Return from Kedougou

We got back from Kedougou this week, after a weeklong excursion with a 3-day village stay outside of the town. Here are some things that happened:

1. I stayed in yet another polygamous family in a village far away from town - no running water, no electricity, etc. with another SIT student. The countryside was beautiful - like a combination of Vermont and northern California, and the people were pretty friendly. But it was also where I saw the most extreme manifestations of traditional gender roles since I've been here. First of all, we stayed with the chief, who had four wives, and then the second day we were there, we accompanied the little kids from the compound to a nearby stream where the family washes clothes and dishes. There were several girls and two boys. When we reached the stream, the boys stayed on the bridge while the girls took the clothes and dishes (belong, I think, to everyone in the compound) to the stream to wash them. We went with them and helped a little, although freshwater contact is pretty much verboten according to SIT. But what really struck me was that these girls were around six years old, and they were performing this chore like grown-up women while the two little boys who came along just played on the bridge and watched them work. I don't think the little girls were unhappy, they seemed to have fun being together while they worked, but it was still pretty shocking to see firsthand this kind of distinction between the treatment of boys and girls.

2. A lot of times you'll see people here wearing t-shirts that come from events in the US, that were probably donated and somehow ended up here in Senegal. For example, a few days ago, I saw a man in the university area wearing a Seattle Parks and Recreation t-shirt. Well, while we were in Kedougou, after spending three days in the village, I saw a boy wearing a March for Women's Lives t-shirt. Abortion is illegal here. Women's rights certainly exist, and there are women who identify as feminists, but you still run into things like a lack of reproductive options and enduring gender roles that can be unfair. Anyway, I know a lot of Smith students who went to that march. It was really weird to see that world and the one I'm in now together on a kid in rural southeastern Senegal.

3. After the village stay and seeing the March for Women's Lives t-shirt, we visited Saraya, a large village outside of Kedougou where a women's gardening project has just begun. The women's groups there have created three gardens for growing vegetables, which they can sell, and also incorporate into the diet of school meals for the kids in the village. This was really cool to see after my stay in the village, and a reminder of the good things that you see happening in rural areas.

4. We went to a mountaintop village to see the biggest baobab tree in Senegal! Although I think maybe it's really the biggest in Africa or even the world. It takes 23 people holding hands around it to cover its circumference. The hike up was beautiful, and at the top you could see a valley full of rice paddies, and mountains and the border with Guinea in the distance. The oldest woman in Senegal lives at the top of the mountain in the village. She is 118 years old. The village itself was very large, more like a city made of huts than a village. It was amazing and the best experience I've had in Senegal so far.

So now I'm back in Dakar, realizing that I have just about a month left here, which is kind of nice and a little sad at the same time. It also means that next week I start work on my indepedent study project. I'm excited to start and to be more independent here. Pictures of the Kedougou trip to follow!