A Direction to Follow

It was a crazy kind of week. Last Tuesday I was in Velingara for some work on the meeting for Saturday and to buy some cloth for ...
Wednesday there was a baptism in my compound. One of "Capitain's" wives had a baby, a boy, who was named after my school director (the one whose daughter is named after me). This meant a lot of people in the compound all day and basically meat and rice to eat, and I helped cook. We did take a few minutes to plan the menu, which was then written up and calculated on...
Thursday was a slower day with time to work on the menu, be stormed by children in my room, go see the village team's soccer game (tied) and check out the soiree (all-night dance party) being hosted at the school. It didn't start until 10 and didn't get moving until 10.30 or 11, at which point I was in my bed getting well-rested for...
Friday I went to the market with Jumbo and met up with Solange (my teacher) and bought all the food. Then we transported it back to the village, which was a lot of work. I mean, we started with about 55 lbs of rice and then add on to that 13.5 L of soda and all the other things that would go into making lunch for...
SATURDAY!!!! The big day. Early to bed, early to rise. Early to be ready to set up the school, and sit around and wait and wait and wait for other people to be ready. We didn't really wait that long, it just seemed like it because I was wicked nervous about the whole thing. I left the house at 8, we started the meeting at around 10.30. Finished, had lunch, trained the teachers, cleaned up. 6pm. Bathe, eat, but my mind was racing so I went to my hut early not to go to bed, but to write out on my chalkboard the things that wouldn't let my mind rest. Finally get to sleep, but ...
Sunday I wake up early and can't make myself sleep in. I wash dishes, clothes, clean my room, and spend some time just hanging out in the compound. Not really energetic enough to go to the wedding in the next village. Read up on my political candidates and get to bed early so that I can come to town tomorrow, ...
Monday. I'm in Velingara to type up and print out the parts of my grant proposal (to cover the cost of the meal Saturday) that need to be signed by a village member. Tomorrow I'll have my dad sign them (convenient being in the chief's compound) and then Wednesday I'll be passing through here again, hopefully, on my way to visit my old neighbor's village to look at fruit tree production. Some of the other volunteers, Maggie in particular, are putting together a training day for fruit tree production. So Wednesday is an information gathering day. And I'll be spending the night with Emily in Kounkane because Thursday morning early I'll be hitching a ride with Mamadou back to Dakar. A long weekend in Dakar to finish my grant stuff, do some internet research, get a vaccination (the real reason I'm going there), see some friends, and it's back South. I don't think I'll be back in my village until Nov. 1 because I'm hoping to go from Dakar to my friend Mary's village and after that will be Halloween. The 3rd, after I return to my village, there will be 2 college students from the US studying in Dakar that will come for the week to experience life in a village. I am very excited about hosting them and am trying to figure out what kinds of things to do with them and what my work will look like at that point.

This morning on my way out of the village, I passed the school to see kids helping clean it up for classes and teachers working on enrollment. YAY!!! School's starting. BOO, it's right when I'm leaving for a week and a half.

So Saturday: Awesome awesome awesome! Training went more or less like this:
Talk about what the environment is
Talk about the difference between problems, needs, and desires
Have everyone write on a card their idea of the greatest problem facing our village
Collect and compile cards, revealing three very common responses and several less common ones
Talk through each of the three big ones: Health, Clean water, Hygiene and cleanliness
Talk about possible solutions to each problem
Talk about malnutrition... a problem sited by one person (the teacher) that is very related to the 3 big ones. (Mamadou, master list-compiler, linked water and hygiene into one category, thus keeping us at 3 problems to discuss).
Eat good food
Talk to teachers about keeping education relevant, some Senegalese educational system history, the development of Community Content Based Instruction, it's theoretical basis, and how to make a CCBI lesson plan

Now: if that seems like a lot to you, I'd agree with you. Most of it went onto flip chart pages, more of it into my notebook, and now my job is to write it up into an action plan which I will then use to guide my work. Can I have the Halelujah chorus play please? CLEAR DIRECTION!!! At last.

And what's more, it's not out of left field. Yes, it's a lot more health focused than environmentally focused, but that's just fine. It all more or less boils down to community education and the need for a structure to bring trainings and causeries and general information transfer into our village. Hmmm.... does this sound like what I was just explaining to my brother the day we delivered invitations. "My vision for the village is to have a group in charge of a program for educating the community. That is what we need before we can talk about having a community center, but if we have that, then we can ask for (and receive) help getting a building for it. But that needs to come from the community, not me. If it's just my vision, that's no good. I'm leaving in 2 years. No, it must be from the community because that is who it is for and that is who will keep it going." And here it is, from the community, arrived at by the community, guided by my APCD, (with whom I had not yet talked about this vision), and with not a word from me. I believe my contribution to the discussion all day was pretty much:
Welcome, thanks for coming. The food's not ready yet. The food's ready now. Thanks so much for being here.

So I'm glad to have my idea for work validated. And not only validated, but also arrived at through a thought process and discussion undergone by the village (or at least its representatives) itself. Good stuff. Good stuff, indeed.