TOUBACOUTS '09, continued

Day 3.

The night after the lutte, it rained buckets. We were confined to the hotel Friday morning due to the poor condition of the road, with nothing to do but swim in the pool, eat donuts and lounge in our air conditioned bungalows. Oh, the horror!

Around 4 PM, Waly told us it was time to go plant mangroves with the women's group we had met in Soukouta. We set off on a back road from the hotel, surrounded by tall baobabs and thick grass 6' high. The road soon became so muddy Waly said we might as well ditch our shoes, and we continued along, slipping and sliding, til the road opened up onto a dry, flat sandy expanse dotted with random shrubs. See first photo after the series from la lutte. We walked towards the river, which was invisible but marked by thicker and taller trees- mangroves! Mangroves are pretty funky- they look sort of like overgrown oleander bushes with thick tangled roots that start a couple feet above the river mud. There we met with the women of Soukouta, who had already begun replanting. See next photo. The mangrove sprouts looked like really skinny zucchinis, and to plant them one just stuck them about an inch into the mud.

The toubabs split up into smaller groups accompanied by one or two of our student guides from Toubacouta and several women. We headed closer to the river, where the mud got really deep, and started our dirty work. We were shlepping through mud thigh deep that smelled exactly like egg salad for around an hour- certainly a funtresting experience! Also pictured- myself and Allie, muddy; Leila about to plant baby mangroves; and Lisa D. and Rachel Rudy making their slow way through the egg salad swamp.

After we had planted all the mangroves the women had brought along, we congregated on dry land and had an impromptu lutte, which featured Jon vs. Waly, Olivia vs. Cate/James, Elke vs. Lisa T., and Me vs. Britta. I won my match! (See dad, height isn't everything.) The women's group thought we were a riot. After our wrestling matches, we bid adieu to the women of Soukouta and made the trek back to the hotel.

After dinner we walked into Toubacouta to see a dance performance. The entire village came out to watch, and we sat and took in the crazy moves of a traveling dance troupe originally from Toubacouta. I've never seen such wild dancing in my life, except possibly at the lutte. There was even a fire swallower! It was quite a performance- see the two photos after mangrove planting.

Day 4.

After breakfast on Saturday, we headed into Toubacouta again with our Senegalese student friends, walking through the village to the riverside, where there was a dock and three pirogues waiting to take us on a BOAT RIDE in the Saloum Delta! First picture after the dance performance are some pirogues on the riverbank, then our first pirogue taking off on the river. It was an incredibly beautiful day- a little hot, (What am I saying. Extremely hot,) but calm and sunny, with fluffy cotton ball clouds in the sky. Being out on the water was glorious.

The banks of the river were thick with mangroves- the 6 species of mangrove are some of the few that can survive in the delta, as their roots can filter the salt out of the river water. Our pirogue guide really knew his way around the delta, and he lead our boat train into winding narrow inlets. At one point he cut the motor and our boat drifted into a passageway that was so overgrown with mangroves that the pirogue was held back by the tangled roots. We sat in silence for a few moments and heard a strange sound, like people snapping their fingers off in the trees. Our guide told us that it was the sound of oysters, which grow on the roots of mangroves, snapping closed! See photo of mangrove roots- the weird grey knobby things are oysters. (Below that is a shot of myself and two of the students from Toubacouta, Babacar on the right and Iti (sp?) on the left.)

After we checked out some inlets we headed back to the main river channel, and eventually let the pirogues run ashore on a peninsula made entirely of shells- see photo of unbelievably beautiful paradise island. From the peninsula we hiked inland through tall grass and baobabs, then eventually around to the shore again and back to our pirogues. On our hike, we passed a huge baobab that in the past had been used to bury griots. Traditional Senegalese society operated under a caste system. Griots were the storytellers and singers in Senegal, a caste near the bottom rungs of society. The Senegalese didn't want griots to be buried in the earth, from which food is grown, so their bodies were hung from the biggest baobab trees. Though the caste system is much less important in contemporary Senegal, certain last names are still associated with certain castes, and marriage between members of different castes is sometimes frowned upon. After our hike, we pirogued back to Toubacouta and walked back to the hotel.

In the late afternoon, we drove to a remote village to speak to representatives of a coalition of 48 women's groups from neighboring villages. The coalition leant 125,000 CFA (around $275) to individual groups every 4 months, which the individual groups can spend or loan out as they see fit. Groups usually use the loan to fund projects that yield profit, such as purchasing a goat or chickens, or buying seeds to plant crops. The groups must pay back the loan within 6 months. With this system, the 48 women's groups that make up the coalition have accumulated a collective savings of 11 million CFA. Woo hoo!

After our meeting with the reps from the groupements de femmes, we had a few minutes to wander around the village. I wandered off with Rebecca, Rachel, Emma, Trina, and a couple others. Rebecca started chasing a duck, who lead us to another duck with babies, who lead us to a grey cement house and a small group of women and children. We exchanged pleasantries, and then one of the women who spoke French told us that the cement house was actually where the chief of the village lived! She invited us in to meet him, so we took off our shoes and filed in one by one and shook hands with the ancient blind chief, who greeted us in Wolof and told us he was glad we had visited his village. Funtresting indeed! See photo of women and children with ducks- the house on the right is the chief's. From now on I will always follow ducks.

We left the village soon after our meeting with le chef du village and headed back to the hotel. After dinner, a small group of us headed to the village "discotheque"- an outdoor cabana and bar in the middle of a field behind a tall iron gate, guarded by a guy in head to toe camo with a conspicuous 8" butcher knife held in the belt loop of his pants. It was certainly interesting to see, but not really my scene, so after several songs Rachel and I walked back to the hotel.

Day 5.

Pretty much just a loooooong day of driving. We left the hotel at 9:30 AM and didn't arrive in Dakar til 8:30 PM. We stopped in Sokone for lunch, and in Kaolack because James was really ill- he actually had malaria, but now he's fine, don't worry- a very long day.

All in all, a wonderful trip, minus the malaria. The last two pictures from the first Toubacouts post are the bathroom after walking home through the mud from the discotheque, and Rachel, myself, and Rebecca in our bungalow. More later!