Erin’s Sojourn in Senegal

This past week, all the PCVs from Senegal, as well as a few from Mali, Nigère, Burkina, and perhaps other countries, participated in a two-day all-volunteer conference in Dakar, followed by WAIST. Each region had their own softball team, and there were also several teams not affiliated with Peace Corps. Our team, The Dangerous Mimes, from the Fouta region, is notoriously bad - the worst, in fact. This year, our goal was to not lose by as much as we did last year. Ultimately, we did better but still did badly. We got beat by a team of 8-year-olds and two teams of 14-year-olds. The only team we beat was one that did a beer bong before each hit. In any case, it was fun hanging out with a bunch of Americans for the week.

My second piece of news is maybe a little more important, maybe not. I have decided to end my service early (after a year) rather than stay the usual two years. This was not a decisions I made lightly, and I believe it is the right decision for me. I have done a lot of work that I am proud of, and I feel fulfilled in my service. There are many reasons for leaving, but mainly, my Peace Corps experience turned out to be different than I had expected. It is more debilitatingly hot than I thought it would be and development work is a lot slower than I imagined.

I think if you keep working at something, it’s eventually going to get somewhere, it just takes a really long time. I think my personality is more suited to work with fast results. For example, I liked teaching swim lessons because on day one the kids (or adults) couldn’t swim, and on day eight they could. Here, I’ll teach people a concept over and over again but they won’t apply what they’ve learned. Change is possible, it just takes years. In the end, I feel that it’s not worth it to be so far away from home and to feel like I’m accomplishing so little.

I don’t regret coming here in any way. It has been a positive experience for me, and I feel like the people of Thilogne have really appreciated my being here. I think we have learned a lot from each other in a short period of time. I will be leaving Thilogne the end of March, and I will then be in Dakar for a week or two before heading home (and yes, Mon Amie will be joining me). Until then, I have HIV and Gender Development classes to teach, as well as a couple other small projects to work on.

On another note, if you have sent me something recently, I will likely receive it before I leave; however, anything you send from this point on may not make it to me in time. Thank you for all your support thus far, and be sure to keep reading, as I will continue to update this! Photos to come…

Girls in Senegal, especially here in the ultra-conservative North, are not encouraged to exercise.  In fact, exercise is pretty much reserved solely for the boys.  Often, it is not even important whether or not girls excel in school, because their main purpose is to marry young and raise children.  Women are undoubtedly second-class citizens, and it would be a joke for anyone to claim that they are even close to equal to men.

If there is one chair available between a man and a woman, the man always gets the chair.  Women cannot enter mosques here, as they are built for men only.  Women, including young girls over the age of four, do all the cooking, cleaning, and laundry, while the men relax, drink tea, and do whatever they want.  I could go on and on, but my point is that women are not treated fairly, and life is unarguably harder for women than it is for men.  For this reason, I felt grateful to be able to start a girls soccer club, where girls could feel special and enjoy themselves for a change.  In a society in which men feel entitled to just about everything, it was a relief to do something fun exclusively for women.

Thanks to Long Beach Crew, a girls’ soccer team from Long Beach, California, I was able to start the girls’ soccer club here in Thilogne.  The CA team sent great-quality used jerseys, soccer balls, cleats, socks, shin guards, and shorts, among other things.  I also had soccer balls donated from my former employer, Lee District RECenter, in Virginia, which contributed to making the soccer club possible.

Luckily, I had a lot of support from the P.E. coach, who agreed that there was not enough emphasis on women’s sports.  The main goal in starting this club was to promote girls soccer and raise awareness for the fact that girls can and should participate in sports.  I believe we accomplished this goal.  We had two-hour practices, twice a week, for a month, and there were a number of students, both male and female, who came to the school to watch the practices. Below: a photo the 16 girls in the club.

Yesterday was the big game (8 vs. 8).  The winning team was to receive two jerseys per person, good-quality American soap, and other prizes for those who scored a goal.  The game almost didn’t happen.  I set the date and the time a month ago, put up posters at the school, and had been in constant communication with the P.E. teacher, the principal, and the vice principal, who all said they were on board with me and that there would be no problems.  Every time I saw the P.E. teacher I mentioned the date and time of the game to make sure we were on the same page.

However, when we got to the stadium at 5:00, the P.E. teacher said that the boys were currently playing, and they wouldn’t be done until after 6:00.  Needless to say, I was heated aggravated - I am used to getting little respect from men here, but he acted like we had never spoken before!  I explained that we had planned this, that the girls were prepared and excited to play, and that this would be the only time the girls would use the stadium field the entire year (probably for the first time since it was built).  He eventually said he would end the boys’ game at 5:30, as if he were doing me a favor.  In the end, it was a great game!  Team “Brazil” beat Team “Egypt” 2-1, and we had a pretty good fan turn-out.  Below is a photo of the winning team, Brazil, along with the fickle P.E. teacher, Mr. Ndiaye.

The girls seemed to have a blast at practices and during the game.  I am going to start teaching the second round of the HIV/AIDS and Gender Development classes, so I won’t be able to continue with the girls’ soccer, but the P.E. teacher said he would like to coach them, and I hope he does.  Besides the working with soccer club, I have been doing hand-washing demonstrations at the elementary schools and painting murals.  I’m running out of space to paint in Thilogne, so the mural below was painted at the newly-built health post in Kobilo, a neighboring town.

Just as a reminder, there is a photo album that corresponds to every blog entry (look on the right side of the page, under “Photos”).  Thanks for reading!