Inspiration

I have received many kinds and inspiring words in response to my last blog post. In addition, writing my last blog post helped me to reflect on what I could do to change my approach and attitude towards the situation as opposed to the situation itself. Since this change in attitude, some positive things have occurred:



**We may have secured space for the program.

**I made contact with a woman who made a documentary about the program. She then in turn put me in contact with an organization that may want to fund us.

**I have taken a different approach to my communication with my work partners. Building on the wise words of my friend, Mary C., in Argentina, I am approaching the communication in terms of building a relationship and not searching for "results".



Anyhow, maybe this makes sense...maybe this doesn't. However, I do feel inspired and ready to be part of this multifaceted process that is carrying me along in Senegal.

Senegal

The time simultaneosly passes slow and fast in Senegal (at least for me). That may seem like a contradiction; but, it is true. While I am surprised at how fast my first month is passing me, the pace of life is slower than say that of Buenos Aires. Here is a little bit about my experience thus far:

I live with a wonderful family, the Sambas, who have named me Astou Samba in an act of accepting me into their family. We are mostly women--9 of us to be exact--in the house with only Papan Issa among all this female energy. We share all of our meals together while sitting on their floor around a huge platter of food. The family speaks Wolof (one of the indigenous languages of Senegal) amongst themselves and patiently speak French with me. While my focus is on learning French, I am also picking up Wolof. The truth of the matter is that I am finding it difficult to learn either one of them as I spend the largest part of my day at work writing, reading, etc. in English. Thus, it takes my own personal effort to find those opportunities to speak in French.

By the way, for those of you who are not familiar with Senegal, it is a predominately Islamic country. There seems to be a lot going on culturally underneath the surface that will take time for me to decipher and understand.

Picture of our house

Now you may be asking what it is that I am doing during the day. The project on which I am working is the "Maids Project". The overall goal of the project is to support young women who have been forced to leave their villages because of economic reasons and go to Dakar to work as domestic servants. For a large part of these estimated 150,000 young women, they find themselves in slave-like conditions. The majority of these women have not received any formal education and thus, are illiterate. The components of the program (or ideally would be) French language acquisition, literacy, health education, leadership, and other skill acquisition (i.e. cooking, hair braiding, etc.). I say "or ideally would be" because I have arrived to the aftermath of more than a year of neglect of the program. I would be lying if I did not say that I was not disappointed in the lack of monitoring and continued support of this program. As it stands, it appears that the organization for which I am interning no longer wants to continue the program. I find myself in a difficult and frustrating situation because I was brought here specifically to work on a program that they described to me before arriving as enjoying the support of the organization. The reality is that I am not even able to secure space for the evening classes from the organization. I understand that in difficult times (i.e. the "economic crisis") that difficult decisions must be made. I suppose my frustration stems from the fact that it appears that someone started this project without a sustainability plan in place. Ah, yes, all of my misgivings about "development" coming flying back to me and scream to me to find another way to contribute to equity and freedom in the world. Donor whims and personal fulfillment endeavors...this is not development.

However, I am not one to give up, especially on a project that supports human rights. These young women are people--they are girls and women named Nai Faye and Astou and Dior--just like all of us have the right to freedom. Freedom to educate themselves. Freedom from violence. Freedom to make decisions for themselves about their lives. With that said, I am searching for another organization to take on the project as the lead agency in addition to funding sources. If anyone has suggestions for funding or any other ideas, I would love to hear them.

In other projects, the organization for which I am working also hosts a Living Routes undergraduate study abroad progam in Sustainable Development. I have the last couple of weeks collaborating with the professor to update the course content and required readings.

And, of course, there is the sea! I can't really complain when I can walk ten minutes from my house and be on a beautiful beach right here in Yoff. This weekend I took a short trip to the Ile de Madeleine, which is a protected nature reserve. It was so wonderful because it has a little cover with calm, crystal clear sea water where I am swam and swam for hours.

Until next time, I will continue to observe and learn.

A bien tot o (legge legge),

Astou Samba