be the catalyst of a participatory community development project. Alahamdulilahi. I am however aware that it is easier for everyone to be happy and enthusiastic at the beginning, and that we are bound to encounter difficulties. I will of course do everything within my means to ensure it goes well. Inshallah.
At the end I explained that I didn’t necessarily need to chair the next meeting and that perhaps we could have a rotating chair each week. So next week it will be someone different.
On a different, cultural note. I am living with nature. The other day I went in to the kitchen with my torch in the night and found I had disturbed a bat in the house! Then there are the over-sixed ants that share the kitchen with us, running up and down and in any direction across the walls and surfaces. The rats that gnaw at the ceiling above my bed in the night. Every time I am sure they will make a hole and fall through on top of me. But it hasn’t happened so far! The frogs that live in the well, the water I shower and cook with. The cockroach I found in the kitchen the other day and the funny shaped armoured insect I had in my hand briefly when I went to pick up a fork. Outside you are surrounded by varying numbers of chickens, goats, cows and pigs. Odd noises come out of the bush, I’m sure cows here make a different noise from the kind I was used to in Somerset! The whole village feels like a farm. Dogs lie sprawled in the middle of the dirt-track road. It’s a wonder more of them aren’t killed by the cars that speed up and down. I have seen goats standing on their hind legs nibbling at food from a high branch on a tree. Chickens sunning themselves with their wings spread out, and all of the above doing their best to make babies!
My rubbish goes in two piles, the food scraps to the animals to eat, and the plastic and tins to be burned or reused. I have found the added value in a 1,000 CFA pot of Chocopain chocolate and peanut spread (my favoured alternative to Tesco Finest Triple Chocolate Cookies). Tupperware! Hawa (my new British friend here, who I had lunch with yesterday at her house) has been getting equally excited about plastic pots. Very useful for storing food in. Protecting it from mice, chickens, sand and countless other things that would otherwise find their way in to your supplies. Lots of things, including the last things you would expect are sold in little, tiny, plastic bags with a knot tied in them. Powered milk, tiny, tiny bags, which I buy to have in my café touba in the morning, mustard powder, washing powder, ground up garlic, salt, sugar, peanut butter, even water and milk. It´s all sold in little plastic bags.
One of the women at Yousoufa’s uncle’s house (the place I am now using the blog from, as they have electricity (when there is power), but not a phone line or internet, is always asking me where my mobile phone is. She wants to swop it for hers. I have come to understand that this - like the complete stranger in the street this week who saw the cup attached to the pannier bag on the back of my bike (I bring it out with me to drink the café touba from) and said she wanted it – is just friendly banter. People’s way of getting to know you and have a joke. I’ve learnt that the most suitable response is to agree to give your mobile phone, or cup, or whatever it happens to be to the person, but for them to wait until you’ve finished with it first! A diplomatic way of saying refusing their request!
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Monday 20 April – Day 28
First day of pilot programme at Diannah English Language School. English classes facilitated by Hawa Touré.
There are currently 23 young people registered for the free English classes part-funded by Abene Karantaa (17 of which are female). They range from 11-18 years of age and are almost all come from the village Dianna, just a short distance from the neighbouring village Abene. It is difficult to ascertain their real ages as most people don’t have their birth certificates and it is not customary to celebrate birthdays, so people lose count. All those registered are attending the CEM school on the road between Dianna village and the town Kafountine. They have all been provided with an exercise book and pencil and have been grouped according to ability, in two groups, one of 12, the other of 11 students.
The first class today got off to a good start, although later than Hawa had expected! This class of absolute beginners covered key classroom vocabulary, basic grammatical structures, the vocabulary of feelings and communication activities in pairs and small groups.
Abene Karantaa is keen to support this worthwhile pilot programme in this newly opened school and is funding the free classes to 10-18 year olds by providing exercise books and boards to lean on. We will be monitoring the progress of the course and also the adult courses. Many of the adults who will attend English classes have difficulty reading and writing. It will be interesting to see what their needs are, as the focus of the classes may turn to improving literacy, or a need for separate classes for conversation and literacy. This will provide us with very useful information in the needs assessment being carried out over these few months.
There are currently 23 young people registered for the free English classes part-funded by Abene Karantaa (17 of which are female). They range from 11-18 years of age and are almost all come from the village Dianna, just a short distance from the neighbouring village Abene. It is difficult to ascertain their real ages as most people don’t have their birth certificates and it is not customary to celebrate birthdays, so people lose count. All those registered are attending the CEM school on the road between Dianna village and the town Kafountine. They have all been provided with an exercise book and pencil and have been grouped according to ability, in two groups, one of 12, the other of 11 students.
The first class today got off to a good start, although later than Hawa had expected! This class of absolute beginners covered key classroom vocabulary, basic grammatical structures, the vocabulary of feelings and communication activities in pairs and small groups.
Abene Karantaa is keen to support this worthwhile pilot programme in this newly opened school and is funding the free classes to 10-18 year olds by providing exercise books and boards to lean on. We will be monitoring the progress of the course and also the adult courses. Many of the adults who will attend English classes have difficulty reading and writing. It will be interesting to see what their needs are, as the focus of the classes may turn to improving literacy, or a need for separate classes for conversation and literacy. This will provide us with very useful information in the needs assessment being carried out over these few months.
Thursday 23 April - Day 31
Report – Participatory Needs Assessment
24 March – 23 April, end of first month
I have settled in after moving from my first home, have made lots of contacts in the local community, in Abene and the two nearest villages, Dianna and Albadar. I have made friends and feel a lot more comfortable here now. I am learning Mandinka, using a couple of really good books and speaking to people as much as I can. Though I need to study more! I am also using French quite a bit. But I am speaking much more English that I had intended to, which is slowing down my progress with the languages. I can do the full greetings with no problem now in Mandinka. Not all local people speak Mandinka though, some speak Jola or Fula. Most people speak more than 3 languages, French, Wolof, and one or two other local languages such as Jola or Mandinka. As we are so close to Gambia there are also immigrants from the Gambia, though they tend to speak a ‘broken’ version of English, learnt from Jamaican reggae music.
I have started the assessment in an unstructured way and on an ad-hoc basis, following up on contacts made as and when the opportunity has arisen. At this end of month one stage, with two months to go I am now at a point where I am putting together a detailed plan for the assessment process, using the ‘Partners in Planning’ book as a guide and reference tool. I will produce a written document of this plan for the trustees back in London and hope to get feedback from them on it and the benefit of their experience. I hope they will discuss it at the next meeting on 30 April and relay their comments and suggestions to me after.
I have been conducting informal interviews with local people and local leaders of associations. I have sat in and observed a class in Dianna and met with local school teachers. I have done another of the techniques from the Partners in Planning book – producing a resource map of the village Albadar with members of the community. It was very satisfying to watch the process and provide useful information. I have made strong links with a new school opening this week in Dianna providing free English classes to children, with very similar objectives to our own. It is run by a British early years school teacher called Hawa Touré, who has just started a 6 week pilot programme. Abene Karantaa is providing limited funding for this pilot, including exercise books for the children and boards to lean on to write. Funding will be up to a maximum of £50 (at this stage at least), and comes from a donation offered for this purpose.
I am developing a plan for the assessment, and currently putting together a team of local people I can work with to form the planning team. We aim to hold the first planning team meeting on Sunday 26 April. I will of course blog on the results of the meeting as soon as I can after that date, which will hopefully be in good time before the Abene Karantaa meeting in London on 30 April. The team is currently made up of the following people: Christina Ballard (Abene Karantaa representative), Yousoufa Douf, Mamadou Basamban and Jibril Diatta. I am looking to recruit some women and have representatives from all 3 villages, including Abene, Albadar and Dianna, as well as having representation from poor and powerless groups.
Reflections at this stage include the following points:
• Considering changing our name from Abene Karantaa (meaning learning place in Mandinka) to something similar but more the idea of learning, than a fixed building, as we may decide not to have a building of our own but instead fund educational projects.
• We should consider funding literacy and numeracy programmes at the Dianna English Language School in the autumn. The results of Hawa’s 6 week pilot programme will be very interesting and will provide us with a lot of useful information on what works and how it could be improved for the autumn. Initial anecdotal evidence suggests poor literacy levels for the majority of adults over about 20 years old.
• Funding free nutritious meals for children, lunch times in school. Anecdotal evidence suggests children don’t eat balanced meals at home on a regular basis, protein foods such as fish as
• Funding free transport for women to attend classes in Kafountine in the mornings, as an alternative to the expensive and time-consuming use of bush taxis. Transport links to the nearest town, Kafountine are comparatively expensive and journeys are time-consuming.
• There is a need for increased use of birth control and financial independence of women.
• Employment is mostly scarce and irregular. There is strong demand for professional training, including producing batik and tailoring. Having a profession is considered key to development.
• Providing the school in Albadar with the resources that have currently been prioritised, including a cupboard for books and birth certificates, protecting them from mice and termites, improved water in the school and repairs to the buildings, and lighting for extra-curricular classes for those who are behind.
24 March – 23 April, end of first month
I have settled in after moving from my first home, have made lots of contacts in the local community, in Abene and the two nearest villages, Dianna and Albadar. I have made friends and feel a lot more comfortable here now. I am learning Mandinka, using a couple of really good books and speaking to people as much as I can. Though I need to study more! I am also using French quite a bit. But I am speaking much more English that I had intended to, which is slowing down my progress with the languages. I can do the full greetings with no problem now in Mandinka. Not all local people speak Mandinka though, some speak Jola or Fula. Most people speak more than 3 languages, French, Wolof, and one or two other local languages such as Jola or Mandinka. As we are so close to Gambia there are also immigrants from the Gambia, though they tend to speak a ‘broken’ version of English, learnt from Jamaican reggae music.
I have started the assessment in an unstructured way and on an ad-hoc basis, following up on contacts made as and when the opportunity has arisen. At this end of month one stage, with two months to go I am now at a point where I am putting together a detailed plan for the assessment process, using the ‘Partners in Planning’ book as a guide and reference tool. I will produce a written document of this plan for the trustees back in London and hope to get feedback from them on it and the benefit of their experience. I hope they will discuss it at the next meeting on 30 April and relay their comments and suggestions to me after.
I have been conducting informal interviews with local people and local leaders of associations. I have sat in and observed a class in Dianna and met with local school teachers. I have done another of the techniques from the Partners in Planning book – producing a resource map of the village Albadar with members of the community. It was very satisfying to watch the process and provide useful information. I have made strong links with a new school opening this week in Dianna providing free English classes to children, with very similar objectives to our own. It is run by a British early years school teacher called Hawa Touré, who has just started a 6 week pilot programme. Abene Karantaa is providing limited funding for this pilot, including exercise books for the children and boards to lean on to write. Funding will be up to a maximum of £50 (at this stage at least), and comes from a donation offered for this purpose.
I am developing a plan for the assessment, and currently putting together a team of local people I can work with to form the planning team. We aim to hold the first planning team meeting on Sunday 26 April. I will of course blog on the results of the meeting as soon as I can after that date, which will hopefully be in good time before the Abene Karantaa meeting in London on 30 April. The team is currently made up of the following people: Christina Ballard (Abene Karantaa representative), Yousoufa Douf, Mamadou Basamban and Jibril Diatta. I am looking to recruit some women and have representatives from all 3 villages, including Abene, Albadar and Dianna, as well as having representation from poor and powerless groups.
Reflections at this stage include the following points:
• Considering changing our name from Abene Karantaa (meaning learning place in Mandinka) to something similar but more the idea of learning, than a fixed building, as we may decide not to have a building of our own but instead fund educational projects.
• We should consider funding literacy and numeracy programmes at the Dianna English Language School in the autumn. The results of Hawa’s 6 week pilot programme will be very interesting and will provide us with a lot of useful information on what works and how it could be improved for the autumn. Initial anecdotal evidence suggests poor literacy levels for the majority of adults over about 20 years old.
• Funding free nutritious meals for children, lunch times in school. Anecdotal evidence suggests children don’t eat balanced meals at home on a regular basis, protein foods such as fish as
• Funding free transport for women to attend classes in Kafountine in the mornings, as an alternative to the expensive and time-consuming use of bush taxis. Transport links to the nearest town, Kafountine are comparatively expensive and journeys are time-consuming.
• There is a need for increased use of birth control and financial independence of women.
• Employment is mostly scarce and irregular. There is strong demand for professional training, including producing batik and tailoring. Having a profession is considered key to development.
• Providing the school in Albadar with the resources that have currently been prioritised, including a cupboard for books and birth certificates, protecting them from mice and termites, improved water in the school and repairs to the buildings, and lighting for extra-curricular classes for those who are behind.
Wednesday 22 April – Day 30
There’s been no electricity or water for days in Abene and Dianna. I haven’t been able to connect to the internet as a result and have since been washing in well water, but still drinking bottled water. But it is expensive when you’re on a budget. I think my budget is only going to get tighter as the rate I’m being offered for exchanging pounds in Abene is lower than I expected. Apart from unsuccessful trips to the internet café, repeatedly finding they have no power and I can’t connect, I have spent every day this week so far trying to get my pounds changed to CFA. As I’m not happy with the exchange rate offered in shops in Abene, I have been chasing around for the Gambian taxi driver and money changing man. This has involved lots of cycling back and fro to Kafountine and asking people for his mobile phone numbers. After 3 days of this I am hoping he will come by my house this evening and hopefully will have enough CFA to change all my money. I am glad to be on budget, but if I don’t get 700CFA to the £ from him I’ll have to reduce my spends! Fingers crossed.
Now I’ve got the minutes finishes, and emailed of to Abene Karantaa trustees in London, I am thinking about compiling a report of the assessment to date, and making a detailed plan for the next 2 months as I am at a suitable juncture to begin the assessment in vigour. At this 30 day point I now feel much more settled in the village, here in rural West Africa. I have made friends here, plenty of local contacts, since moved to a new place and am feeling much more comfortable and feel estranged.
I’m sitting on a plastic garden chair to you and me, but a standard chair to many here, the alternative is the standard issue style sofa . It’s not been designed ergonomically and could benefit from some hefty cushions along the back. I’m at Yousoufa’s uncle’s home, where I have been charging up my mobile phone battery and rechargeable radio this week. He has lots of young people staying with him, as they attend schools here and don’t have schools in their villages I’m told. I’d be interested to find out where it is they have come from. They’ve very kindly given me lunch here too over the last few days and have adapted to my difficult eating requirements, of no fish or meat. Rice is plentiful, but vegetables seem to be a bit scarcer. I am told that children don’t get to eat the fish or meat (I don’t know about at this house, but it is an observation that has been relayed to me by a British friend I have made here).
The chickens and goats feast on the scraps of food they find in the pans and by the fire in the cooking area outdoors, while everyone sits on the veranda (outside again) round the big food bowls, rice in their hands, eating with their hands, quietly eating. Someone passes by on a bike, the elders in the eating groups (there are several bowls) say ‘Naa kontongolo’ or ‘Naa domoro la’, come and eat lunch, in Mandinka. As I write this I have a gaggle of kids standing beside me, looking at the screen and pointing to the computer. I don’t suppose they have ever used a computer before. I hope they will get the opportunity and that this valuable means of international communication won’t be shut off from them.
A possible solution to child malnutrition, an issue highlighted to me by the ‘doctor’ in Albadar on my recent visit to the village, is to provide free and nutritious meals once a day at school. I believe Unicef are funding this provision in the primary school in Abene. It is an interesting idea that I would like to look into more, as without proper nutrition people grow up under developed. Almost all the men I see here have incredibly small waists! All are certainly slim.
Had tasty palm oil poured over the rice again today. I’d never tried it before. It adds a nice flavour to the rice, slightly coconutty, in a nutty rather than sweet way. Yum. After lunch is eaten the chickens come and clean up the bits that have fallen on the ground. One came up to the bowl I was eating from, with Yousoufa, he’s finished and is back working on a faulty part on the 4x4 again. He’s a fully trained mechanic. This chicken over steps the mark and goes to stick his head in this bowl – Achaa! Shoo in Mandinka. I pass my bowl over to others who’re still eating, as I have seen Yousoufa do on another day when we had finished eating. There are a couple of small clumps of rice on the short wooden stool the bowl was raised off the floor on. I lean it in towards the nearest chicken who pecks off each clump in quick succession. Job done. All cleaned up. Very efficient. On the subject of chickens, Hawa (my British friend also known as Louise in the UK) has unofficially adopted Mork, the frail little chicken with dodgy eyes we thought we should really put out of it’s misery at the weekend. It is now Mork the pet chicken, who is making a remarkable recovery from his eye infections. He can now see food and loves rice and ground nuts (peanuts) or tiyoo in Mandinka. Mork really belongs to her neighbour, but he seems to prefer it in Hawa’s compound. The dividing fences are not enough to stop any animals getting through, so much to Hawa’s annoyance she has also had a herd of 10 cows led through her garden.
Now I’ve got the minutes finishes, and emailed of to Abene Karantaa trustees in London, I am thinking about compiling a report of the assessment to date, and making a detailed plan for the next 2 months as I am at a suitable juncture to begin the assessment in vigour. At this 30 day point I now feel much more settled in the village, here in rural West Africa. I have made friends here, plenty of local contacts, since moved to a new place and am feeling much more comfortable and feel estranged.
I’m sitting on a plastic garden chair to you and me, but a standard chair to many here, the alternative is the standard issue style sofa . It’s not been designed ergonomically and could benefit from some hefty cushions along the back. I’m at Yousoufa’s uncle’s home, where I have been charging up my mobile phone battery and rechargeable radio this week. He has lots of young people staying with him, as they attend schools here and don’t have schools in their villages I’m told. I’d be interested to find out where it is they have come from. They’ve very kindly given me lunch here too over the last few days and have adapted to my difficult eating requirements, of no fish or meat. Rice is plentiful, but vegetables seem to be a bit scarcer. I am told that children don’t get to eat the fish or meat (I don’t know about at this house, but it is an observation that has been relayed to me by a British friend I have made here).
The chickens and goats feast on the scraps of food they find in the pans and by the fire in the cooking area outdoors, while everyone sits on the veranda (outside again) round the big food bowls, rice in their hands, eating with their hands, quietly eating. Someone passes by on a bike, the elders in the eating groups (there are several bowls) say ‘Naa kontongolo’ or ‘Naa domoro la’, come and eat lunch, in Mandinka. As I write this I have a gaggle of kids standing beside me, looking at the screen and pointing to the computer. I don’t suppose they have ever used a computer before. I hope they will get the opportunity and that this valuable means of international communication won’t be shut off from them.
A possible solution to child malnutrition, an issue highlighted to me by the ‘doctor’ in Albadar on my recent visit to the village, is to provide free and nutritious meals once a day at school. I believe Unicef are funding this provision in the primary school in Abene. It is an interesting idea that I would like to look into more, as without proper nutrition people grow up under developed. Almost all the men I see here have incredibly small waists! All are certainly slim.
Had tasty palm oil poured over the rice again today. I’d never tried it before. It adds a nice flavour to the rice, slightly coconutty, in a nutty rather than sweet way. Yum. After lunch is eaten the chickens come and clean up the bits that have fallen on the ground. One came up to the bowl I was eating from, with Yousoufa, he’s finished and is back working on a faulty part on the 4x4 again. He’s a fully trained mechanic. This chicken over steps the mark and goes to stick his head in this bowl – Achaa! Shoo in Mandinka. I pass my bowl over to others who’re still eating, as I have seen Yousoufa do on another day when we had finished eating. There are a couple of small clumps of rice on the short wooden stool the bowl was raised off the floor on. I lean it in towards the nearest chicken who pecks off each clump in quick succession. Job done. All cleaned up. Very efficient. On the subject of chickens, Hawa (my British friend also known as Louise in the UK) has unofficially adopted Mork, the frail little chicken with dodgy eyes we thought we should really put out of it’s misery at the weekend. It is now Mork the pet chicken, who is making a remarkable recovery from his eye infections. He can now see food and loves rice and ground nuts (peanuts) or tiyoo in Mandinka. Mork really belongs to her neighbour, but he seems to prefer it in Hawa’s compound. The dividing fences are not enough to stop any animals getting through, so much to Hawa’s annoyance she has also had a herd of 10 cows led through her garden.
Friday, 17 April 2009
Friday 17 April - Day 25
I finally finished the minutes of the last meeting of trustees in London before I left. I have been very busy here. But I'm glad it's finally done and I hoping the internet connection here will handle the large files. It doesn't seem to be able to load the files. Inshallah!
I have been spending time with Hawa Touré in the Dianna English Language School and have agreed to one-off funding of her pilot programme including free English classes for 10-18 year olds at her new school in Dianna, very close to Abene. The classes start on Monday and will run for 6 weeks. Our funding will provide exercise books for the children to write in and boards to lean on to write.
I spent the morning today with the head teacher and other teachers at the primary school in Abene, called Alonda Djaban school. The head teacher is Atab Sise, and the other teacher in the meeting was Jené Bacary. The are very keen to support the assessment and work with me and have suggested a good contact who can introduce me to local leaders of groups in the area and we will meet again next week to discuss the local educational needs in more detail.
I hope to be able to write up a fuller report soon.
I have been spending time with Hawa Touré in the Dianna English Language School and have agreed to one-off funding of her pilot programme including free English classes for 10-18 year olds at her new school in Dianna, very close to Abene. The classes start on Monday and will run for 6 weeks. Our funding will provide exercise books for the children to write in and boards to lean on to write.
I spent the morning today with the head teacher and other teachers at the primary school in Abene, called Alonda Djaban school. The head teacher is Atab Sise, and the other teacher in the meeting was Jené Bacary. The are very keen to support the assessment and work with me and have suggested a good contact who can introduce me to local leaders of groups in the area and we will meet again next week to discuss the local educational needs in more detail.
I hope to be able to write up a fuller report soon.
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Tuesday 14 April – Day 22
On walk to Sainey’s I got quite good at the long exchange of greetings, names and where you are going right now. Passing several women dressed in gorgeous bright African outfits carrying buckets on thier heads. All conversations, except the shortest ending in ‘iyoo’ for agreement. Everyone exchanges surnames, not just a first name. I’m getting the odd ` key in my text as one of the children in Sainey’s house who by my side as I type runs his nail up and down the ventilation grill on the top of my laptop!
I had a great day in the neighbouring village Albadar yesterday. I set out after a café Touba at Auntie Dei’s stall as usual, and a big breakfast of half a french stick with akarra, bean cake and onion and tomatoe sauce, followed by another half stick filled with chocolate spread from the shop next to Dei. I’ve got to know the woman who sells the akarra baguettes now, we exchange greetings, all of them, and I ask her how much it costs and all that kind of shopping conversation or as much as I can think of, in Mandinka. Mariama she’s called. She shouts over to me, Christina, Somandaa Begñadi? I reply to her how’s the morning with a Somandaa fele, the morning is here. Rather like the how are yous and the I’m here reply. I was told yesterday that my pronunciation was as good as a Mandinka here, but I’m sure they were just being kind.
I’ve still got the same kiddie next to me as I type, playing with the closure on the top of my laptop. Hope he doesn’t break it! Ni na kakou, he asks… I’ve no idea what he’s talking to me about. But he doesn’t seem phased by my lack of response.
Albadar was great. It just happened to be the very village I was hoping to find again after visiting briefly in December when I met a very helpful and chatty guy who walked around with my mum and I. Serendipitously Albadar was that village from December and Josef found me as soon as I got in to the village. What luck! I told him about the project and our hopes to fund educational projects in the area, that I’m here for 3 months to carry out an assessment. He took me straight away to see a group of men sitting under the shade of a tree chatting and making tea I think. Pap, Josef’s friend is the President of the village youth association. I spent the rest of the morning with Pap, Josef and a couple of their friends visiting the local health ‘clinic’, meeting the ‘doctor’ and seeing in the village school. We talked about the needs of the village and discussed possible solutions. I explained to Pap my intentions for carrying our the participatory needs assessment and he said he would be the first to put his name down as part of the project team. After an exhausting few hours, chatting in a mix of French, Mandinka and English, though mostly French in the heat, with only a half litre bottle of water strapped to my bike heating up in the sun, I was famished and thirsty. It had been a great morning’s work. A fantastic first step in getting to know the village. I got the group of young men drawing out a resource map of the village in the sane under a mango tree using their fingers to draw in the features, and shells and small mangos that had dropped to the ground as markers for the mosque, churches, water sources, rice field, house and rural bank. A fascinating experience. I copied it into my notebook when they had finished. I was excited to be using a technique for gathering information from the book Partners in Planning I am using as a guide for the assessment planning. At last not just interviews, but a resource map too. It’s a great way to get a better idea of what there is in the village. We finish and Pap invites me to come for lunch. I go and meet his family and they go out of their way to provide me with more bottled water and a salad lunch, not knowing what to provide a vegetarian. I apologise for being such a difficult guest and help the women to wash the lettuce and tomatoes in buckets, sitting on low stools in the living room together, pouring water from a plastic tea pot. After Pap telling me how they need a good quality water supply and that the water is worst at this time of year when it comes out of the well all sandy, before the rainy season, I secretly hope to myself that my stomach will be able to handle salad washed it that very same poor quality water. I feel fine, until later in the evening. I’m still a bit dodgy today. In the compound I stay in I drink bottled water and wash and cook with water from a mains tap at one end of the land, avoiding the well water. Although I know other Europeans here who are much less cautious and have no ill effects.
Pap Jibril Diatta, the youth association Basamei president tells me the priorities for education in the village are repairs to the school building, a good water supply to the school, a lockable cupboard to protect books and birth certificates from mice and termites in the classrooms, and lighting to provide extra-curricular classes for those who need extra tuition in the evenings. In the village they need water pipes to all the houses, not just two in the centre, nearest the tap that a Dutch NGO installed, that can’t currently be used as the key has been removed; and electricity to power fridges and freezers to conserve food. Pap says as villagers can’t conserve the fresh fish they catch, they have to go fishing every day to eat.
Pap talks about a strong community spirit in Albadar, he says they work differently from Abene, the community pays into a fund every three months to pay for the (limited) health facilities, and the unqualified ‘doctor’ on site. The have a youth association and I learn an association for the renovation of the village (ARA). They seem organised and community minded. Pap says people don’t migrate looking for work in other villages like people do in Abene. They stay in the village and work. Education is important to them and as well as paying for the health clinic themselves, they also built the 6 school class rooms themselves. Although they are currently in need of repair, after damage by termites, and the goats who seem to live on site as I saw through some of the windows, of the other rooms. In just two weeks of school holidays, which come to an end today, the goats seem to have left their mark all over tables and chairs! There must be a lot of cleaning up to do before teaching can start again this week. Because of the importance the community places of education, Pap says there are good literacy levels in the village and very few are illiterate. He also says that although the state funds the teaching staff, if they hadn’t put up the school building themselves it wouldn’t have happened.
I ask him what people’s dreams are, what they want and hope for out of life. He tells me their dreams are simple, to have a good home, water and electricity.
I am interested to find out more about the income sources in the village, income levels and financial independence and status of women in the village. I am impressed to meet the President of the Associación por la Renovación de Albadar, Vivien Diatta, a woman. We meet later as I make my way out of the village to cycle back in to Abene. She and a circle of 20 other men and women, I note mostly women sit under a tree. Pap says they are meeting to discuss how they will go about re-planting the mangrove fields from what I have understood. I’m tired at this point and may have misunderstood!
I had hoped to meet with Abdoulaye Diao, the Regional Co-ordinator for Tostan, from Ziguinchor when he was due to visit the Kariba Dianna school he funds in nearby Dianna today. But he is in Diolulu instead and says he will call me when he is next here. I hope he does as it will be really interesting to ask him about their projects.
Hawa Touré who is due to open her new Diannah English Language School this week send sme a text to my mobile. Says she has been inundated with registrations of interest in her classes, and been to the local school where 80 children attend. The teachers are very keen for the kids to attend the free classes she will offer. I tell her I will cycle up to her school later today and see her to discuss teaching ideas and language level assessment. She has many years primary school teaching experience from the UK, but is new to teaching English as Foreign Language. She takes up my offer of help, as an experienced EFL teacher. She would like to provide the children with class books and have lighting for the classes in the evenings after the sun goes down.
On my visit to the health clinic in Albadar I find three rooms, one with a sparcely stocked medicine cabinet and scales bearing the Unicef logo for weighing children. Idrisa (or Jabirou) Coly tells me that vaccines get wasted as they don’t keep long without refridgeration. They would also benefit greatly from further training as the ‘doctor’ is unqualified. Kabirou says children are underdeveloped, if the healthy weight at a certain age is so much, they fall below that number. Poor diet he says is the cause of their underdevelopment.
When I finally get back in to Dianna after unexpectedly being out all day I stop and have along chat with a new friend, white European, we are both glad to speak to someone who comes from a similar cultural background. She’s been living in Abene 4 years and is sceptical about the benefit of aid and development work in Africa. We agree and disagree, but when I tell her that I believe that a sustainable approach in collaboration with local people can work she wishes me well and hopes that it can make a difference. Should we accept things as they are, or try to work towards positive change? I am optimistic. I think it’s a discussion point we will come back to again.
I’ll head off home now and hope to visit the internet café later to copy this in to my blog. An easy cheese sandwich awaits me I think. I can’t be bothered to cook. But I really need to fin an alternative to eating so much bread. It would be so much easier, and cheaper if I ate meat and fish like the others in the compound. But I can’t bring myself to do it!
I had a great day in the neighbouring village Albadar yesterday. I set out after a café Touba at Auntie Dei’s stall as usual, and a big breakfast of half a french stick with akarra, bean cake and onion and tomatoe sauce, followed by another half stick filled with chocolate spread from the shop next to Dei. I’ve got to know the woman who sells the akarra baguettes now, we exchange greetings, all of them, and I ask her how much it costs and all that kind of shopping conversation or as much as I can think of, in Mandinka. Mariama she’s called. She shouts over to me, Christina, Somandaa Begñadi? I reply to her how’s the morning with a Somandaa fele, the morning is here. Rather like the how are yous and the I’m here reply. I was told yesterday that my pronunciation was as good as a Mandinka here, but I’m sure they were just being kind.
I’ve still got the same kiddie next to me as I type, playing with the closure on the top of my laptop. Hope he doesn’t break it! Ni na kakou, he asks… I’ve no idea what he’s talking to me about. But he doesn’t seem phased by my lack of response.
Albadar was great. It just happened to be the very village I was hoping to find again after visiting briefly in December when I met a very helpful and chatty guy who walked around with my mum and I. Serendipitously Albadar was that village from December and Josef found me as soon as I got in to the village. What luck! I told him about the project and our hopes to fund educational projects in the area, that I’m here for 3 months to carry out an assessment. He took me straight away to see a group of men sitting under the shade of a tree chatting and making tea I think. Pap, Josef’s friend is the President of the village youth association. I spent the rest of the morning with Pap, Josef and a couple of their friends visiting the local health ‘clinic’, meeting the ‘doctor’ and seeing in the village school. We talked about the needs of the village and discussed possible solutions. I explained to Pap my intentions for carrying our the participatory needs assessment and he said he would be the first to put his name down as part of the project team. After an exhausting few hours, chatting in a mix of French, Mandinka and English, though mostly French in the heat, with only a half litre bottle of water strapped to my bike heating up in the sun, I was famished and thirsty. It had been a great morning’s work. A fantastic first step in getting to know the village. I got the group of young men drawing out a resource map of the village in the sane under a mango tree using their fingers to draw in the features, and shells and small mangos that had dropped to the ground as markers for the mosque, churches, water sources, rice field, house and rural bank. A fascinating experience. I copied it into my notebook when they had finished. I was excited to be using a technique for gathering information from the book Partners in Planning I am using as a guide for the assessment planning. At last not just interviews, but a resource map too. It’s a great way to get a better idea of what there is in the village. We finish and Pap invites me to come for lunch. I go and meet his family and they go out of their way to provide me with more bottled water and a salad lunch, not knowing what to provide a vegetarian. I apologise for being such a difficult guest and help the women to wash the lettuce and tomatoes in buckets, sitting on low stools in the living room together, pouring water from a plastic tea pot. After Pap telling me how they need a good quality water supply and that the water is worst at this time of year when it comes out of the well all sandy, before the rainy season, I secretly hope to myself that my stomach will be able to handle salad washed it that very same poor quality water. I feel fine, until later in the evening. I’m still a bit dodgy today. In the compound I stay in I drink bottled water and wash and cook with water from a mains tap at one end of the land, avoiding the well water. Although I know other Europeans here who are much less cautious and have no ill effects.
Pap Jibril Diatta, the youth association Basamei president tells me the priorities for education in the village are repairs to the school building, a good water supply to the school, a lockable cupboard to protect books and birth certificates from mice and termites in the classrooms, and lighting to provide extra-curricular classes for those who need extra tuition in the evenings. In the village they need water pipes to all the houses, not just two in the centre, nearest the tap that a Dutch NGO installed, that can’t currently be used as the key has been removed; and electricity to power fridges and freezers to conserve food. Pap says as villagers can’t conserve the fresh fish they catch, they have to go fishing every day to eat.
Pap talks about a strong community spirit in Albadar, he says they work differently from Abene, the community pays into a fund every three months to pay for the (limited) health facilities, and the unqualified ‘doctor’ on site. The have a youth association and I learn an association for the renovation of the village (ARA). They seem organised and community minded. Pap says people don’t migrate looking for work in other villages like people do in Abene. They stay in the village and work. Education is important to them and as well as paying for the health clinic themselves, they also built the 6 school class rooms themselves. Although they are currently in need of repair, after damage by termites, and the goats who seem to live on site as I saw through some of the windows, of the other rooms. In just two weeks of school holidays, which come to an end today, the goats seem to have left their mark all over tables and chairs! There must be a lot of cleaning up to do before teaching can start again this week. Because of the importance the community places of education, Pap says there are good literacy levels in the village and very few are illiterate. He also says that although the state funds the teaching staff, if they hadn’t put up the school building themselves it wouldn’t have happened.
I ask him what people’s dreams are, what they want and hope for out of life. He tells me their dreams are simple, to have a good home, water and electricity.
I am interested to find out more about the income sources in the village, income levels and financial independence and status of women in the village. I am impressed to meet the President of the Associación por la Renovación de Albadar, Vivien Diatta, a woman. We meet later as I make my way out of the village to cycle back in to Abene. She and a circle of 20 other men and women, I note mostly women sit under a tree. Pap says they are meeting to discuss how they will go about re-planting the mangrove fields from what I have understood. I’m tired at this point and may have misunderstood!
I had hoped to meet with Abdoulaye Diao, the Regional Co-ordinator for Tostan, from Ziguinchor when he was due to visit the Kariba Dianna school he funds in nearby Dianna today. But he is in Diolulu instead and says he will call me when he is next here. I hope he does as it will be really interesting to ask him about their projects.
Hawa Touré who is due to open her new Diannah English Language School this week send sme a text to my mobile. Says she has been inundated with registrations of interest in her classes, and been to the local school where 80 children attend. The teachers are very keen for the kids to attend the free classes she will offer. I tell her I will cycle up to her school later today and see her to discuss teaching ideas and language level assessment. She has many years primary school teaching experience from the UK, but is new to teaching English as Foreign Language. She takes up my offer of help, as an experienced EFL teacher. She would like to provide the children with class books and have lighting for the classes in the evenings after the sun goes down.
On my visit to the health clinic in Albadar I find three rooms, one with a sparcely stocked medicine cabinet and scales bearing the Unicef logo for weighing children. Idrisa (or Jabirou) Coly tells me that vaccines get wasted as they don’t keep long without refridgeration. They would also benefit greatly from further training as the ‘doctor’ is unqualified. Kabirou says children are underdeveloped, if the healthy weight at a certain age is so much, they fall below that number. Poor diet he says is the cause of their underdevelopment.
When I finally get back in to Dianna after unexpectedly being out all day I stop and have along chat with a new friend, white European, we are both glad to speak to someone who comes from a similar cultural background. She’s been living in Abene 4 years and is sceptical about the benefit of aid and development work in Africa. We agree and disagree, but when I tell her that I believe that a sustainable approach in collaboration with local people can work she wishes me well and hopes that it can make a difference. Should we accept things as they are, or try to work towards positive change? I am optimistic. I think it’s a discussion point we will come back to again.
I’ll head off home now and hope to visit the internet café later to copy this in to my blog. An easy cheese sandwich awaits me I think. I can’t be bothered to cook. But I really need to fin an alternative to eating so much bread. It would be so much easier, and cheaper if I ate meat and fish like the others in the compound. But I can’t bring myself to do it!
Sunday, 12 April 2009
Sunday 12 April – Day 20
After long chat with Sophie and then with Rosie too at Yaya’s place, in English; talking about being taobab in Senegal, amongst other topics of conversation including animal welfare, Brooke, and charity work, I now feel more self-consciously of a different colour and culture than I did before, this morning at the compound, sitting at my table studying Mandinka on my terrace. Now I’m back in the compound sitting with the family, as Babakar makes tea (a lengthy and complex process I’ve only ever seen done by men incidentally and in the afternoons), I feel estranged, the odd one out. Rosie and Sophie make it six new white Europeans I have now seen and spoken to in the last two days. Quite a record for me. I met two travelling Greek lads over breakfast at Auntie Dei’s café Touba stand, and Grieko yesterday in Kafountine, and Hawa before that on my way there through Dianna. I try not to think about being called toubab (white in Wolof) too much, but it gets to you constantly being singled out and having the difference between you pointed out. Being called taobab as you walk down the street, the expectations people have of you, having money. There is apparently no shame felt in outright asking strangers for money as you both cycle down the road, or kids expecting to be handed a cadeau.
Today I am switching between two opposing perspectives. As my mum says the idea of buying land here (a plot I found out today may cost a bit under £3,000, a fortune to most people living here) and building your own compound is seductive. Planning a life here, nesting in your own space in this beautiful village, warm sunshine, gorgeous beach and laid back lifestyle. I wonder how long…
Babakar has just offered me some of this brown liquid from a plastic bottle in his hand. I see one of the women I haven’t been able to put a name to yet take some of the gloopy liquid in the palm of her hand and put it to her mouth from there. So I do the same. It’s spicy hot and would make a good condiment for the vegetarian meals I make for myself on the gas stove on my terrace. The others, Fatoumata and Addo eat some too, also from the palms of their hands. The first time I sat down to eat a meal at the same time as the others in the compound was a real cultural shock. All sitting on little low benches, or squatting on the ground around a large bowl on the ground in the middle. Making balls of rice with their hands, all hands in the bowl together. Except I then realised that some people were eating with spoons, not many though, most with their hands. Why do you eat with you hands Fatoumata? It’s a religious thing, women eat with their hands apparently. Just the men use spoons. Babakar tells me it’s not religious, just a custom. Rice was everywhere, all over the women’s hands. Not something I had seen before. But it soon becomes your norm, and it doesn’t seem so odd to me any more.
…I wondered how long it would take to feel sure one could commit to living here, in buying land and building a house on it. Confident you wouldn’t want to run away to more familiar surroundings. And now after the shared spicy food thing and a fist to fist, click and hand to chest African style hand shake with Babakar I feel much better. A part of the family again, not quite so estranged.
I will have good news for Hawa, from Diannah English Language School as I have secured a small amount of funding for the free English classes she is offering to children aged 10-18 for the next six weeks in her pilot programme. We will discuss her needs in more detail and see how Abene Karantaa may be able to help. This will be a one off for the moment, as it is important to gather all information and work with the community to assess the wider needs before we provide more funding in my opinion. But it will be good to have an immediate impact in providing free classes so soon.
Over café Touba in the morning today Babakar number 3 says he’d like English classes with me. I will make plans to do a regular English class at the compound, once the round building I have in mind to hold the classes in has a new roof put on it. The old grass was taken off last week and now it just has bear wooden beams. I have already done English on an ad hoc basis in the compound with Addo and Babakar. We had a great time playing games and building on lexical phrases.
Today I am switching between two opposing perspectives. As my mum says the idea of buying land here (a plot I found out today may cost a bit under £3,000, a fortune to most people living here) and building your own compound is seductive. Planning a life here, nesting in your own space in this beautiful village, warm sunshine, gorgeous beach and laid back lifestyle. I wonder how long…
Babakar has just offered me some of this brown liquid from a plastic bottle in his hand. I see one of the women I haven’t been able to put a name to yet take some of the gloopy liquid in the palm of her hand and put it to her mouth from there. So I do the same. It’s spicy hot and would make a good condiment for the vegetarian meals I make for myself on the gas stove on my terrace. The others, Fatoumata and Addo eat some too, also from the palms of their hands. The first time I sat down to eat a meal at the same time as the others in the compound was a real cultural shock. All sitting on little low benches, or squatting on the ground around a large bowl on the ground in the middle. Making balls of rice with their hands, all hands in the bowl together. Except I then realised that some people were eating with spoons, not many though, most with their hands. Why do you eat with you hands Fatoumata? It’s a religious thing, women eat with their hands apparently. Just the men use spoons. Babakar tells me it’s not religious, just a custom. Rice was everywhere, all over the women’s hands. Not something I had seen before. But it soon becomes your norm, and it doesn’t seem so odd to me any more.
…I wondered how long it would take to feel sure one could commit to living here, in buying land and building a house on it. Confident you wouldn’t want to run away to more familiar surroundings. And now after the shared spicy food thing and a fist to fist, click and hand to chest African style hand shake with Babakar I feel much better. A part of the family again, not quite so estranged.
I will have good news for Hawa, from Diannah English Language School as I have secured a small amount of funding for the free English classes she is offering to children aged 10-18 for the next six weeks in her pilot programme. We will discuss her needs in more detail and see how Abene Karantaa may be able to help. This will be a one off for the moment, as it is important to gather all information and work with the community to assess the wider needs before we provide more funding in my opinion. But it will be good to have an immediate impact in providing free classes so soon.
Over café Touba in the morning today Babakar number 3 says he’d like English classes with me. I will make plans to do a regular English class at the compound, once the round building I have in mind to hold the classes in has a new roof put on it. The old grass was taken off last week and now it just has bear wooden beams. I have already done English on an ad hoc basis in the compound with Addo and Babakar. We had a great time playing games and building on lexical phrases.
Saturday 11 April – Day 19
I wanted to write more of an account of the interview yesterday about education in the area. Addo has been going to classes in Kafountaine every day for the past year, but has stopped now despite the classes being free to attend. Her husband has been supporting her attendance financially by paying for the bush taxis to get there in the nearest town. But he can’t afford to pay any longer. She says she also needs the time to make lunch, as the classes are in the mornings, from 9-12am.
There is currently no school in Abene like the one she goes to in Kafountaine. She thinks it would be a good idea to have one here in Abene. I talked to her about the cost of building a school in Abene, and we discussed the pros and cons. The problems for women attending school out of Abene is time taken away from child care and cooking. There is also the cost of transport. Children can be left with other family members, but it is a greater burden on the family when the mother is away from the house longer. I’m not sure what happens regarding making lunch when she goes to school though.
From a western perspective with generally good public transport systems, widespread car ownership, good roads, bikes in good working order and western-style taxis, travelling the few kilometres to school in Kafountaine doesn’t sound like such a big deal. But Addo explains to me that she sometimes has to wait over an hour, maybe two for a bush taxi in the morning from Abene to Kafountaine, costing 200F or pay 1,000F to go sooner, without waiting for the car to be full with 6 other people paying the same fare of 200F each. And then when she gets to the taxi garage she has to wait for another bush taxi which costs comparitively much more at 1,000F as it is off of the usual route people take. The journey to school and back can be as much as 4,000F – that’s more than my daily budget of £5, a huge expense for her. I am impressed that her husband has supported her going to school for so long.
The bush taxis here follow routes like we in the west would be used to as a bus route, but they won’t leave until these 7 seater cars on their last legs are full, unless you pay for the whole car yourself which is very expensive. You can wait a long time for a car to be full and depending on your jouney it may not go directly to your destination, so you have to repeat the process of waiting for another car somewhere along the way. And then the roads are so bad that in this area, until you get across a river on the way to Bignona, past Diolulu, where there is tarmac it is so full of pot holes that cars normally drive along side the tarmac in the dirt track, sometimes with one wheel up on the tarmac and the other in the sand.
To summarise the problems women here face in getting to school despite availability of free classes when they are in another town are finding child care, taking time away from making meals for the family, the long time it can take to get to school and back and the cost of transport.
I discussed the possibility of having a bus laid on for free to take women from the local areas in to school directly to Kafountaine. Compared to the high cost of building a school this could be a lot more accessible to fund. I will look into the this idea and see if it could be feasible.
Addo and Boubacar told me about the 2 schools in Kafountaine, one called Satandaba where you can study for diplomas which lead to jobs in hotels and is fee paying, at 1,000F a month, £1.43 at the current exchange rate of 700 cents to £1. The other school is the one which Addo attends, called Jackie School. Classes there are free and they provide course books free of charge. Jackie School have classes in computer studies, batik, cooking, and languages including Spanish, German and English. Addo says they are a big association, which I think means it is an NGO. I will arrange to visit both these schools and try to find out how they operate to gain further information for the assessment and see how Abene Karantaa can be most effective in the area for a sustainable and empowering improvement in educational provision in the area.
I went out to get bread for a chocopain sarnie and a cup of café Touba this morning and discovered a woman selling veggie baguettes for breakfast near the shop I but bread from just open the road my compound is on. I checked about 5 times in French that there wasn’t any meat or fish in the doughy looking balls she had in her dish. I later found they are Akaraa, bean cakes according to my dictionary. I’d call them bean balls rather than cakes, though which bean they’re made from I’ve no idea, and Boubakar says there isn’t a name for them in French. So I may never find out which bean it is. It was a tasty alternative to my usual chocolate spread baguette. I came back again later with my blue plastic cup and the left over Gloria (unsweetened condensed milk) from yesterday morning) and sat on the bench next to Yousofa. I exchanged all the usual greetings with Dei and the men standing around or propping up the wall around her. You don’t see many women hanging around like the men do! Their free time tends to be in the afternoons from what I have seen, when they dress up in their gorgeous bright African outfits (one of which I am now a proud owner of, and am keen to get more!). They go out a walk into the village, or visit people perhaps.
The TV is almost always on when I come to Sainey’s, and that’s when I see flip-flop after flip-flop, a sea of them by the door on my way in! And when there’s a programme on the kids watch, there’ll be lots of little flip-flops outside the door! And when I come out after, one of my flip-flops may be in a different place, apart from the other, or sitting on the wall. But then it will be switch off and everyone goes out, not like in Britain where it could be left on for hours perhaps. Sainey’s wife (I think) just came in from outside (the back door) and I exchanged greetings with her. How are you? I am here. Are you at peace? Peace only. Where are your people? They are there. …I’ve since been ‘interrupted’ and greeted three people, one asked me where my husband was! I said I don’t have one. How is it? It’s good! Did you wake up in peace? Yes indeed. And it goes on and on!
I had a good look at the school at Kariba Dianna, when I sat in on the class with Mousso Tamba the other day. If we are to build a school we will need to know what materials to use and how to plan the structure. The architects What Architecture in London have been working on designs and idea for me for our planned building in Abene, and have requested photos and observations. The building Moussou teaches in, a state owned school she uses after hours, looks to be made of mud brick and mud plaster, no cement. Cement only in the foundations, with a sand floor, no concrete there. No door, but a raised step between the outside and the room inside. The whole building is above ground level, as are most of the buildings I’ve seen I think. My round house where I sleep is raised too, perhaps for the rains in the rainy season. The windows are open square holes, some with wood frames covered in corrugated iron wedged into the spaces. The roof is of what looks to be the cheapest available wood is it palm wood maybe? And covered in corrugated iron. There are 6 blackboard panels in a row along on side, near the door. Seating is two people sized wooden benches with tables fixed to them. Rows and rows facing the backboards with the teacher at the front in a traditional format.
I’ve heard there is a European man who wants to build a school in Abene, but that he is not here at the moment, I think he’s back in Europe. I will try to get contact details for him and see how he is getting on. It is encouraging that there are others working to improve education provision in Abene. I wonder when the will be up and running and how they will work.
I chatted to Yousofa over my second coffee in the morning. I was so good I went back again for more! One guy said I would miss it when I go back to the UK. I think he’s right. I don’t drink coffee at all back home, but this is good. Yousofa and I are going to cycle to Kafountaine in the afternoon, not too early as the sunburn on my back is still sore. Foolish me going one day without sun cream. I fancy seeing how long it will take to get to Kafountaine and getting a bit of exercise too. The waves in the sea are a bit too high for serious swimming. But great fun for jumping into! I miss my long cycles from South London in to work in Old Street every day. The cycling experience isn’t quite the same here, every thing moves slower in the heat, with the relaxed speed of life and the poor roads. When I’m hungry or tired and walk faster to get home quicker, Aziz tells me not to be in such a hurry, slow down!
I think Yousofa is my best allie so far in terms of conducting the assessment. When he’s not working repairing cars he seems to have the time to accompany me places and speaks French, Mandinka, Jola and not bad English, with a stutter. He’s kind hearted from what I know of him and a trusted friend of the family in the compound. Samba is always busy doing stuff, going up and down in his truck, but hopefully will have a chance to introduce me to some key people in the village before he heads of to the UK for his annual trip.
There’s a famous Senegalese musician playing in Kafountaine tonight, Titi I think and others. I asked Boubakar if he was going but he says he hasn’t got the money, it’s expensive at 5,000F, over £7, plus the taxi fare of course, which could be expensive in the evening, getting there and back. I can wait till the Abene Music Festival in December!
Addo and I had a chat about marriage yesterday around the fire, as the water for me to wash with was heating up. She said she has seen a white European women marry an African man here and live as an African woman, cooking, cleaning, etc and wearing African clothes as she does. She says it’s not obligatory if you marry here as a white woman, but it’s nice. Addo and I are getting on well. She helped me work out the family tree, where evryone in the compound here and in Bignona fitted in, a complex web that only featured mothers and brothers and sisters, not fathers. Indicative of the role they play in the family I think. And the complexities of many women having children by more than one father, and the men even more so it seems. It’s quite confusing, but now on day 19, I’m getting to grips with it!
…Later in the day (I write this now at Sainey’s the following day)… I went for a bike ride with Yousoufa in to Kafountine in the afternoon. I needed the exercise. I was really tired in the evening and we made Sankhal together, a kind of rice pudding made of millet, with condensed milk and sugar, I add a couple of chopped up banabas for good measure. Nice and filling after a long cycle ride. Yousoufa corrected me when I put the millet in the cold water before it had boiled. It needs to be added once the water is boiling, and stirred constantly till it gets thick, the left to boil on it own for a few minutes. Dish up, add the Gloria condensed milk on top and sugar, two spoons, eating from same bowl. I asked Yousoufa about people having their own eating space. I’d read about it in the cultural notes in the Gambian Mandinka course book that I still have on loan from Danko. Is it just in the Gambia, or here too that it’s considered rude to venture in to someone else’s eating space, their own semi-circle they carve out in the bowl. It’s not just Gambia, but here too. I respect his space in the bowl. He eats less than me and I finish it all off! It’s been a long day. He says he’ll meet me later to go to the free disco down the road, the usual disco is 500F and not many people were there last time I went a fortnight agao, Aziz said it was because out of the tourist season people don’t have the money to pay to get in. I saw some people drinking there, but Aziz and Babakar didn’t have a thing, being practising muslims.
Today was very interesting in terms of generating information for the assessment, and making good contacts. On the ride in from Abene, Yousoufa stopped off to say hello to a friend in the neighbouring village Dianna. The English woman who lives at the house with her Senegalese husband has built a grass roofed mud brick hut on the land and is opening as an English language school with free classes for 10-18 year olds. She says however that she has already gone over her budget, had money promised to her from the UK, but wasn’t seen all she expected to get. She’s now hoping to earn some money enough to but food for herself and the others in the house until she goes back to the UK in just over six week’s time to work over the summer, before coming back again. Hawa (known as Louise in the UK) uses her African name. I haven’t decided on one for myself yet! I like Aminata, but Aziz says I’d have to become a Muslim as it’s a Muslim name. But I’m pantheist, so I have to find another name. I had some suggestions from Boubakar number 3 at Dei’s café Touba stand this morning, but none sound like me yet! I’ll find one.
Hawa is very chatty and we stay talking for an hour. She tells me all about her plans and her anxiety now the registration days she has advertised get closer. I tell her I’d be happy to volunteer and teach English with her, we’ll see how it goes and what the needs are. Perhaps we’ll team teach, we’ll see. We swop mobile numbers, though she says she never has credit. Not so surprising. Whenever Babakar has credit on his phone he seems to use it all up calling all the friends he hasn’t spoken to, and his girlfriend who he talks about all the time. Then the credit is all gone. The same happens to me when I call the UK. No warning, click, the line goes, you’ve run out of credit. They’re all pay as you go as far as I can see. Not everyone has a bank account to have a standing order monthly payment. You have to have a deposit of £50 to keep a bank account open here apparently. I finally have the photos I need to open an account and hope to do so soon. I’ll have to travel to Kafountine to access my account though, but at least now I know I can get there by bike, it won’t always cost me the taxi fare to get there.
I arrange to see Hawa again on Wednesday, her first registration day. She doesn’t know whether to expect to be inundated and need a ‘bouncer’ or if she’ll be sitting on her tod all day waiting! I’ll keep her company for a bit, from the way we have been chatting already I don’t think we’ll be stuck for conversation. I suggest my charity in the UK, Abene Karantaa might be able to help her by funding the free classes to children. She says she’d love to be able to provide books and thinks she really needs another bench. She was telling me about her experience volunteering in the local school in Abene. The children were so used to a traditional chalk and talk approach that when she brought in group work and games they were all over the place, completely unruly, not knowing how to react to the freedom of the new learning style. It has been good for her to do before starting her own venture. I asked for her introduce me to the teachers in the school, I would like to meet them and sit in and observe classes too.
There is currently no school in Abene like the one she goes to in Kafountaine. She thinks it would be a good idea to have one here in Abene. I talked to her about the cost of building a school in Abene, and we discussed the pros and cons. The problems for women attending school out of Abene is time taken away from child care and cooking. There is also the cost of transport. Children can be left with other family members, but it is a greater burden on the family when the mother is away from the house longer. I’m not sure what happens regarding making lunch when she goes to school though.
From a western perspective with generally good public transport systems, widespread car ownership, good roads, bikes in good working order and western-style taxis, travelling the few kilometres to school in Kafountaine doesn’t sound like such a big deal. But Addo explains to me that she sometimes has to wait over an hour, maybe two for a bush taxi in the morning from Abene to Kafountaine, costing 200F or pay 1,000F to go sooner, without waiting for the car to be full with 6 other people paying the same fare of 200F each. And then when she gets to the taxi garage she has to wait for another bush taxi which costs comparitively much more at 1,000F as it is off of the usual route people take. The journey to school and back can be as much as 4,000F – that’s more than my daily budget of £5, a huge expense for her. I am impressed that her husband has supported her going to school for so long.
The bush taxis here follow routes like we in the west would be used to as a bus route, but they won’t leave until these 7 seater cars on their last legs are full, unless you pay for the whole car yourself which is very expensive. You can wait a long time for a car to be full and depending on your jouney it may not go directly to your destination, so you have to repeat the process of waiting for another car somewhere along the way. And then the roads are so bad that in this area, until you get across a river on the way to Bignona, past Diolulu, where there is tarmac it is so full of pot holes that cars normally drive along side the tarmac in the dirt track, sometimes with one wheel up on the tarmac and the other in the sand.
To summarise the problems women here face in getting to school despite availability of free classes when they are in another town are finding child care, taking time away from making meals for the family, the long time it can take to get to school and back and the cost of transport.
I discussed the possibility of having a bus laid on for free to take women from the local areas in to school directly to Kafountaine. Compared to the high cost of building a school this could be a lot more accessible to fund. I will look into the this idea and see if it could be feasible.
Addo and Boubacar told me about the 2 schools in Kafountaine, one called Satandaba where you can study for diplomas which lead to jobs in hotels and is fee paying, at 1,000F a month, £1.43 at the current exchange rate of 700 cents to £1. The other school is the one which Addo attends, called Jackie School. Classes there are free and they provide course books free of charge. Jackie School have classes in computer studies, batik, cooking, and languages including Spanish, German and English. Addo says they are a big association, which I think means it is an NGO. I will arrange to visit both these schools and try to find out how they operate to gain further information for the assessment and see how Abene Karantaa can be most effective in the area for a sustainable and empowering improvement in educational provision in the area.
I went out to get bread for a chocopain sarnie and a cup of café Touba this morning and discovered a woman selling veggie baguettes for breakfast near the shop I but bread from just open the road my compound is on. I checked about 5 times in French that there wasn’t any meat or fish in the doughy looking balls she had in her dish. I later found they are Akaraa, bean cakes according to my dictionary. I’d call them bean balls rather than cakes, though which bean they’re made from I’ve no idea, and Boubakar says there isn’t a name for them in French. So I may never find out which bean it is. It was a tasty alternative to my usual chocolate spread baguette. I came back again later with my blue plastic cup and the left over Gloria (unsweetened condensed milk) from yesterday morning) and sat on the bench next to Yousofa. I exchanged all the usual greetings with Dei and the men standing around or propping up the wall around her. You don’t see many women hanging around like the men do! Their free time tends to be in the afternoons from what I have seen, when they dress up in their gorgeous bright African outfits (one of which I am now a proud owner of, and am keen to get more!). They go out a walk into the village, or visit people perhaps.
The TV is almost always on when I come to Sainey’s, and that’s when I see flip-flop after flip-flop, a sea of them by the door on my way in! And when there’s a programme on the kids watch, there’ll be lots of little flip-flops outside the door! And when I come out after, one of my flip-flops may be in a different place, apart from the other, or sitting on the wall. But then it will be switch off and everyone goes out, not like in Britain where it could be left on for hours perhaps. Sainey’s wife (I think) just came in from outside (the back door) and I exchanged greetings with her. How are you? I am here. Are you at peace? Peace only. Where are your people? They are there. …I’ve since been ‘interrupted’ and greeted three people, one asked me where my husband was! I said I don’t have one. How is it? It’s good! Did you wake up in peace? Yes indeed. And it goes on and on!
I had a good look at the school at Kariba Dianna, when I sat in on the class with Mousso Tamba the other day. If we are to build a school we will need to know what materials to use and how to plan the structure. The architects What Architecture in London have been working on designs and idea for me for our planned building in Abene, and have requested photos and observations. The building Moussou teaches in, a state owned school she uses after hours, looks to be made of mud brick and mud plaster, no cement. Cement only in the foundations, with a sand floor, no concrete there. No door, but a raised step between the outside and the room inside. The whole building is above ground level, as are most of the buildings I’ve seen I think. My round house where I sleep is raised too, perhaps for the rains in the rainy season. The windows are open square holes, some with wood frames covered in corrugated iron wedged into the spaces. The roof is of what looks to be the cheapest available wood is it palm wood maybe? And covered in corrugated iron. There are 6 blackboard panels in a row along on side, near the door. Seating is two people sized wooden benches with tables fixed to them. Rows and rows facing the backboards with the teacher at the front in a traditional format.
I’ve heard there is a European man who wants to build a school in Abene, but that he is not here at the moment, I think he’s back in Europe. I will try to get contact details for him and see how he is getting on. It is encouraging that there are others working to improve education provision in Abene. I wonder when the will be up and running and how they will work.
I chatted to Yousofa over my second coffee in the morning. I was so good I went back again for more! One guy said I would miss it when I go back to the UK. I think he’s right. I don’t drink coffee at all back home, but this is good. Yousofa and I are going to cycle to Kafountaine in the afternoon, not too early as the sunburn on my back is still sore. Foolish me going one day without sun cream. I fancy seeing how long it will take to get to Kafountaine and getting a bit of exercise too. The waves in the sea are a bit too high for serious swimming. But great fun for jumping into! I miss my long cycles from South London in to work in Old Street every day. The cycling experience isn’t quite the same here, every thing moves slower in the heat, with the relaxed speed of life and the poor roads. When I’m hungry or tired and walk faster to get home quicker, Aziz tells me not to be in such a hurry, slow down!
I think Yousofa is my best allie so far in terms of conducting the assessment. When he’s not working repairing cars he seems to have the time to accompany me places and speaks French, Mandinka, Jola and not bad English, with a stutter. He’s kind hearted from what I know of him and a trusted friend of the family in the compound. Samba is always busy doing stuff, going up and down in his truck, but hopefully will have a chance to introduce me to some key people in the village before he heads of to the UK for his annual trip.
There’s a famous Senegalese musician playing in Kafountaine tonight, Titi I think and others. I asked Boubakar if he was going but he says he hasn’t got the money, it’s expensive at 5,000F, over £7, plus the taxi fare of course, which could be expensive in the evening, getting there and back. I can wait till the Abene Music Festival in December!
Addo and I had a chat about marriage yesterday around the fire, as the water for me to wash with was heating up. She said she has seen a white European women marry an African man here and live as an African woman, cooking, cleaning, etc and wearing African clothes as she does. She says it’s not obligatory if you marry here as a white woman, but it’s nice. Addo and I are getting on well. She helped me work out the family tree, where evryone in the compound here and in Bignona fitted in, a complex web that only featured mothers and brothers and sisters, not fathers. Indicative of the role they play in the family I think. And the complexities of many women having children by more than one father, and the men even more so it seems. It’s quite confusing, but now on day 19, I’m getting to grips with it!
…Later in the day (I write this now at Sainey’s the following day)… I went for a bike ride with Yousoufa in to Kafountine in the afternoon. I needed the exercise. I was really tired in the evening and we made Sankhal together, a kind of rice pudding made of millet, with condensed milk and sugar, I add a couple of chopped up banabas for good measure. Nice and filling after a long cycle ride. Yousoufa corrected me when I put the millet in the cold water before it had boiled. It needs to be added once the water is boiling, and stirred constantly till it gets thick, the left to boil on it own for a few minutes. Dish up, add the Gloria condensed milk on top and sugar, two spoons, eating from same bowl. I asked Yousoufa about people having their own eating space. I’d read about it in the cultural notes in the Gambian Mandinka course book that I still have on loan from Danko. Is it just in the Gambia, or here too that it’s considered rude to venture in to someone else’s eating space, their own semi-circle they carve out in the bowl. It’s not just Gambia, but here too. I respect his space in the bowl. He eats less than me and I finish it all off! It’s been a long day. He says he’ll meet me later to go to the free disco down the road, the usual disco is 500F and not many people were there last time I went a fortnight agao, Aziz said it was because out of the tourist season people don’t have the money to pay to get in. I saw some people drinking there, but Aziz and Babakar didn’t have a thing, being practising muslims.
Today was very interesting in terms of generating information for the assessment, and making good contacts. On the ride in from Abene, Yousoufa stopped off to say hello to a friend in the neighbouring village Dianna. The English woman who lives at the house with her Senegalese husband has built a grass roofed mud brick hut on the land and is opening as an English language school with free classes for 10-18 year olds. She says however that she has already gone over her budget, had money promised to her from the UK, but wasn’t seen all she expected to get. She’s now hoping to earn some money enough to but food for herself and the others in the house until she goes back to the UK in just over six week’s time to work over the summer, before coming back again. Hawa (known as Louise in the UK) uses her African name. I haven’t decided on one for myself yet! I like Aminata, but Aziz says I’d have to become a Muslim as it’s a Muslim name. But I’m pantheist, so I have to find another name. I had some suggestions from Boubakar number 3 at Dei’s café Touba stand this morning, but none sound like me yet! I’ll find one.
Hawa is very chatty and we stay talking for an hour. She tells me all about her plans and her anxiety now the registration days she has advertised get closer. I tell her I’d be happy to volunteer and teach English with her, we’ll see how it goes and what the needs are. Perhaps we’ll team teach, we’ll see. We swop mobile numbers, though she says she never has credit. Not so surprising. Whenever Babakar has credit on his phone he seems to use it all up calling all the friends he hasn’t spoken to, and his girlfriend who he talks about all the time. Then the credit is all gone. The same happens to me when I call the UK. No warning, click, the line goes, you’ve run out of credit. They’re all pay as you go as far as I can see. Not everyone has a bank account to have a standing order monthly payment. You have to have a deposit of £50 to keep a bank account open here apparently. I finally have the photos I need to open an account and hope to do so soon. I’ll have to travel to Kafountine to access my account though, but at least now I know I can get there by bike, it won’t always cost me the taxi fare to get there.
I arrange to see Hawa again on Wednesday, her first registration day. She doesn’t know whether to expect to be inundated and need a ‘bouncer’ or if she’ll be sitting on her tod all day waiting! I’ll keep her company for a bit, from the way we have been chatting already I don’t think we’ll be stuck for conversation. I suggest my charity in the UK, Abene Karantaa might be able to help her by funding the free classes to children. She says she’d love to be able to provide books and thinks she really needs another bench. She was telling me about her experience volunteering in the local school in Abene. The children were so used to a traditional chalk and talk approach that when she brought in group work and games they were all over the place, completely unruly, not knowing how to react to the freedom of the new learning style. It has been good for her to do before starting her own venture. I asked for her introduce me to the teachers in the school, I would like to meet them and sit in and observe classes too.
Friday, 10 April 2009
Friday 10 April - Day 18
I've been working really hard today in an effort to get my room clean and cockroach free. I pulled out all the lino and swept and dried the floor and the lino out, lino in the sun for a few hrs, before sweeping again and putting it all back in stages, cleaning the lino as I went. Moved the bed around and deep cleaned the bathroom. Samba is going to give me a different mattress as well, one from his house which hopefully won't be nearly as saggy in the middle. My back will feel the difference!
Just had a cheese crepe, made by a French woman who runs the internet cafe I'm in, near the compound. Very nice, I needed it after the hard work cleaning today. I hope I don't get visited by any cockroaches tonight! I don't know what to do with the food I have in my room, although it is in tupperware boxes, sealed, but that and the bathroom attracts the cockroaches. I don't like them at all, but thankfullt these seem a bit dopier and easier to catch than the ones I had in my basement flat in Toledo, Spain. Next time I'll get a chocolate crepe - yum. It'll probably be made with the tasty chocopain choclate and peanut spread that keeps my sugar craving at bay. No biscuits! Well there are biscuits available, but they're pricey and don't fit into my daily budget, and while I was in London I developed quite a refined taste for biscuits, not having been used to such choice when I was living in Spain. Tesvo Finest triple choc are my favourites! Alas, no tesco biccies or medical dramas on TV for a while now. I hope my mum is remembering not to delete each episode of Casualty and Holby City that I'm missing. I expect to have a 24 hr tv session of all 12 weeks of the programmes when I get back!
I managed to squeeze in an impromptu interview today with a woman who has been attending English classes for the past year in a free school in Kafountaine - free as in no charge for attendance. Very interesting information about schools in Kafountaine, challenges for women in access to education and dicussing possible solutions that Abene Karantaa may be able to help with, such as laying on free transport for women to get to school in Kafountaine in the mornings every day. Just a thought to look in to, as I gather all the information we will look into when I meet with the trustees of Abene Karantaa when I get back.
Just saw Youssou N'Dour on the TV while I ate my crepe in the cafe, talking about education. He seemed to be at a meeting attended by political leaders. I didn't get all of it - I must study French again! Tomorrow I'll do more, but I have been speaking Mandinka today, since I got up to get bread and a cafe Touba from the Auntie, Auntie Dei who has a 'stall', as in a small table and pressure cooker she keeps the coffee warm in. Just 50 francs (CFA Francs) for a cup. I brought my own cup and put some condensed milk in it at home. I don't drink coffee in the UK, but I seem to be able to sleep here despite the caffiene, and the coffee is so tasty! It's quite a social gathering around Dei's stall, with a wooden bench along side her, there are always several people hanging around here and my chocpain sandwich that I brought from home is not out of place with other people eating their brekkie baguettes too. I expect they bought them at the shop next door, that sells all sorts and as I have seen will sell a half stick of buttered bread, pulling out a knife and bringing out butter from the Jadida boxes, kept unrefridgerated, it doen't taste like any butter I've eaten before. I've seen people go in in the morning starving. I don't know where they must live. I've also seen a guy who I'm told sleeps by whichever fire he finds first, to keep warm. People, just like the cows, goats and the few - unwelcome - pigs, just wander through any compund at any time of day. A fire will attract a crowd, and so many people come by at meal times. There's always enough food for guests, and I'm told if there isn't guests will eat first and those from the compound will cook again if necessary. I on;y cook for myself because I'm vegetarian and they cook meat and fish every day. But I love churro and the peanut and millet sweet dish I had a bit of earlier. Tasty dishes.
I started writing about the interview earlier i n my notebook, I'll type it up at Sainey's tomorrow I expect. I did really plan to write a blog today, and am just writing it now after a beer in the internet cafe, I thought I'd check the news and read the Independent online edition, but I read an email from my mum saying to keep up the blogs, so here I am.
My half an hour is up, and after the 1,000 f for the crepe and the 600f for the beer, I will limit myself to half an hr on the internet today, not an hr and come back tomorrow instead. I'll be soon to bed, I'm reading an interesting book I borrowed from Samba - about a guy's journey following the trail of an explorer in the 1700s, through Gambia, SEnegal, Mali and Nigeria. The Road to Timbuktu I think it's called. He talks about it being strange to see a car going down the road, very different from his home in the UK. I know that in Abene. Bikes are much more usual to see on the road, and the cars are all 4 wheel drives, except for the bush taxis. Only the 'rich', aka Europeans in the village generally have 4x4s. I heard a small child crying in the street behind me as I walked here this evening, I spoke to him in French to see what was up, and he spoke back in Mandinka. We walked together for a bit and I left him with a 'fuñato', until later.
Fuñato. Bonne nuit.
Just had a cheese crepe, made by a French woman who runs the internet cafe I'm in, near the compound. Very nice, I needed it after the hard work cleaning today. I hope I don't get visited by any cockroaches tonight! I don't know what to do with the food I have in my room, although it is in tupperware boxes, sealed, but that and the bathroom attracts the cockroaches. I don't like them at all, but thankfullt these seem a bit dopier and easier to catch than the ones I had in my basement flat in Toledo, Spain. Next time I'll get a chocolate crepe - yum. It'll probably be made with the tasty chocopain choclate and peanut spread that keeps my sugar craving at bay. No biscuits! Well there are biscuits available, but they're pricey and don't fit into my daily budget, and while I was in London I developed quite a refined taste for biscuits, not having been used to such choice when I was living in Spain. Tesvo Finest triple choc are my favourites! Alas, no tesco biccies or medical dramas on TV for a while now. I hope my mum is remembering not to delete each episode of Casualty and Holby City that I'm missing. I expect to have a 24 hr tv session of all 12 weeks of the programmes when I get back!
I managed to squeeze in an impromptu interview today with a woman who has been attending English classes for the past year in a free school in Kafountaine - free as in no charge for attendance. Very interesting information about schools in Kafountaine, challenges for women in access to education and dicussing possible solutions that Abene Karantaa may be able to help with, such as laying on free transport for women to get to school in Kafountaine in the mornings every day. Just a thought to look in to, as I gather all the information we will look into when I meet with the trustees of Abene Karantaa when I get back.
Just saw Youssou N'Dour on the TV while I ate my crepe in the cafe, talking about education. He seemed to be at a meeting attended by political leaders. I didn't get all of it - I must study French again! Tomorrow I'll do more, but I have been speaking Mandinka today, since I got up to get bread and a cafe Touba from the Auntie, Auntie Dei who has a 'stall', as in a small table and pressure cooker she keeps the coffee warm in. Just 50 francs (CFA Francs) for a cup. I brought my own cup and put some condensed milk in it at home. I don't drink coffee in the UK, but I seem to be able to sleep here despite the caffiene, and the coffee is so tasty! It's quite a social gathering around Dei's stall, with a wooden bench along side her, there are always several people hanging around here and my chocpain sandwich that I brought from home is not out of place with other people eating their brekkie baguettes too. I expect they bought them at the shop next door, that sells all sorts and as I have seen will sell a half stick of buttered bread, pulling out a knife and bringing out butter from the Jadida boxes, kept unrefridgerated, it doen't taste like any butter I've eaten before. I've seen people go in in the morning starving. I don't know where they must live. I've also seen a guy who I'm told sleeps by whichever fire he finds first, to keep warm. People, just like the cows, goats and the few - unwelcome - pigs, just wander through any compund at any time of day. A fire will attract a crowd, and so many people come by at meal times. There's always enough food for guests, and I'm told if there isn't guests will eat first and those from the compound will cook again if necessary. I on;y cook for myself because I'm vegetarian and they cook meat and fish every day. But I love churro and the peanut and millet sweet dish I had a bit of earlier. Tasty dishes.
I started writing about the interview earlier i n my notebook, I'll type it up at Sainey's tomorrow I expect. I did really plan to write a blog today, and am just writing it now after a beer in the internet cafe, I thought I'd check the news and read the Independent online edition, but I read an email from my mum saying to keep up the blogs, so here I am.
My half an hour is up, and after the 1,000 f for the crepe and the 600f for the beer, I will limit myself to half an hr on the internet today, not an hr and come back tomorrow instead. I'll be soon to bed, I'm reading an interesting book I borrowed from Samba - about a guy's journey following the trail of an explorer in the 1700s, through Gambia, SEnegal, Mali and Nigeria. The Road to Timbuktu I think it's called. He talks about it being strange to see a car going down the road, very different from his home in the UK. I know that in Abene. Bikes are much more usual to see on the road, and the cars are all 4 wheel drives, except for the bush taxis. Only the 'rich', aka Europeans in the village generally have 4x4s. I heard a small child crying in the street behind me as I walked here this evening, I spoke to him in French to see what was up, and he spoke back in Mandinka. We walked together for a bit and I left him with a 'fuñato', until later.
Fuñato. Bonne nuit.
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Thursday 9 April – Day 17
I finally managed to get a photocopy of Danko’s Mandinka course book, in the town Bignona yesterday. I first went to Kafountaine, much closer to Abene, just one taxi ride away at 400 CFA, but they charged 100 CFA a copy, making them on a 3 in 1 copy, scan and printer. But in Bignona, where there is a cheap and speedier internet connection too, copies were 25 CFA, a lot cheaper. Bignona impressed me with it’s internet facilites compared to Abene, still a far far cry from the broadband wifi I’ve been used to at home in London. And so much cheaper than in Abene too! But the town is cramped, and noisy. I got out of bed to clean my teeth at the tap by the fence, virtually in front of the whole street, walking around the rubbish pile to go to the loo in the night, beside the tea stall in the street. I felt no sense of the relative privacy I was used to in the compound in rural Abene. A culture shock again. This time in Bignona I was woken by the call to pray at 5.30 in the morning and the squawking hens and cockadoodledooing cockrells at my door.
It took three ‘taxis’ to get back to Abene from Bignona. I’ve read them being referred to as bush taxis I think. Not hackney cabs! The one from Bignona to Diolulu, an hour’s drive at a slow pace, that I preferred to the mini-bus sized vehicle that was jam packed also going to Diolulu, was on it’s last legs. It begrudgingly chugged to a start. The drivers door worked it way open during the journey, the fabric covering was barely holding on the car doors and drivers seat. I couldn’t find a way to close the window, and didn’t dare investigate for fear my door could swing open too if I did. My travelling companion recited a Muslim prayer as the car set off. He tells me he does this every time he travels. The second ‘taxi’ was in better condition, but the back seat was up in the air and smelled of fish.
Back in Abene I am looking forward to a chance next week to get stuck in to meeting people after the schools go back at the end of their Easter holidays and also having more time to myself to study without the company of friends in the compound. I will miss them and hope not to get lonely, but it will give me a chance to get into a pattern of keeping more in touch with the outside world and my mum.
I hope to make contact with Unicef in Gambia soon, who haven’t yet responded to my email. I will follow that up. And also make contact with the women’s association I saw in one of the nearby villages on my trip here in December with Samba.
The sea was lovely this morning, windy with big choppy waves I love to jump over. First day I haven’t worn factor 30 sun block. I think I may be paying for it on the back of my neck. I’ve got my first proper African dress – made for me yesterday in Bignona. It’s blue with white swirly, snail-ish like patterns, a skirt and top. I’ll post a picture on here soon to show you. And also one of me as a ‘Rasta Woman’. My short-lived period with long red and back braids. My scalp as recovered from the ordeal at last! So painful.
It took three ‘taxis’ to get back to Abene from Bignona. I’ve read them being referred to as bush taxis I think. Not hackney cabs! The one from Bignona to Diolulu, an hour’s drive at a slow pace, that I preferred to the mini-bus sized vehicle that was jam packed also going to Diolulu, was on it’s last legs. It begrudgingly chugged to a start. The drivers door worked it way open during the journey, the fabric covering was barely holding on the car doors and drivers seat. I couldn’t find a way to close the window, and didn’t dare investigate for fear my door could swing open too if I did. My travelling companion recited a Muslim prayer as the car set off. He tells me he does this every time he travels. The second ‘taxi’ was in better condition, but the back seat was up in the air and smelled of fish.
Back in Abene I am looking forward to a chance next week to get stuck in to meeting people after the schools go back at the end of their Easter holidays and also having more time to myself to study without the company of friends in the compound. I will miss them and hope not to get lonely, but it will give me a chance to get into a pattern of keeping more in touch with the outside world and my mum.
I hope to make contact with Unicef in Gambia soon, who haven’t yet responded to my email. I will follow that up. And also make contact with the women’s association I saw in one of the nearby villages on my trip here in December with Samba.
The sea was lovely this morning, windy with big choppy waves I love to jump over. First day I haven’t worn factor 30 sun block. I think I may be paying for it on the back of my neck. I’ve got my first proper African dress – made for me yesterday in Bignona. It’s blue with white swirly, snail-ish like patterns, a skirt and top. I’ll post a picture on here soon to show you. And also one of me as a ‘Rasta Woman’. My short-lived period with long red and back braids. My scalp as recovered from the ordeal at last! So painful.
Tuesday 7 April – Day 15
I got through to Abdoulaye Diao this morning. He is the regional co-ordinator for Tostan in Ziguinchor. We have arranged to meet in Abene or Dianna next week, when he will be visiting Moussou’s Kariba Dianna class which his organisation funds.I will call Moussou to let her know. I am happy to be making a good start in gathering information for the assessment. I would like to find out how they operate as they may be a good model for other projects funded by Abene Karantaa.
I am also starting to think about people who could make up a management team for projects here. Depending on the results of the assessment it will probably be necessary to set up a charity registered here in Senegal to work in partnership with the UK based Abene Karantaa charity. I am gradually getting to know people and work out who might be able to commit to working on the project.
Mandinka is a cool language. I’ve learnt that there are several different dialects. The Mandinka spoken in Abene is Foñi Jabang. I have got to the end of the Mandinka course book Danko leant me, which has made a big difference to me. I think they may be interested in it at the SOAS library as I would have found it really useful when I was checking out their Mandinka materials, most of it produced at least fifty years ago.
I haven’t been studying French very much, concentrating on getting a good base in Mandinka first, as my mediocre French seems to be enough to get by at the moment with help from friends here who speak enough English. My French has been good enough to manage a few phone calls to Tostan, despite my ears nearly exploding with the strain of trying to understand on the phone. I’ve got a long way to go, but get a huge sense of achievement at the end of each phone call. Followed by high fives from whoever I tell. Lulu, ning lulu, tang. Five and five, ten!
I am also starting to think about people who could make up a management team for projects here. Depending on the results of the assessment it will probably be necessary to set up a charity registered here in Senegal to work in partnership with the UK based Abene Karantaa charity. I am gradually getting to know people and work out who might be able to commit to working on the project.
Mandinka is a cool language. I’ve learnt that there are several different dialects. The Mandinka spoken in Abene is Foñi Jabang. I have got to the end of the Mandinka course book Danko leant me, which has made a big difference to me. I think they may be interested in it at the SOAS library as I would have found it really useful when I was checking out their Mandinka materials, most of it produced at least fifty years ago.
I haven’t been studying French very much, concentrating on getting a good base in Mandinka first, as my mediocre French seems to be enough to get by at the moment with help from friends here who speak enough English. My French has been good enough to manage a few phone calls to Tostan, despite my ears nearly exploding with the strain of trying to understand on the phone. I’ve got a long way to go, but get a huge sense of achievement at the end of each phone call. Followed by high fives from whoever I tell. Lulu, ning lulu, tang. Five and five, ten!
Monday 6 April – Day 14
This is the first chance I’ve had to write my blog. Now I have a place to mtype on my laptop with electricity at a friend of a friend’s house – Sainey’s, a new friend of mine now! He is very kindly letting me plug in to his electricity for free. I was here yesterday typing up the minutes of the last meeting of trustees of Abene Karantaa in
Sainey’s friends and family were sitting around the TV watching African wrestling when I was here last, which started with men play fighting like cats pawing each other. There are now a dozen children sitting on the floor watching a sit-com as I type. TVs are very popular with the neighbours!
On Saturday 28 March I went with Yousofa (who is English speaking Gambian) to meet a school teacher at the nearby
Back to the school teacher in Dianna, Moussou assured that the chief of the village could provide land to build on at no cost, on the proviso that it be for community use. She told me she is currently working in collaboration with an American organisation that operates across
Moussou’s class meets three times a week. I sat in on a class on Monday last week. It was three hours long and started with the class of women bursting into a song about reasons to go to school and I think be grateful for education. One was called to the front of the class to summarise the previous class’s content. This covered health, keeping clean, having regular health checks at the hospital, birth control and vaccination.
I was interested to hear her bring up birth control, explaining that children suffer when there isn’t sufficient provision for them, when the husband doesn’t have a regular income, not having a profession for example. She also talked about the need to pay tax to the government and the importance of the census for government to have a record of the numbers of the population to be better able to help in the case of disease spreading. Disability she spoke of with a visual aid taped to the blackboard at the front, as not being a barrier to education, not a reason for not attending school. It is interesting to see how the community responds to disability. There is a disabled child in the compound who I have heard was abused previous to coming to the compound, which is why she was taken in. But I get the impression people see her as someone who can’t be helped, who is always doing the wrong thing. Her condition, whatever the medical name for a diagnosis is regarded as something ‘mysterious’, I think along the lines of bad spirits. From my experience working for disability charities in the
Moussou also talked about repect for education – education for all. Senegalese independence from France (the national Independence Day was just a few days away, celebrated in all towns and villages across the country). The Tostan funded classes are currently held in the state owned school room after hours (from 3-6pm Mon, Tues and Fri). The course is free and mostly attended by women. Tostan finance the class and provide the curriculum and visual aids. I’m told they plan to build a school building for Moussou’s classes, but that it hasn’t happened yet. She says they need a building of their own. I wonder if it would make a great difference and if it the money may be better spent on materials, or another teacher perhaps. I am aware that the issues are complex and that there is always something else that will be needed. I am keen to find out as much as I can about how they operate and learn from them. We may be able to help here in Kariba Dianna, or on another project, and perhaps in collaboration with Tostan. I am sure there will be a lot to learn from them.
One of the things that left an impression on me from the meeting with directors of Afrkids, in London before I came over here was the benefit of working with existing groups and within existing structures as they are more likely to be sustainable.
I noted the class with Moussou was largely teacher fronted and wondered if they might be interested in trying other teaching methodologies that are more learner-centred. As far as I know the Tostan project teaches how to run a business, as well as education. Moussou said she would welcome other ideas. A possible line of interest for Abene Karantaa could be in providing resources and curriculum content and training in collaboration with local teachers to supplement existing resources in projects such as this. I would like to see the curriculum see is currently working from.
The room has fallen silent now, the TV switched off and all the children are outside.
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