Last week, was the week of rural stays – when all us students were sent to live with various families outside of Dakar. I was lucky to be sent to Kedougou, about as far southeast in Senegal as you can go – you can see Guinea from the hills there. I and my friend Elise would be staying with a Peace Corps volunteer, Sheila, in her village of Thiabedji, where her project is agroforestry.
So, we took a mini-bus from Dakar to Tambacounda (like central/southern Senegal) and by chance and pure idiocy in not thinking about how long it would take the bus to fill up, we ended up leaving Dakar during the hottest part of the dry season, during the hottest part of the day (noon) and heading for the hottest region in the country. So, those 10 hours in the bus were quite probably some of the longest I’ve ever experienced, especially since, in perfect Senegalese style, I was crammed to a seat made for 3 people, but into which we squeezed 5. We passed all sorts of small towns and hut villages. Going through town of Kaolack (like 3 miles east of Dakar) was interesting because there was trash everywhere EVERYWHERE. Like, there were just fields of trash, and I’m guessing it’s because it’s a pretty large city and probably no landfill made. So, it all gets chucked into the fields for the goats to eat.
We stopped for lunch in a little tiny town where we bought some delicious French bread rolls from women on the street and drank some café Touba (really strong coffee with lots of spices in a shot glass). We sat on benches in the coffee lady’s curtained shack and spoke some Wolof with the other people there. It’s always amazing how much trying to speak just a little Wolof (or any other Senegalese language) makes people so happy here. It makes so much sense though. I mean, most of the non-African foreigners who come to Senegal are tourists, and they don’t learn Wolof. And, nobody really studies Wolof in other parts of the world, so I think it really legitimizes the culture here. So many times I’ve been told by Senegalese that English is “better” than Wolof. Or that English is the “best” language. And, I understand where that comes from – people see the US as incredibly successful, it’s the image created by film and by the limited knowledge many people here have about the US. It’s also a very useful global language, and I’m sure that’s where a lot of idea of English being “better” than Wolof comes from. But, it’s sad that so many languages get tossed aside in favor of a more commonly spoke language. Language is such a huge part of your culture, so I’m sure it’s very encouraging for Senegalese to hear foreigners (especially Americans and Europeans) speaking a language simply for the sake of really, sincerely communicating with them.
We arrived in Tambacounda around 10pm that night. We went to the Peace Corps regional house, which is just a big house within a neighborhood that serves as a little haven for volunteers in the region. It’s a place for the volunteers to come when they need a break from their village or a good place to do research or prepare for projects, or just to hang out with other Americans. We walked in on a 5-person dance party, which was pretty hilarious. And, the volunteers there that day had made frozen peanut butter chocolate bars, which were incredible. We didn’t have too much of a chance to talk with the volunteers because everyone went to be pretty soon after we arrived. We all slept out on the roof, on mats under the stars.
We got up the next morning and took a 5-hour sept-place taxi ride to Kedougou. On the way, we passed through Niokolo National Park, which is probably Senegal’s most famous protected area since that’s where most of the large mammals that characterize Africa live in Senegal. We were so lucky and saw quite a few animals on our drive through. We saw a troop of baboons cross the road. We thought they were dogs from far away, and then realized too late to stop that they were baboons. Then, we saw a few warthogs. We also saw what I believe are Abyssinian hornbills (you learn this stuff working at a zoo!), which are these giant (like 2 feet tall) black birds with giant beaks like Toucans. Then, we came upon a tourist hunting campement where a few guards were sitting under a shade structure feeding peanuts to two adorable little monkeys. We stopped to check it out, and got to feed them (sorry, I know, you shouldn’t feed wild animals, but, these guards do this every day, I found out).
It was really neat to finally see the landscape change. Most of Senegal is Sahel, the type of land between the Sahara and the savannah. So, there’s lots of grass with scattered acacia trees (and everything is super dry, since it’s the end of the rainy season). And, everything is totally flat. But, going to Kedougou changed everything! We finally saw hills! Covered with trees! And it was green! Beautiful green hillsides, or mountains, as they call them (although the highest point in Senegal is only 600 meters).
When we arrived in Kedougou, Sheila met us at the station. She’s a Coloradoan! And, she went to CSU and Denver Metro for college, majoring in Political Science and Languages (French & Spanish)and then she was assigned to work on agroforestry in the remote 500-person village of Thiabedji, where very few people speak French or Wolof, and Pulaar is the native language. We walked to another Peace Corps regional house, where we would spend the night. This one was different – it was all outdoors except for the kitchen, which was a cement hut. The sleeping area was a set of about 20 beds under a cement-straw roof.
We went to the Kedougou market with Sheila to buy gifts for her host family, who would visit the next day. What did we bring as gifts? (bringing gifts is expected anytime to stay with someone). We brought ingredients to make ceebu jenn – tomatoes, cassava, fish, and oil. Sheila said her family hadn’t eaten ceebu jenn in probably almost a year. The people in the village of Thiabedji live on less than a dollar a day – they grow all their own food, and sometimes are able to sell it. Men travel to other villages to find work sometimes, but there’s not much to go around.
We rode bikes to the market and it was so much fun! I miss bike riding so much and this was the first time I’ve ridden a bike since I left Colorado! It was so funny every time we rode bikes in Kedougoug during this week, I feel like our Americanness really showed because we always rode so fast, and the Senegalese ride ssssooooo slowly! Never ever in a hurry to get anywhere.
It was really neat to go around with Sheila and Kate (another Peace Corps girl) because they spoke fluent Pulaar and that’s so essential especially this far out from large cities where very few people speak French. Sheila had this hilarious way of dealing with men who kept asking her to give them either me or Elise (that sounds horrible, but it’s really just the way Senegalese men express that they really like you). The men would shout out that they loved us and Sheila would yell something back in English like “You smell like pickles! You look like my mother!” or something ridiculous like that. I guess that’s just her way of keeping from getting pissed off at them – because, really it gets incredibly annoying when men are constantly nagging you like that.
We went back to the house because it was the hot part of the day, when nobody does anything but sit or lay down for hours – and SWEAT!!! That night we went with some other Peace Corps people to this tourist campement to swim in their pool and I tried a bite of a warthog sandwich L. But, really, I had to do it.
The next day, we left early in the morning at 7am and Bruno, this French guy who decided to retire in Senegal, drove us in his jeep over the “mountains” to get to Thiabedji. I cannot describe well enough how remote this village was – stuck back in the hills, hours away from any sizeable town, no electricity or running water anywhere. There are about 500 people in this village. All the houses and buildings are made of mud, straw, and bamboo, and the floors are made of a mixture of mud, cow poop, and clay – it ends up like cement, a little bit. The houses are grouped into family groups. So, there will be like a central open space, surrounded by 5 or 6 huts for various members of the family (mom & dad, sons & daughters, children’s families, etc.).
Sheila’s host family is her host mom, her 3 adult sons, her 15-year old daughter Kadyjatou, her son’s wife Dolanda, and her 3 kids – Ousmane, Jennaba, and Fatou. Ousmane and Fatou were some of the cutest kids ever – Jennaba was cute too, but she was a little devil sometimes.
We went to meet Numu Sara, one of the more motivated agroforesters that Sheila works with. He has a mango orchard, which was pretty incredible. It’s about mango season now, and to get the mangoes down, they send kids up the trees to shake branches so that they fall. I haven’t eaten many mangoes – and, actually, I’m not sure if I’ve ever eaten a raw mango – just mango-flavored things and dried mango. They’re amazing! They’ve got some strange but delicious spice in them. I ate 4 of them that first day! Some of the two most common phrases I used in PUlaar that week were “No welli!” (it’s delicious) and “nowooli!” (it’s hot).
We went back to the huts before it got too hot. Then, from noon-7pm, we just sat around doing nothing because it’s so hot, you don’t dare go out of the shade. It was about 110 degrees everyday, and one day it even got up to 120! So, we talked a bit with Katyjatou because she knows some French from school, and I tried to get her to teach me Pulaar but it was pretty clear that she thought it was a vain effort – she just laughed at the way I pronounced things, and we let it go after a bit. For dinner, we had ceebu jenn! There is one hut that serves as the kitchen. It’s all made out of sticks and straw, but there’s no ventilation, and they cook on open fires, so all the smoke and heat stays in the hut – it’s horrible being in there.
We slept out on cots behind the hut in Sheila’s little backyard (a space behind her hut that is surrounded by a woven bamboo fence. The next day we woke up and had this kind of soupy pudding couscous thing for breakfast. It was exactly like something I ate for dessert with people on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota last year – and unlike anything I’m sure you’ve ever tasted. It’s a gelatin-like soup flavored with the sweet/sour tamarin seed pod and then there’s little pea-sized balls made out of cornmeal. It was interesting – definitely not bad at all. But, the nutrition problem here is that the people eat almost only corn, and some white rice. There’s flavorings like tamarind and baobab leaves, but that’s about it.
Then, we went with Sheila to an agroforestry workshop/meeting where some community members were coming together to learn how to make a tree nursery. We met some of the nicest men in the village – Issa was another of, in Sheila’s words, the better farmers there. It was in his garden that they were making the tree nursery. They were planting trees that would serve as natural fences – lots of thorns – and other trees like mango and cashew. I didn’t follow most of what they were saying, because it was all in Pulaar of course. Sheila translated for us sometimes. She was really happy about this week, because it was a super busy week for her and people were motivated. She said it’s almost never that way in Peace Corps. The first year of your time in the village is just about learning the language and the culture, and experimenting a little. The second year is when you can actually really work on your project. Sheila (and other volunteers) told us that, on average, you can expect about 10% of the work you do in your village to continue after you leave. That means that, maybe after teaching a hundred people how to make a tree nursery, only 10 will continue to do so when Peace Corps leaves.
I realize that this totally depends on the project (whether that be health education, agroforestry, or business development) but, still, how much can you really do alone in 2 years? After being in Senegal fo about 3 months, I can’t even imagine how difficult it must be to be plopped down in a tiny village and be expected to carry out a development project with the community. Kudos to Peace Corps, and especially to female Peace Corps in Africa. Women here have such a harder time getting buy-in from the community leaders because society is so male-dominated and they don’t often take women seriously in leadership roles. Also, from other Peace Corps women I’ve talked to, it’s an added burden when you can’t trust men because you think they’re sincerely helping you because they care about the project/issue too, but in fact all along they were just hoping you’d marry them. Then it turns awkward really fast.
I asked how Peace Corps decides where to send volunteers. She said it can happen a couple of ways. First, is that the village leaders themselves ask for a volunteer, or, another Peace Corps volunteer might suggest a new village. But, Sheila said that when she came, nobody had any idea what she was doing there. That doesn’t seem like a good development approach to me – that a foreigner is just marching into a community and nobody there knows why. But, I’ve come to realize that Peace Corps really isn’t about development. It’s more about cultural exchange, and a way to give Americans who are interested in development a glimpse into on-the-ground challenges. I think the actually process of development in these villages is just a side-note. There’s really a lack of sustainability since most of these Peace Corps projects seem run by the volunteers themselves, so when they leave, their work disappears. And then maybe a new Peace Corps comes to take their place, but they’re starting at square 1 again – language and cultural barriers all over again. Of course, I’m generalizing. I only know Peace Corps in Senegal, so I can’t speak for the rest of the world, but I think a lot of the same things might hold true. It also depends on the individual Peace Corps too though – how they go about their work with the community, what steps they make to make it a sustainable project after they leave.
Sheila said the biggest problem with development, in her opinion (and I totally agree) is that it’s so uncoordinated. There are over a dozen NGOs working in Thiabedji (a village of 500 people), and they don’t exchange ideas or plans much at all. I’ve heard the same situation in other regions in Senegal. It’s made me wonder what the long-term affect of all this foreign aid is for Africa (and also other parts of the world). How much has it reinforced the culture of aid? The sense that the 1st world is where the hope for developing countries lies? That it’s not possible to develop without aid from the US and Europe? “Tubab, tubab! Give me a gift!” That’s the way I was greeted by all the children, and even several adults in the Kedougou region. How much does this reveal the culture of aid here? One Peace Corps guy said that there was a European NGO who came to his village and built windmills for energy, which was great, until a part of the windmill broke, and then nobody in the village knew how to fix it or where to get a new part. Then, there’s another French NGO in the same village that brings clothes every year, so nobody ever buys clothes there – they just wait till they come back the next year. The Peace Corps guy told me that when a well stopped working, he said “It doesn’t matter; we’ll just wait for someone from Europe to come and fix it or build us another one.” This lack of coordination of development work seems like it looks on at the here and now, and not at the long-term course of independent development which countries should be following. I am not a development expert, but these are questions I am really interested in researching more.
The other few days in the village were pretty much the same – agroforestry workshops/meetings, eating stuff made of corn and rice, and sitting & sweating. Sweating like you would not believe – starting right after breakfast, I’d start sweating, and I wouldn’t stop sweating until about 10pm at night. Incredible.
One day, we sat out under a mango tree with Dolanda and her kids and made attaya. I found out the only reason they pour the two glasses back and forth is to make a bunch of bubbles because it looks pretty. Haha.
Our last day there we hiked up a couple mountains to visit the Badik villages. They’re an ethnic group that, hundreds of years ago had a war with the Pulaar people, and were pushed up on top of the hills to live. So, they’re still there. They were pretty beautiful settings – like something right out of a Discovery channel show.
We went back to Kedougou at the Peace Corps house for night, and the next day, we went on a bike ride to the Gambia river to look for hippos. Unfortunately, we got pretty lost and by the time we found the river, it was too late in the day to see hippos. But, the biking was awesome! And we did see a bunch of really beautiful birds.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Mbeubeuss
I just passed one of the most amazing days in Senegal….and I couldn’t take any photos L. In my Environment and Developmnt class we had a couple classes discussing the problem of solid waste disposal in Dakar. You see trash EVERYWHERE for two main reasons (among others) – 1. There’s just the habit of throwing your trash wherever, 2. There just don’t exist many trash receptacles and the trash pick-up service sucks and doesn’t even exist in some neighborhoods. But, what really interested me was learning about Mbeubeuss. That’s the landfill where all the trash from Dakar and its surrounding communes goes. It’s like any other landfill you’d see in the states, except this one has no gates or fences, no bottom liner to keep waste from leaking out, and, people live IN the landfill and make their livings from the trash.
So, I was really interested in learning about these people who live in the dump and the récuperateurs (people who collect trash to re-sell for recycling in places as far away as India or to resell to local artists). Let me preface this by saying that there are so many things that really would never happen back in the US, and the spontaneity of life in Senegal is one of the things I’ll miss most about being here. So, my friend Taryn (one of my best friends here – we enjoy discussing similar things, and our French is at about the same level) and I set out for Mbeubeuss with just 2 names of people who work with the NGO ENDA-Tiers Monde (an international organization that works on various development issues and is really involved in the environment in Senegal) and the name of the President of the Association des Récuperateurs de Mbeubeuss. We took a taxi to the commune of Malika, which is a part of one of the Dakar region’s poorest neighborhoods (and also a hotspot for producing some of Senegal’s biggest rap artists). About 7,000 people live in Malika, right next to the landfill (I really mean right next to. There is the landfill, and then 100 yards away there are houses).
We were dropped off right outside the main entrance into Mbeubeuss, and we could already see, a bit off in the distance, smoke rising from we would find as hundreds of piles of burning trash. We went to the truck weighing station and asked about some of the names we had. We were immediately invited in to the station to talk to the workers there. There, we met Richard, an officer who works on security at Mbeubeuss, which means that he helps weigh and authorize the dumptrucks to dump their wastes. He offered to bring us to the “platform” which is where the trucks all dump their stuff. So, we thought we’d be walking a short ways. No way! We hitched a ride with Richard in the cab of a dump truck going out to dump his trash.
We drove on a giant mountain of trash that’s been piling up since the 1970s. I really won’t be able to describe it well enough. Over a kilometer wide and much longer, the landfill is made of rolling 50-foot (or more) mounds of plastic, metals, glass, and a bunch of random crap that you’d find in any dump. We drove over the compacted trash heaps on a sort of “path”, which is really just a little clearing between the mountains of trash, but still we were just driving on trash. We had to drive almost a kilometer into the dump to the platform to dump the truck. On the way, we saw random people searching through the trash heaps for things to re-sell. Then, we turned a corner around a mound of plastic, and I’ll never forget that site. There were several dump trucks unloading their crap while hundreds of people (about 1/3 were children probably 8-15 years) clamored about trying to be the first to get their hands on the new bags of trash. All over the dump were piles of burning, smoking trash (plastic, paper, etc.) which are used to find iron in the trash heaps. Nobody has any kind of protective gear – people wore t-shirts and sandals (walking through trash full of rusty metal pieces, glass shards, and household waste).
We made our way back after dumping our load. Richard told us that on average people who come to the dump for a living make about $25 dollars a day! That’s a fortune considering like 2/3 of Senegalese live on less than $2/day.
Some people actually live on the dump. We passed by a series of shacks where people sat outside sorting their used goods and others ate lunch. Other people come from the surrounding neighborhoods of Malika and Keur Massar – that’s where most come from. But then there are also others who come from all over the Dakar region – some travel an hour or so every day to get to Mbeubeuss. That’s why it’s such a taboo to take photos at the landfill. Richard told us people get really upset and one of the main reasons is that they don’t want anyone back home to know that they work at the dump. Although you might make a lot money gathering trash, it’s still a job looked down on by Senegalese because of the conditions – it’s smelly, and it’s disgusting.
We got back to the weigh station, and Richard sent us in the direction of the Poste de Santé, a little health center set up by the Association de Récuperateurs de Mbeubeuss with the help of the NGO ENDA. We walked over to the little building and met a cute old man named Moustapha. After chatting a bit (as you always have to do in Senegal – how’s the family, where’s your wife? How’s work? How was your morning? How was your night? Are you in peace?) Moustapha introduced us to the doctor and nurse who treat people at the little clinic. They told us that one of the major health problems they treat is respiratory infections (understandable since the people are breathing in fumes from burning plastic and who knows what). Side note – I read a study done on the neighborhoods surrounding the landfill which said that 14% of the populations have respiratory illness, 10% have parasites, and 66% drink well water polluted by bacteria and heavy metals. Then, the doctor introduced us to Adama Soumaré, the man who works for ENDA at this community center that includes the health clinic and a training center for kids and young adults.
The training center was created to help give the children who work at Mbeubeuss with their parents an opportunity to find a different, healthier line of work. I asked how they get the kids to come to these schooling programs. Soumaré said it happens in several different ways – they go out into the dump and ask the kids themselves (older kids often may not live with their families), they talk to parents who come to the health clinic and see the school in session, and they hold meetings for parents to come learn about the school. Then, there’s a training program for young adults aged 18-20 years for the same reasons. They teach the girls things like embroidery, cooking, French, and computers. They teach boys things like carpentry, metal-working, and mechanics.
To encourage good teachers to come out to the site (right at the entrance of the landfill, for convenience for the families), they encourage parents to give about 1500 CFA a month ($3/month). It was really neat to see things like this in action, with so much grassroots support – most of these activities (health clinic, school, training)were started by the people who work in the landfill themselves, rather than an NGO coming in and doing it. ENDA assisted later on with technical support, but still most of these activities are really community-run, not outside NGO-run, like so many projects I’ve seen in Senegal.
I’ve read about the debate over closing Mbeubeuss and opening a new landfill in another region of Dakar. But, from what I’d heard and read, there was no community that would accept another Mbeubeuss. So, I asked Soumaré about it. He said, in fact, that they’ve already found another place. This was the most interesting part of the day because it involved the World Bank and we got to hear from the people about negotiations with the big shots. So, here’s what went down. Mbeubeuss was created by the Senegalese government in like 1970. Then, in 2006 or 2008 the World Bank financed a large highway going from Dakar toward Pikine (a community on the outskirts of the Dakar area) and past. But, to do this, they had to displace hundreds of people who lived where the highway was to be built. So, they were moved up to one of the neighborhoods by the landfill. But, then the World Bank said the people couldn’t live next to the landfill because of all the air pollution, so they were working to have Mbeubeuss closed. But, that’s a problem for the people who make their livings there – they don’t want to move, and when the next landfill opens, it might have higher regulations so that people can’t go inside. So, people were going back and forth about what to do. Finally, the World Bank and Abdul Azziz (president of the people who work at Mbeubeuss) and the Senegalese government agreed on a compromise. They are going to open a new landfill in Thies, and city east of Dakar. But, first, they will bring the trash to Mbow, which is near Mbeubeuss, and people can go there to collect their goods, and then the trucks will bring the remainder to Thies to be incinerated (I think – it got fuzzy because of French vocab I didn’t know). So, Mbeubeuss will be closed, but the people at Mbeubeuss will still be able to continue their living. I’m not sure of the details of how that will all happen though.
Then, Moustapha took us out into the dump again to meet Abdul Azziz Seck, the president of the Association des Recuperateurs (people working in the dump). We followed Moustapha through piles of sorted plastics, metals, and glass and met dozens of people sitting outside shacks, taking a break from their work and eating lunch. We met Abdul, but he was busy with his family eating lunch, so we didn’t stay long, and he clearly wasn’t in a talking mood. But, he told us that the initial reason he and his buddies wanted to create the association was to fight against delinquency in the landfill. It used to be a major hideout for criminals and gangs, but now the community living and working there has come together to make itself more into a society, rather than just a bunch of individuals making money.
Afterwards, we went back to the weight station to say goodbye to our friend Richard and some other guys who had helped us that morning. And, of course, it always takes forever to say goodbye here. It was lunchtime and they insisted that we stay and eat ceebu jenn with them, of course. But, we needed to get back to Dakar to make an American-style dinner for Taryn’s family. But, then Amadou (the head guy at the weigh station) told us to wait for this truck that had just headed out to dump its load. It was going back to Dakar, and we could ride in it on the way back. So, we waited, and then Richard came back with some ceebu jenn, and so we had to eat. It’s always so funny when you’re a guest because the Senegalese way of showing respect for a guest when you’re eating is to shut you in a room by yourself. It still makes me laugh. So, we finished the ceeb and then jumped up into the cab of another dump truck and hit the road back to Dakar! The looks we got were priceless – 2 tubaab girls riding in a dump truck??? Haha! It was also really cool because the truck was bringing bags of collected trash from peopleat Mebuebeuss back to people in Dakar who re-sell it to industries. So, we got to see the whole recycling process!
So, all in all, this was an incredibly eventful day, and so many things I would never expect to happen in the states. But, maybe being in Senegal will have made me more aggressive in terms of researching things for myself – you know, just really putting yourself out there to try to get info.
So, I was really interested in learning about these people who live in the dump and the récuperateurs (people who collect trash to re-sell for recycling in places as far away as India or to resell to local artists). Let me preface this by saying that there are so many things that really would never happen back in the US, and the spontaneity of life in Senegal is one of the things I’ll miss most about being here. So, my friend Taryn (one of my best friends here – we enjoy discussing similar things, and our French is at about the same level) and I set out for Mbeubeuss with just 2 names of people who work with the NGO ENDA-Tiers Monde (an international organization that works on various development issues and is really involved in the environment in Senegal) and the name of the President of the Association des Récuperateurs de Mbeubeuss. We took a taxi to the commune of Malika, which is a part of one of the Dakar region’s poorest neighborhoods (and also a hotspot for producing some of Senegal’s biggest rap artists). About 7,000 people live in Malika, right next to the landfill (I really mean right next to. There is the landfill, and then 100 yards away there are houses).
We were dropped off right outside the main entrance into Mbeubeuss, and we could already see, a bit off in the distance, smoke rising from we would find as hundreds of piles of burning trash. We went to the truck weighing station and asked about some of the names we had. We were immediately invited in to the station to talk to the workers there. There, we met Richard, an officer who works on security at Mbeubeuss, which means that he helps weigh and authorize the dumptrucks to dump their wastes. He offered to bring us to the “platform” which is where the trucks all dump their stuff. So, we thought we’d be walking a short ways. No way! We hitched a ride with Richard in the cab of a dump truck going out to dump his trash.
We drove on a giant mountain of trash that’s been piling up since the 1970s. I really won’t be able to describe it well enough. Over a kilometer wide and much longer, the landfill is made of rolling 50-foot (or more) mounds of plastic, metals, glass, and a bunch of random crap that you’d find in any dump. We drove over the compacted trash heaps on a sort of “path”, which is really just a little clearing between the mountains of trash, but still we were just driving on trash. We had to drive almost a kilometer into the dump to the platform to dump the truck. On the way, we saw random people searching through the trash heaps for things to re-sell. Then, we turned a corner around a mound of plastic, and I’ll never forget that site. There were several dump trucks unloading their crap while hundreds of people (about 1/3 were children probably 8-15 years) clamored about trying to be the first to get their hands on the new bags of trash. All over the dump were piles of burning, smoking trash (plastic, paper, etc.) which are used to find iron in the trash heaps. Nobody has any kind of protective gear – people wore t-shirts and sandals (walking through trash full of rusty metal pieces, glass shards, and household waste).
We made our way back after dumping our load. Richard told us that on average people who come to the dump for a living make about $25 dollars a day! That’s a fortune considering like 2/3 of Senegalese live on less than $2/day.
Some people actually live on the dump. We passed by a series of shacks where people sat outside sorting their used goods and others ate lunch. Other people come from the surrounding neighborhoods of Malika and Keur Massar – that’s where most come from. But then there are also others who come from all over the Dakar region – some travel an hour or so every day to get to Mbeubeuss. That’s why it’s such a taboo to take photos at the landfill. Richard told us people get really upset and one of the main reasons is that they don’t want anyone back home to know that they work at the dump. Although you might make a lot money gathering trash, it’s still a job looked down on by Senegalese because of the conditions – it’s smelly, and it’s disgusting.
We got back to the weigh station, and Richard sent us in the direction of the Poste de Santé, a little health center set up by the Association de Récuperateurs de Mbeubeuss with the help of the NGO ENDA. We walked over to the little building and met a cute old man named Moustapha. After chatting a bit (as you always have to do in Senegal – how’s the family, where’s your wife? How’s work? How was your morning? How was your night? Are you in peace?) Moustapha introduced us to the doctor and nurse who treat people at the little clinic. They told us that one of the major health problems they treat is respiratory infections (understandable since the people are breathing in fumes from burning plastic and who knows what). Side note – I read a study done on the neighborhoods surrounding the landfill which said that 14% of the populations have respiratory illness, 10% have parasites, and 66% drink well water polluted by bacteria and heavy metals. Then, the doctor introduced us to Adama Soumaré, the man who works for ENDA at this community center that includes the health clinic and a training center for kids and young adults.
The training center was created to help give the children who work at Mbeubeuss with their parents an opportunity to find a different, healthier line of work. I asked how they get the kids to come to these schooling programs. Soumaré said it happens in several different ways – they go out into the dump and ask the kids themselves (older kids often may not live with their families), they talk to parents who come to the health clinic and see the school in session, and they hold meetings for parents to come learn about the school. Then, there’s a training program for young adults aged 18-20 years for the same reasons. They teach the girls things like embroidery, cooking, French, and computers. They teach boys things like carpentry, metal-working, and mechanics.
To encourage good teachers to come out to the site (right at the entrance of the landfill, for convenience for the families), they encourage parents to give about 1500 CFA a month ($3/month). It was really neat to see things like this in action, with so much grassroots support – most of these activities (health clinic, school, training)were started by the people who work in the landfill themselves, rather than an NGO coming in and doing it. ENDA assisted later on with technical support, but still most of these activities are really community-run, not outside NGO-run, like so many projects I’ve seen in Senegal.
I’ve read about the debate over closing Mbeubeuss and opening a new landfill in another region of Dakar. But, from what I’d heard and read, there was no community that would accept another Mbeubeuss. So, I asked Soumaré about it. He said, in fact, that they’ve already found another place. This was the most interesting part of the day because it involved the World Bank and we got to hear from the people about negotiations with the big shots. So, here’s what went down. Mbeubeuss was created by the Senegalese government in like 1970. Then, in 2006 or 2008 the World Bank financed a large highway going from Dakar toward Pikine (a community on the outskirts of the Dakar area) and past. But, to do this, they had to displace hundreds of people who lived where the highway was to be built. So, they were moved up to one of the neighborhoods by the landfill. But, then the World Bank said the people couldn’t live next to the landfill because of all the air pollution, so they were working to have Mbeubeuss closed. But, that’s a problem for the people who make their livings there – they don’t want to move, and when the next landfill opens, it might have higher regulations so that people can’t go inside. So, people were going back and forth about what to do. Finally, the World Bank and Abdul Azziz (president of the people who work at Mbeubeuss) and the Senegalese government agreed on a compromise. They are going to open a new landfill in Thies, and city east of Dakar. But, first, they will bring the trash to Mbow, which is near Mbeubeuss, and people can go there to collect their goods, and then the trucks will bring the remainder to Thies to be incinerated (I think – it got fuzzy because of French vocab I didn’t know). So, Mbeubeuss will be closed, but the people at Mbeubeuss will still be able to continue their living. I’m not sure of the details of how that will all happen though.
Then, Moustapha took us out into the dump again to meet Abdul Azziz Seck, the president of the Association des Recuperateurs (people working in the dump). We followed Moustapha through piles of sorted plastics, metals, and glass and met dozens of people sitting outside shacks, taking a break from their work and eating lunch. We met Abdul, but he was busy with his family eating lunch, so we didn’t stay long, and he clearly wasn’t in a talking mood. But, he told us that the initial reason he and his buddies wanted to create the association was to fight against delinquency in the landfill. It used to be a major hideout for criminals and gangs, but now the community living and working there has come together to make itself more into a society, rather than just a bunch of individuals making money.
Afterwards, we went back to the weight station to say goodbye to our friend Richard and some other guys who had helped us that morning. And, of course, it always takes forever to say goodbye here. It was lunchtime and they insisted that we stay and eat ceebu jenn with them, of course. But, we needed to get back to Dakar to make an American-style dinner for Taryn’s family. But, then Amadou (the head guy at the weigh station) told us to wait for this truck that had just headed out to dump its load. It was going back to Dakar, and we could ride in it on the way back. So, we waited, and then Richard came back with some ceebu jenn, and so we had to eat. It’s always so funny when you’re a guest because the Senegalese way of showing respect for a guest when you’re eating is to shut you in a room by yourself. It still makes me laugh. So, we finished the ceeb and then jumped up into the cab of another dump truck and hit the road back to Dakar! The looks we got were priceless – 2 tubaab girls riding in a dump truck??? Haha! It was also really cool because the truck was bringing bags of collected trash from peopleat Mebuebeuss back to people in Dakar who re-sell it to industries. So, we got to see the whole recycling process!
So, all in all, this was an incredibly eventful day, and so many things I would never expect to happen in the states. But, maybe being in Senegal will have made me more aggressive in terms of researching things for myself – you know, just really putting yourself out there to try to get info.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Working with the WWF
Yippeeee yi yoooooO!!!!!! There is nothing so satisfying than working for such a long time toward a goal and finally (FINALLY!) attaining something beyond what you ever imagined would happen. One of the elective courses I’m taking here is called “Community Service Internship and Development”. It’s a once a week seminar class where we discuss the role of NGOs in development, specifically in Senegal. The professor is responsible for providing each of us with an internship that fits our interests. Aminata (our internship coordinator) had a lot of connections with health, refugee, and education organizations here in Dakar, but the only environmentally-related internship she offered me was washing and feeding animals in the Dakar zoo. Which, may have been interesting, but that’s not exactly the kind of community focus that I’m interested in. So, I went about finding an internship on my own, which proved to be incredibly frustrating being in a place where Wolof is the preferred language, personal connections are indispensable (even more so than in the US), and a city and culture I was not familiar with.
Luckily, the two professors of my Environment & Development course are both bigwigs in the environmental world in Senegal. Cheikh Mbow is a professor & researcher at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, so he knows tons of people who work in various environmentally-focused organizations in Dakar. And, Arona Soumaré is the Director of Conservation for all of West Africa! Pretty incredible connections there. I discussed possible organizations that might be able to help me with finding some kind of internship – nothing huge of course, since it’s only about 3 months I’d have to work. But, somewhere that I could learn a little more first-hand about environmental issues and the work that NGOs do here in Senegal, and maybe contribute what I can. So, my professors gave me some names at various organizations. I went to their offices and discussed what I was looking for, gave out resumes and cover letters in French, called repeatedly when I didn’t hear back, returned to again express my interest. Nothing showed much promise until 2 weeks ago.
The break came when Arona told me that his friend Christian at World Wildlife Fund (WWF – not to be confused with World Wrestling Foundation) is working on environmental education programs in different communities in Senegal. He gave me his information, and I just went to see him today and it’s a hit!!!! Christian (Senegalese with a Catholic name) is an AMAZINGINGLY passionate person for environmental education (and sea turtles). WWF works on 3 main issues in Senegal : sustainable fisheries, endangered species & habitats, and policy. Christian and WWF worked with the Joal-Fadiouth community, which is on the Petite Cote in Senegal. It’s a fishing community, and it’s also a major nesting site for several types of sea turtles. For economic and cultural reasons, the people here eat a lot of sea turtle – it’s cheaper than beef or chicken in the area and its parts are valued for traditional medicine and tourist trinkets. But, interestingly, the people who catch the turtles are not from the community. They come from other areas along the Senegalese coast. They catch the turtles (Chris said at least 50 in each net) and sell them to the community. So, WWF worked with the local community to bring back control of this coast to the community. To replace the livelihoods of local people who used to sell the meat and parts of the turtles, the WWF provided technical and material support to help develop a marine protection crew (to monitor outside fishers coming into the community’s sea) and develop ecotourism in the area based on the sea and sea turtles. Last year the Marine Protected Area in this community was rated the most successful of all 19 in West Africa.
More recently, the WWF has been engaging in environmental education with children in the community. They have an annual EE workshop with representative children from 10 schools in Joal-Fatiouth and they teach them about the biology of their special environment, focusing on sea turtles, and then give them hands-on experience out with sea turtles. The culmination is each of the children creating some sort of art to represent their understanding of their environment – everything from paintings to poetry. Chris said it’s a way to focus more on the long-term success of environmental sustainability by education children, while also helping the shorter-term. These children then discuss with their parents what they learn and can perhaps teach them something with their new education, spreading knowledge and awareness about the uniqueness and needs of their environment.
So, Christian is working on developing a more comprehensive environmental education program for all of West Africa. I’m not sure exactly what that’s going to look like yet, but he’s going to send me some of his initial plans and we’re going to discuss things – he wants to get some different perspectives about how EE is done in other places. He also asked me to find him some kind of environmental education training so that he can get a better idea of how to engage children and communities in the environment. So, this is an amazing opportunity that I never expected. Being able to be part of such a respected and significant NGO and working on the beginning of an environmental education project in Senegal. Wow! I do feel a bit strange walking into this with nothing but a Colorado perspective on EE, but it’ll be a learning experience for both Christian and I. Senegal has developed two qualities in me – patience and perseverance. It pays off so well though!!! And, I personally can’t wait to see these sea turtles!!!
Luckily, the two professors of my Environment & Development course are both bigwigs in the environmental world in Senegal. Cheikh Mbow is a professor & researcher at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, so he knows tons of people who work in various environmentally-focused organizations in Dakar. And, Arona Soumaré is the Director of Conservation for all of West Africa! Pretty incredible connections there. I discussed possible organizations that might be able to help me with finding some kind of internship – nothing huge of course, since it’s only about 3 months I’d have to work. But, somewhere that I could learn a little more first-hand about environmental issues and the work that NGOs do here in Senegal, and maybe contribute what I can. So, my professors gave me some names at various organizations. I went to their offices and discussed what I was looking for, gave out resumes and cover letters in French, called repeatedly when I didn’t hear back, returned to again express my interest. Nothing showed much promise until 2 weeks ago.
The break came when Arona told me that his friend Christian at World Wildlife Fund (WWF – not to be confused with World Wrestling Foundation) is working on environmental education programs in different communities in Senegal. He gave me his information, and I just went to see him today and it’s a hit!!!! Christian (Senegalese with a Catholic name) is an AMAZINGINGLY passionate person for environmental education (and sea turtles). WWF works on 3 main issues in Senegal : sustainable fisheries, endangered species & habitats, and policy. Christian and WWF worked with the Joal-Fadiouth community, which is on the Petite Cote in Senegal. It’s a fishing community, and it’s also a major nesting site for several types of sea turtles. For economic and cultural reasons, the people here eat a lot of sea turtle – it’s cheaper than beef or chicken in the area and its parts are valued for traditional medicine and tourist trinkets. But, interestingly, the people who catch the turtles are not from the community. They come from other areas along the Senegalese coast. They catch the turtles (Chris said at least 50 in each net) and sell them to the community. So, WWF worked with the local community to bring back control of this coast to the community. To replace the livelihoods of local people who used to sell the meat and parts of the turtles, the WWF provided technical and material support to help develop a marine protection crew (to monitor outside fishers coming into the community’s sea) and develop ecotourism in the area based on the sea and sea turtles. Last year the Marine Protected Area in this community was rated the most successful of all 19 in West Africa.
More recently, the WWF has been engaging in environmental education with children in the community. They have an annual EE workshop with representative children from 10 schools in Joal-Fatiouth and they teach them about the biology of their special environment, focusing on sea turtles, and then give them hands-on experience out with sea turtles. The culmination is each of the children creating some sort of art to represent their understanding of their environment – everything from paintings to poetry. Chris said it’s a way to focus more on the long-term success of environmental sustainability by education children, while also helping the shorter-term. These children then discuss with their parents what they learn and can perhaps teach them something with their new education, spreading knowledge and awareness about the uniqueness and needs of their environment.
So, Christian is working on developing a more comprehensive environmental education program for all of West Africa. I’m not sure exactly what that’s going to look like yet, but he’s going to send me some of his initial plans and we’re going to discuss things – he wants to get some different perspectives about how EE is done in other places. He also asked me to find him some kind of environmental education training so that he can get a better idea of how to engage children and communities in the environment. So, this is an amazing opportunity that I never expected. Being able to be part of such a respected and significant NGO and working on the beginning of an environmental education project in Senegal. Wow! I do feel a bit strange walking into this with nothing but a Colorado perspective on EE, but it’ll be a learning experience for both Christian and I. Senegal has developed two qualities in me – patience and perseverance. It pays off so well though!!! And, I personally can’t wait to see these sea turtles!!!
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