Social explosion

Well, that might sound too hopeful. And perhaps that also lies about their availability, but at any rate, one of the things I want to remark in this post is that things are really coming along socially . . . finally . . . it's about time I lent myself to it. And that's the reality, I just wasn't closed for quite some time (3 - 4 weeks) until I felt I could trust the intentions of people I was meeting.

But, now that that has happened, things are moving along just fine. I went to the Catholic church this morning too, and that was useful. One of the guys there, a few years younger than me, invited me to hang out with them today. I had met him before, and it felt okay to pursue it (because he called me again on my cell and because I felt better about it for whatever reason).

Regardless, we went to the beach today, I hung out with them, showed them pics of home, Canada, and some of my travels.

Saturday night, I hung out with one of my co-workers. He's a Christian, and it was really neat to hear part of his story about his life. Really, though, it was exciting because we were talking about things that had a bit of depth, and that's something that's been really lacking here up until recently . . .

Friday night, I just hung out on my own, watching a few movies on my computer.

My time was well spent this past weekend, just connecting with people, doing my own thing, taking the time to relax, taking the time to get some other work done.

Today, though, has also been a day of some really great conversations home, to some really key friends and family. Thanks for taking the time (3 hours total duration between 3 phone calls basically). I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Time in the village:
A few highlights:

I changed my format, my style. Tried to simply learn what they do, how they do it, and why. The coming weeks will be more of the same, but with an ear out to hopefully catch newer points, and with a mind working to try to probe deeper. It's really always a battle between figuring out whether what I'm learning is useful enough for WV Canada and WV Senegal. Because, I'm learning lots, trying to do lots, and trying to figure out lots. So, I just hope that my trying continues at a strong rate and that it is sufficient. I'm always appealing to my utility, it would seem . . .

Still, I took the time to try to simply talk with people this week. I didn't write while I was talking. Just tried to talk, listen, ask questions, and then later in the day, sit down and write out what had been talked, what stuck out. This 'format' enables me to simply focus on the conversation. All I have to do is trust I'll remember, take the time to write thorougly, and figure out how to probe deeper - essentially, figure out how to apply what I feel I've learned in school, and what I know about the environment, to the conversations I'm having.
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I had some really cool conversations with a few different groups of people. Felt I was able to move about the village a little more freely, although that still tends to be a bit of challenge. I have to try to get away from the village chief and his family (and the very extended family - everyone seems to be related to everyone else!). I also met up with a few people from Dakar who came to visit the village (had family there), but we had an animated discussion on corrupt government, the struggles of large NGO's to be efficient in their work, the reality that the development system is the way it is, the fact that people in the villages just want people to come and teach them (and, I think, to just give them something that they can administer themselves - there's an element of goodness to that, but it's such a tricky result to get to). We also talked about my role, my reason, and how I was learning something, but what would I be giving to them? That I would be learning and taking, but since my coming into the village is something that happens frequently (many before, many will follow), how are we helping the village? Still, my role is to learn perceptions, so hopefully that provides insights. It's also about this because that acknowledges even my limited training. A BA does things for you, but it is still very, very limited in its real, pratical application. And, furthermore, everyone starts somewhere. Including me. I can only grow from the further point that I've currently reached!
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I tried to do what the people do this past week. Well, actually, not really. That sounds too good. But, I did go to the Tannes (the salt flats) this past week. It's where the women go to harvest salt (which they then try to sell - difficulty of a total fall in prices because of an oversupply and far too many sellers that don't function together in a cooperative). Still, it was interesting to note how they try their best to react to that (protect harvested salts from the rains during the rainy season so they can sell it later when the price is high, past and ongoing attempts to come together in a cooperative or to funnel selling through a single 'voice', a single individual declaring price. But, that's extremely hard to ensure because women are everywhere, there's tonnes of salt, everyone makes their own decisions, and many women struggle from day to day to provide the necessities.
Still, it was interesting learning how they mark out their space, how they do the actual work, how much they can get done in a day, and how much, if prices were really good and really stable, they could sell it for (a day's work could go for 15,000 - 20,000 CFA (40 USD) at the most possible peak reality) Unfortunately, prices can drop to as low as about 1000 CFA (2 USD) for an entire day's labour of salt harvesting and only, truly, if you successfully sold it all (unlikely - what's probable is selling about 1/4 or 1/5 of it during the day, so making about 50 cents). The work might not be hard, but it's bent-over-double-all-day-under-the-hot-sun kind of work, and you walk about 5 km round trip (from the closer of the villages, mind you)
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I experienced my first African sandstorm. Pretty awesome, let me tell you, and it wasn't really anything severe. Just, if you're me, seeing a giant wall of orange coming towards you, with gusting winds, it was pretty cool. And then followed by a short downpour. It was really cool. Took a couple of shots, videos. I hope they turn out; I'd love to show them to you guys some day.
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The village was very welcoming. It was also the wealthiest one I was in. They have benefited from a Classified forest project of the State (planting of about 100/ha of eucalyptus trees/year in an effort to try to stop the advancement of salinization). So, they are able to harvest a lot of deadwood from the forest floor (although they do cut live ones illegally often enough), and they can use the forest for a number of other products. The pépinière (tree nursury) is where most of the plants come from, and as far as I can tell, that at least hires a few people directly and a few others indirectly (receive food for work instead of a salary). But, the actual work of planting the trees, people are mostly paid by the World Food Program through food-for-work. Still, while it's helpful, it's hard to say whether they're really being paid enough.

Still, they are also able to harvest live trees from the forest, in a legal manner, provided they've approached the State service (les Eaux et Forêts) about it first. And somewhere along the way, they've found enough resources to build many granaries to store their harvest millet and have mentioned they don't have much of a lack of land for work purposes. They've also developed a system (mostly in response to declining numbers) of time-sharing the cattle to try to use them across multiple household fields to manure them. So, that was cool to learn to.

The village also has a telecentre and a boutique, so I was even able to buy a few things from them. Including, I might add (and which I failed to mention tonight) a few Senegalese pipes and some tobacco that I plan on bringing home to my friends (for those that are of the inclination).
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I am increasingly enjoying scooting around Fatick on the back of the little motocyclettes that numerous people drive here. One of these days, I might try to rent one, figure out whether it might be sturdy enough to drive to a village? I don't think so! But, I'd love to dream. But ya, for btn 100 - 200 CFA (20 - 40 cents) you can move anywhere you want in the city. It's pretty cool. Although, if my parents saw me, they'd probably kill me . . . (helmets anyone? And I love how when you go over a speed bump, so many of them bottom out . . . shocks anyone?)
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My sister will be coming to visit me in October, about 1 week before I leave the country. It promises to be a really neat time with her, and I hope to show her more 'what I've done' versus 'what didn't happen'. Ha ha ha!
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Lots of social events on the calendar: next weekend, hitting up Dakar with friends from the village who invited me to see their restaurant and crash at their place for the weekend. July 26-30 - a retreat with practically all of the WV staff in the Fatick office at Cap Skiring, a place in the Casamance region of the country. Directly south. Will be passing through Gambia in the process. REALLY looking forward to this time with the office. First week of August: chilling out in Dakar, although, yes, I will certainly be working. Hoping to meet up with a number of the international development organizations in Senegal (I hope they're not all closed . . .) Also hoping to make some serious headway in my country context research and initial report writing during this time. But, it will be a nice break from the villages. August 18-19: I might go to the weekend retreat that the friends I hung out with today are organizing. Costs 3000 CFA and should work out well. Would be a wise way to really connect with people, so I hope it turns out. And the last week of August, I have my own personal vacation. Don't know where I'm going, but since I'll already be going south at the end of July, I might try to go midway, near Mbour, or north, towards St. Louis . . . we shall see. Endless possibilities though.

NEwho, I have now been sitting in this office for 4 1/2 hours. I, unfortunately, did not post as a result of all the phone call time I had (unfortunately, mind you, for you, not for me!)

I hope this keeps you informed enough for the time being. Hopefully I'll post again on Friday or something short tomorrow.

Blessings to you all.
If you pray for two things, one that things keep on rolling socially. I don't want to get unplugged any time soon! and two, that my work finds depth. That I decide where to take my research and push and learn how to push to get to deeper, ever-insightful discoveries of how and why people do what they do, and don't do what they don't do. And what they're afraid of or what concerns them about change.