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 London. It’s taken me a while to get round to it as I’ve been busy settling in in Abene, meeting people, learning Mandinka, the local language and trying to work out a way to get electricity and internet. Not such an easy task as there isn’t any mains electricity in the compund I’m staying at. There is a solar panel, but it is really only enough to charge up mobile phones and play a film on dvd in the evenings, and only in the evenings. I don’t want the film to run out of power when there’s a room crammed full of people on my account! I’ve seen 6 children squeezed into a 3 seater sofa in the dark living room, the priority for the power being to run the dvd, not run light bulbs. My wind up torch is by no means the only one in the village. People are used to it being dark in the evenings. I find it strangely light at night when I adjust to it. Could the moon be brighter nearer the equator than in London, or it the light pollution in London that makes it so strange to believe the land is only lit by the moon at night here? It’s beautiful.

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 village of Dianna. I sat and chatted with Moussou Tamba with Yousofa translating for me in English. Moussou doesn’t speak much French, and no English, which made me all the more aware I need to get up to speed with Mandinka quickly. I told her I was here to find out about the resources currently availablein the area in terms of educational provision and find out how the UK based charity Abene Karantaa can help. She wrote out in Mandinka for me the following text: ‘Dianna needs a school room. They want a room in which they can learn and produce fruit juice and do tailoring’. From what I understood through Yousofa they want to learn professions, including producing batik, juice and learning tailoring. Yousofa was later to tell me on the bumpy cycle back into Abene that he believes learning a profession is the best way to people in the area can develop. He learnt to be a car mechanic as soon as he could to support himself. He tells me he has a business in the Gambia with apprentices. I have seen him bring a cars to work on in to the compound I stay at on a couple of occasions. I’m not always sure how much people tell me is true, or if they don’t want to lose face.

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 Senegal, called Tostan. They have a base in Ziguinchor, the administrative centre of the area. I have got contact details for Tostan and have phoned them today. I spoke to a woman in French who took my mobile phone number and said she would get someone to call me back to arrange a meeting. I am interested in information sharing and possible collaboration with Tostan. I also called the number my Great Uncle back in the UK gave me before I left, for Rotary International in Ziguinchor. From his many years of involvement with the Rotary Club in Worcester he suggested they may be interested in working with me in some way. Perhaps in the assessment or by finacing an educational project. I think the Club here is a hotel and sports lodge of some kind, from the guy Aziz spoke to on the phone for me in Wolof or Mandinka. Aziz isn’t too hopeful that they will be able to help. They have given me another number to call, which I will try again later as I couldn’t get through.

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 UK before I came to Senegal, awareness of disability is key to understanding and providing the same opportunities for all.

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.