Business as Usual: Dondin, dondin (little by little)
Timing is very different in Senegal than in the US. Here, often people do not show up on time or at all. Or sometimes they all show up at the appointed time--it's hard to figure out which type of event will have which type of attendance. A couple short anecdotes:
(1) During the middle of April I went over to my counterpart Amadou's house to try and pick a date for our upcoming tree sac filling training. I knew that I would be out of the village during the last week in April for a cashew training and that Ramadan will start approximately May 5. That leaves only about 5-7 days in which we could hold a training before people in the village will start fasting for Ramadan. As I have heard from other older volunteers, the capacity to and interest in doing work steeply declines for people in the village who fast (which will be almost everyone in my village). Thus my interest in choosing a date for the training and spreading the word as soon as possible. There is a lot of inertia with these types of proposed big meetings; they tend to take a lot of effort to get organized and often get pushed back multiple times. This is the way my mind has been trained to work in the US: plan out dates for events weeks or months into the future to see how they interact and/or conflict with other upcoming events. This is not how planning works in my village.
When I went to Amadou's house that night, he was fixing his bed frame. I sat in his room while he worked for half an hour or so and we chatted a bit, but I could tell that he mind was focused on the bed frame and he was not in the mind set to discuss dates for a pepiniere training two weeks in the future. "I'll just wait until he finishes the bed, then we'll discuss," I thought.
Amadou finished fixing the bed frame, then immediately pulled out his new flip chart of health-related pictures (child malnutrition, exclusive breastfeeding, disposing of sharp objects correctly, cleaning drinking water, etc.) that he will show village women at future health meetings. We went through every single picture; this took at least an hour. By the time we finished, it had become dark outside and I needed to head back to my compound soon to (bucket) shower before dinner. I brought up my desire to choose a date for the training and Amadou responded with some version of "we'll pick a date when you get back to the village at the end of April." My American planning mindset was clearly contrasting with his ideas about how to make sure we have the tree sac meeting before Ramadan begins. I am putting my trust in Amadou that he will figure out how to convince people in the village to come fill some tree sacs before Ramadan. Update forthcoming.
(2) About two weeks ago on a Wednesday evening I went to chat with the primary school teacher in my village to organize my first kid's club meeting, something I had talked to him about a month or so prior. My plan was to have the kids fill tree sacs for thorny live fencing species. The teacher was enthusiastic and told me to come at 5pm on Friday. I could talk to the kids first about the importance of trees and then we could go to the pepiniere and fill sacs. He said that he would tell all the kids in both classes (45 total) to come on Friday.
I wandered over to the school at 4:30pm on Friday after transporting all the necessary materials to the pepiniere. I was planning to chat with him and go over the plan for the event; we would then get to the school a few minutes before 5pm so that the kids could sign in as they arrived.
The teacher was sitting across the street from the school waiting for me to arrive. When I did, he walked over to join me and said "let's go," motioning to the classroom. We walk into what I was expecting to be an empty classroom. There are ten kids sitting patiently at their desks, and we immediately begin the lesson. I wonder what time he told the kids to arrive.
In summary: I arrived 30 minutes early and was the last one at the meeting. There were 10 kids instead of the 45 which I was expecting (this ended up working to my advantage, as it was easier to manage the filling of tree sacs with a smaller number of kids). Timing is one thing I have not yet figured out.
Guess that song with lyrics translated into Jaxanke #2:
I me baada ila godi dii mma
I se ila kayti majele dii mma doron
Anin nin mbe kacaala
I tinyaata
Mme baada nna numero diima
N se nna baluwo diima doron
Anin nin mbe nyininkaro ke kan
N tinyaata
A couple words in the above song are loose translations, but most of it is a literal translation.
Answer to Guess that song #1: Don't Stop Thinkin' About Tomorrow by Fleetwood Mac.
There was one correct response! Very impressive! I am surprised anyone was able to figure this out. I will eventually get to posting some Jaxanke greetings and phrases on the blog.
(1) During the middle of April I went over to my counterpart Amadou's house to try and pick a date for our upcoming tree sac filling training. I knew that I would be out of the village during the last week in April for a cashew training and that Ramadan will start approximately May 5. That leaves only about 5-7 days in which we could hold a training before people in the village will start fasting for Ramadan. As I have heard from other older volunteers, the capacity to and interest in doing work steeply declines for people in the village who fast (which will be almost everyone in my village). Thus my interest in choosing a date for the training and spreading the word as soon as possible. There is a lot of inertia with these types of proposed big meetings; they tend to take a lot of effort to get organized and often get pushed back multiple times. This is the way my mind has been trained to work in the US: plan out dates for events weeks or months into the future to see how they interact and/or conflict with other upcoming events. This is not how planning works in my village.
When I went to Amadou's house that night, he was fixing his bed frame. I sat in his room while he worked for half an hour or so and we chatted a bit, but I could tell that he mind was focused on the bed frame and he was not in the mind set to discuss dates for a pepiniere training two weeks in the future. "I'll just wait until he finishes the bed, then we'll discuss," I thought.
Amadou finished fixing the bed frame, then immediately pulled out his new flip chart of health-related pictures (child malnutrition, exclusive breastfeeding, disposing of sharp objects correctly, cleaning drinking water, etc.) that he will show village women at future health meetings. We went through every single picture; this took at least an hour. By the time we finished, it had become dark outside and I needed to head back to my compound soon to (bucket) shower before dinner. I brought up my desire to choose a date for the training and Amadou responded with some version of "we'll pick a date when you get back to the village at the end of April." My American planning mindset was clearly contrasting with his ideas about how to make sure we have the tree sac meeting before Ramadan begins. I am putting my trust in Amadou that he will figure out how to convince people in the village to come fill some tree sacs before Ramadan. Update forthcoming.
(2) About two weeks ago on a Wednesday evening I went to chat with the primary school teacher in my village to organize my first kid's club meeting, something I had talked to him about a month or so prior. My plan was to have the kids fill tree sacs for thorny live fencing species. The teacher was enthusiastic and told me to come at 5pm on Friday. I could talk to the kids first about the importance of trees and then we could go to the pepiniere and fill sacs. He said that he would tell all the kids in both classes (45 total) to come on Friday.
I wandered over to the school at 4:30pm on Friday after transporting all the necessary materials to the pepiniere. I was planning to chat with him and go over the plan for the event; we would then get to the school a few minutes before 5pm so that the kids could sign in as they arrived.
The teacher was sitting across the street from the school waiting for me to arrive. When I did, he walked over to join me and said "let's go," motioning to the classroom. We walk into what I was expecting to be an empty classroom. There are ten kids sitting patiently at their desks, and we immediately begin the lesson. I wonder what time he told the kids to arrive.
In summary: I arrived 30 minutes early and was the last one at the meeting. There were 10 kids instead of the 45 which I was expecting (this ended up working to my advantage, as it was easier to manage the filling of tree sacs with a smaller number of kids). Timing is one thing I have not yet figured out.
Guess that song with lyrics translated into Jaxanke #2:
I me baada ila godi dii mma
I se ila kayti majele dii mma doron
Anin nin mbe kacaala
I tinyaata
Mme baada nna numero diima
N se nna baluwo diima doron
Anin nin mbe nyininkaro ke kan
N tinyaata
A couple words in the above song are loose translations, but most of it is a literal translation.
Answer to Guess that song #1: Don't Stop Thinkin' About Tomorrow by Fleetwood Mac.
There was one correct response! Very impressive! I am surprised anyone was able to figure this out. I will eventually get to posting some Jaxanke greetings and phrases on the blog.
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