A long time coming...

Dakar saw their first rain today - much later than usual, which had the general population a little concerned and caused the generation and adoption of a number of theories as to why the rain had not yet come. We've been told the delay has been God's punishment for sins, or that President Wade had his religious people (Marabouts) run some climate interference so he can finish his many construction projects, but the winning reasons has got to be because women are starting to wear pants! Whatever the reason, it came and it came hard. The streets around the Mission office where we are staying were flooded with over a foot of water...a day after the very same streets were flooded with sewage!

Our weary traveler also arrived...24 hours after leaving Niaguis! She chose to take the cheapest but slowest form of transport here - a Ndiaga Ndiaye (a 32-seater Mercedes van named after the first person who introduced them to Senegal). Ndiaga Ndiayes are recognizable by their white colour, and the Alhamdoulilahi (Thanks to God) painted across the front. They also have no timetables, and usually set off when they're full, or when the driver feels like it. As Fanta will attest, they also take longer because they stop every few hundred metres to drop or collect passengers, and they have frequent tire punctures and engine failures. I think we'll help her take a more efficient way home!

You can see why flat tires are so common - fully loaded, they don't take corners very easily!

Big city living...

Ok...after a couple of tiresome weeks wrapping things up in Niaguis, and some teary goodbyes, we've finally made it to Dakar - but not before sharing my favorite dish (ceebu yap) for the last time with some friends at the clinic.

Serving up my favorite dish...

Actually we arrived in DakarThursday evening...to no electricity or water. Seems the big city has way more outages than Niaguis!

Plans this week include:

• Sleep, sleep and hopefully more sleep - I not only need to work off a huge sleep debt, but I'd like to bank a few hours for our trip to Europe!
  
• Updating the Mission on Dispensaire business
• Making the necessary arrangements for our minous to fly home and seeing them on their way...sniff
• Planning what we'd like to see/do in Europe
• Eating a tonne of veggies we weren't able to get in the Casamance
• Showing Fanta around Dakar - she's never left Niaguis/Ziguinchor so we've invited her to spend a couple of days with us
• Dining at least twice at what has to be the best Indian restaurant in all of Africa and
• Buying any last minute souvenirs for friends and family

Should be a good week...

Us with a few friends on our last day at the clinic...

The Beginning of the End

Yes, you heard right. In just a few short weeks we'll be back on Canadian soil! Why? Many reasons, but we're very happy to report that a Senegalais in his last year of medicine will be taking our place in the interim, while the Mission arranges for a permanent nurse. Even better, is that he has served at the Dispensaire in the past and is familiar with the work and the staff!

The plans for our departure have been in the making for some time now, with the details just recently being finalized. So JP and I have been very busy getting the place ready for 'take over' and it's been exciting seeing the fruits of our labour unfold. We've now got a few SOPs and flowcharts to guide the work that's done here; roles and responsibilities of staff are a bit more clearly defined; medication inventory is more complete; and a whack of maintenance has been done inside and out.

Still more to do, though, so we can expect long days at the clinic this coming week to tidy things up before our last day at the clinic - July 25th!¨(OK, that's only 2 days away now, but we've been without internet at home since last week; when we drafted this posting!) Our plans so far are to travel to Dakar on the 26th, and then fly out of Dakar on August 6th... via Italy and France! The Mission kindly agreed to send us home the 'not so direct' route, so we'll be spending about 12 days in Europe, unwinding, before heading to Toronto on August 17th - which coincidentally is our 4th wedding anniversary!

As for the minous, we're sending them ahead on Air France for a little holiday of their own in Southern Ontario. Memere and Pepere (JP's parents) have generously agreed to receive them at the Toronto airport and 'put up with them' for two weeks until our return.

Then it's back to our former life, nestled among family and friends, facing the realities of finding a car, a place to live, and going back to work (JP at least...)

We hope to post a few more entries over the remainder of our time here and maybe continue a few retrospective postings here and there as we travel home. We've truly appreciated all of the feedback and comments and emails we've recieved from so many people during our time here. Our blog has often given us the feeling that so many people were participating with us in this experience! Can't wait to get home and fill you all in on the details we couldn't fit into decent length blog entries!

By the way, if anyone out there thinks they'd like to come take their turn here for a year or more, Luc, the Mission President, is taking names! ; ) (mission@adventistesenegal.org)

Now where's that Canada place again?

After Life...

In Islam, the dead are buried the same day, so Mamadou was almost immediately whisked away and prepared for burial. To prepare for burial, the deceased is ceremonially bathed and wrapped in cloth, prayers are offered for the forgiveness of their sins and then they are carried by men to the grave site for burial. Only men are permitted to be present at the burial while the women await their return at the deceased's home. Upon return, everyone present - family, friends, acquaintances, passers by - will again offer ceremonial prayers for the forgiveness of sins. But the story doen't end there.

Muslims believe in a spirit life after death and therefore participate in certain ritualistic activities on the 3rd, 8th and 40th day after a persons death. Because these ceremonies are not based on Koranic teaching, exactly what happens at these ceremonies and the reason they hold them can differ among ethnic groups (and probably even within each of the various groups). From what I understand, prayers are offered on the 3rd day again for the forgiveness of sins since that is the day the deceased will be judged according to their works. Prayers on the 8th and 40th day have more to do with the body's 'believed' stages of decomposition.

One thing that does seem consistent among each of the ethnic groups is the giving of 'charity' (cookies, pop) to male guests. The treats are purchased by the family with the help of gift offerings from villagers.

JP blending with the crowd at the Imam's mother's 40th day get together

Some time ago, JP and I went to the 40th day get together for the Imam's mother who passed away (if you remember, she was the first patient of mine who passed away). Everyone was tickled that we showed and they made a point of stuffing JP's pockets with cookies and pop.

The women aren't recipients of the googies and always sit separate from the men...

His name was Mamadou Badji…

While getting ready for church this morning, we received the usual knock at the door to let us know that there was a sick child at the dispensaire. But today was different…today the messenger seemed to think the child was ‘very sick’. They were right. I arrived at the dispensaire to find a comatose child of only 5 or 6 years of age without a heart beat. His skin was fire hot. The parents informed me the fever had started during the night but that he became ‘lifeless’ only this morning. I quickly put him on the floor and kneeling beside him (in prayer) tried to resuscitate him. Hope kindled for a brief moment as I heard his little heart beat life once more but the hope was short lived as it quickly stopped again. Ten minutes later I stopped too. Cause of death? All signs suggested he had cerebral malaria.
And so the season begins...

PAAALM-BERRRR!

Some of you who read our last posting may be wondering about the type of wood used for the roofing beams of the house shown in the pictures. Some of you may not care. But for those who do, the beams were made of Ronier palms (the leaves used for roof covering were also from the Ronier palm). It’s an interesting type of wood – basically a bunch of ~2-3mm thick by ~10 to 20cm long woody fibres coated and bound together by an almost powdery but incredibly adhesive substance. As I first examined the wood, I couldn’t help but wonder whether anyone had ever tried to extract this binding material to make superglue. Or maybe that’s where superglue comes from and I’m just ignorant?

So why use Ronier Palm? A few reasons, really. For one, there aren’t that many types of wood to choose from and most trees around here give some kind of succulent fruit that discourages cutting them down. For another, it’s strong, straight and long, making it easy to cut the 5m lengths used to frame most roofs. But most importantly, the over-abundant here termites won’t eat it. I had the opportunity to go about 1km into the bush with a friend from Church, “Malan”, to watch and help him split a couple of already-felled palms into the necessary beams for a roof frame.

We arrived around 9am where Malan's palms (trees) were already split into four quarters, lying side by each on the ground. He immediately started whacking lengthwise lines on the bark side as the first step. His accuracy tracing such lines with full-force blows of his machete was amazing! Two of the quarters were split in half, while the other two, slightly larger, were split into 3 pieces each, giving 10 beams per tree. Next step was to retrace these lines using his wooden axe. Again, I couldn’t believe how infrequently he missed the line by even as much as a centimetre!

Using an axe that anthropologists would assign to australopithecus man, Malan deepens his machete trace on one quarter of the Ronier trunk.

Next, we used a 10kg (~20lb) hardwood sledge to drive two metal wedges into the first of the traces. As the tree cracked and creaked open along the lines, we drove wooden wedges in beside the metal ones, so we could pull these out and move them further up the trunk. We did this about 5 times per length, with Malan cutting deeper through the fibrous wood with his machete each time the split got wider. After working our way up the trunk, and then back down again, the beam was pretty much split off and we started the next one.

This time, using a tool worthy of the Flintstones, or perhaps a heavy duty whack-a-mole game, Malan capably beats the metal spikes into the fibrous wood.

Cutting open the wedged crack with a machete. The wood really creaks as it opens, which Malan kiddingly says is the wood crying (ca pleure!) 'cause it knows it's time is up : )

For all the cro-magnon appearance of the tools, they were surprisingly effective! Takes a fair amount of skill and strength, for sure, but an elegantly simple process nonetheless. All told, making the 20 beams took us about 3 hours. I think my help actually slowed him down! Besides, after the first two beams, I had three blisters on my right hand and had to take it down a notch. Guess splitting beams isn’t a desk job : ) [Malan later came to house to start learning how to play the guitar. I regained a bit of my honour when the fingertips on his work worn hands were sore from pressing the metal strings for a few minutes, while my calloused tips felt no pain].

Once the beams were finished, we hid the axe and metal spikes (hardest to replace beacause of the metal) and walked home. Now the carpenter would pay Malan, come to get the beams, and then tie and nail them into place over the mud-brick structure. A bit of tin or thatch later, and voila, ready for the housewarming!

The finished product, ready to be hauled out of the bush and installed!

A new home for the Kandes...

We live in a pretty comfortable, solidly built home here. Louvre glass windows with screens all around, lockable metal door and corrugated cement panel roofing. Our four mission houses and dispensaire are easily four of the best constructed buildings in Niaguis. But as you can imagine, they were relatively expensive to build and definitely out of reach for locals’ home construction. Most of the homes around us are made from mud or mud-bricks, with thatched or corrugated tin roofs (mud with thatched roofing being of course the most affordable).

Fanta’s family recently added a second home to their small plot of land - not because they had the money to spare, but because her dad’s two wives weren’t getting along so well and each wanted their own home. One of the many perils of polygamy! Their choice was a mud home with a tin roof and we watched with fascination as their builder dug clay/dirt out of a hole next to the house, mixed it with water, and then slapped it into place with his hands to form ever-growing walls of the house. It took a little over a month and the walls (which were straight as an arrow) were up to their final height of about 3 metres (~9 feet), and about 30cm thick.

A look inside the Kande family's new home. The door to Fanta's room (which is also where her son and 'daughter' will be sleeping) is to the right of the ladder.

Nice thing about this type of construction is that there is essentially no finishing work. No plumbing (a woven bamboo enclosure outside serves for toiletries; cooking is open air), no electrical, no drywall, no painting, no flooring, etc. Besides simple doors and windows (boards or branches for a frame, covered with corrugated tin) all that remained now was the tin roof – the most costly part of the project. For a house the size of the Kandes (maybe 40ft long by 30 ft wide), it took about 115 pieces of tin (3ft x 6ft). At about $5Cdn each, this added up to almost $600Cdn – a monumental sum given that the family survives off of Fanta’s cleaning salary and picking and selling cashew nuts to Indian entrepreneurs for 20 cents Cdn per kilo! And that doesn’t include the cost of the roof frame (whose origin is an interesting story in and of itself and will be blogged about another time) or the cost of labour.

In Africa, the principal reason for having a large family is so that you will have more people to care for you as you grow older. Unfortunately, the Kande family is still fairly young with only Fanta and 2 brothers in the workforce -one who recently got in a car accident that took him out of the workforce, and the other still waiting to be paid for 3 months work (also very common here in Africa). So the problem now was a lack of funds to complete the project and the family watched anxiously as their newly constructed home began to slowly wash away with the rain!

Many hands make light work. Younger men were busy cutting palm branches in the bush while the middle aged men assembled the roof. The older men of course sat and supervised while the women worked to prepare lunch for at least 40 people.

But, not all was lost. The Imam (teacher at the mosque) rallied some men to gather palm leaves and erect a temporary roof until the family can save the necessary money to cover the cost of the tin! JP and I went over to ‘help’ too – as much as they would allow a ‘toubab’ to do anyway. As much as mud homes may sound unappealing to we North Americans (especially given that we endure winters), there are some advantages. For instance, dirt floors, dirt walls and no windows, make for minimal housekeeping! Of course, any time saved here is likely lost pounding millet/rice and gathering wood for the cooking fire!

Passing up the 'all natural' shingles...palm leaves. You have to be careful when handling them because they cut like a knife. The best palm roofs are made with dry palm leaves (to absorb the rain)
piled at least a foot deep.

Three thousand, one hundred and four hours and counting...

Yesterday marked our 4 month anniversary here in Senegal. Looking back, here's what I've liked the most and the least...

The top 10 things I love about life in Niaguis/Senegal:

1. Sunshine every day!
2. The slow pace of life – you don’t race the clock here
3. The extra time I get to spend with JP – working together hasn’t been that bad!
4. Fatu and Fanta – my 2 favorite kids in all of Niaguis…they’re BAD but boy are they cute!
5. Schwep’s Tonic Water – why didn’t anyone ever tell me about this drink in Canada?
6. Fanta Kande’s frozen drinks (she’s very entrepreneurial!)
7. Ceebu Yap – love it!…don’t care so much for the weight I’ve gained from it though…oops
8. The help around the house (what a treat!)
9. A personal tailor a couple hundred yards from my house that makes me properly fitting clothes for cheap…no more painful clothes shopping!
10. The snakes that I don’t see!

Fanta and Fatu - 2 of the most popular girls names in Niaguis

The top 10 things I find challenging about life in Niaguis/Senegal:

1. My overextended role at the clinic – I’ve spent many sleepless hours thinking/worrying about patients I’ve treated!
2. No place to escape the heat – being constantly soaked in sweat and dirt is less than appealing
3. No reliable vehicle making exploring the area very difficult
4. No safe place to swim…What?…It’s summer!
5. The shopping! – Fighting off vendors of items I don’t want, searching endlessly for those things that I do need and negotiating prices can be exhausting!
6. Cooking with only a burner…sure miss having an oven!
7. The many things that creep/crawl/slither/climb
8. Dial-up!
9. The distance from family and friends
10. The snakes that I will see!

Chameleon outside our front gate this morning...although some might class him in the category of those things that "creep/crawl/slither/climb" they are quite cute!

Busy morning, late meeting and unexpected exercise...

It was me and our cleaning lady N’Deye Sane yesterday - she busy at her cleaning and I trying desperately to keep up running between my consultation room, pharmacy and ‘pansement’ room (where I administer first aid…abces lancing, dressing changes, removals of foreign objects from orifices, eye washes, etc. ). JP had to be in Ziguinchor for business as he had the recent very necessary, yet never pleasant, experience of having to let Adama, our ‘midwife’, go and the two had to meet with local authorities to complete the necessary paperwork. Amadou, our pharmacist/cashier has been off sick (and will be for the rest of the month) and my ‘nurses aid’, N’Deye Diandy, was late as usual (not usually seen before 10am).

Since JP has been covering for Amadou, I had the added responsibility of selling consultation tickets, medications, and issuing receipts. Without N’Deye Diandy, I also had the responsibility of doing family planning consultations, administering depo injections (the contraceptive method used almost exclusively here in Niaguis) and looking for volunteers amongst the patients to help with translation.

Not sure her name but she was cracking my up!

But, 5 hours later, by the grace of God, I had finished my last consultation for the morning (and lost 5 pounds in sweat!), and had just enough time to close up shop, and run home to drop off my ‘stuff’, before being whisked off by our friend Omar to meet up with JP for a late lunch in Ziguinchor.

After briefing each other on the mornings activities, I was then off to a “Reunion de Coordination” at one of the hospitals. These monthly meetings are held for the purpose of coordinating health service delivery in the districts so those in attendance are either “Chefs de Poste” (nurses representing each Dispensaire) or local health authorities responsible for directing and overseeing those services. I had learned only the day before that a meeting was being held, and was obliged to attend since Adama had been the person representing our Dispensaire until now.

Truthfully, I expected a meeting starting at 4pm on a Friday night (a Muslim holy day, and a Christian’s start to their weekend) that the meeting wouldn’t go much longer than 5pm. I was wrong. The meeting went until 7:30pm! - plenty long enough for me to learn how poorly our little Dispensaire was doing in meeting the expectations of the local medical authorities (many things we should have been doing and weren’t and others that just weren’t being done well), and to plan how we could rectify those things!

Path by our house leading to the river...soon the area will be flooded
and families will be out en masse cultivating rice

Upon arriving back home, I realized I had left my bag in the meeting room…yes the one with my money and keys…and had to make the embarrassing call to the “Medecin Chef du District” (head honcho Doctor) to beg him to return to the hospital to help me retrieve my bag. I think my pitiful plea (I didn’t want to sleep outside) broke him down and he begrudgingly agreed. So off we go back to Zinguinchor yet again, but this time with a couple friends opting to come along for the ride.

And are we ever glad they did! Sadly…our ‘not-so-trusted’ vehicle quit on us about 3 km from home (problems with the alternator). After MANY attempts to push start the car, we gave up and pushed our 1500Kg pile of loosely associated metal and plastic pieces home! By the time we got home (11:30pm) I was soaked in sweat (despite a beautiful breeze), my legs were shaking and my back was sore from being bent over. Despite it all, we had a great time ‘laboring’ with our friends under the stars which were out in all of their glory!

And what about prenatal visits and deliveries now that our midwife is gone? I’m hoping for a real dry spell…

Not so fairy tale...

JP and I attended a friend’s cousin’s wedding some time ago in Ziguinchor...sorry you had to wait so long mom! While some similarities can be seen, there were a few noteworthy differences…

1. Wedding Attire

In preparation for the wedding, I was told ALL women (without exception) would be wearing an outfit made with the very same fabric. Each wedding has several ‘hostesses’ – who chooses them and exactly what their role is remains a mystery to me but one of their responsibilities is to choose the said fabric. Their choice? Yellow eyelet and black mouslin - supposedly both very chic fabrics special ordered from Dakar! Each guest was responsible for purchasing the fabric at the market and bringing it to a tailor of their choosing. While it wouldn’t have been my first choice of colours, or fabrics, I thought I would make the most of the situation and have my tailor create something genius with it. Sadly, my plans came to a screeching halt when I was told that not only was the fabric to be the same, but the style as well! Their choice? Yellow eyelet ‘pagne’ (wrap around skirt) and black mouslin ‘blouse’ – the hostesses even chose the finer details of lace and trim and where it should be used, leaving no room for variation! With one exception…Senegalese women consider it very appropriate to wear very sheer clothing without any underclothes because of their dark skin…seeing as how I am not so dark, I opted to have my tailor make me a black satin halter to wear underneath the blouse.

Like weddings back home, the men here are free to pick from their own wardrobe - JP was to wear his traditional Senegalese ‘boubou’ but needed to buy the traditional white leather pointed slipper/shoes…no sandals allowed!

JP and I in our Senegalese finest! While I don’t know that we will ever have occasion to wear these outfits again in Canada, they sure were a big hit here! Everyone, both young and old, complimented us on how ‘jolie’ we looked!

2. Wedding gift

Every guest buys the couple a plate or glass…any plate or glass (no wedding registries here)! How many mix-matched dishes can a new couple use??

3. The ceremony

When we arrived, we were told that the men had already gone to the mosque to marry the young couple. Apparently no women, including the bride, are to be present…in this case, neither was the groom - he was in Dakar working but was expected to be back that evening! The ceremony consisted of the father informing the Imam (the leader/teacher of the mosque) that his daughter is to be married to the young man and presenting the Imam with 5 kola nuts to symbolically 'tie-the-knot'...that’s it. Interestingly, we learned later, that Muslim weddings are not registered with the country because it made it more difficult to divorce! Talk about dispensing with formalities!


4. Bride dress

She arrived fashionably late and looked stunning…in orange! A lot of energy went into the hair and makeup! She then changed into an equally stunning pink ensemble and after sharing a meal of “Ceebu Yap” (traditional celebratory dish of rice and beef…served from communal platters) she disappeared for several hours and returned later in the evening (now dressed in white) accompanied by 6 bridemaids and…the groom?

Turns out it was the grooms brother. The groom never joined his bride until a week later!

Here’s hoping they at least share the ‘happily ever after’.