When we got there we waited about an hour for the bus to depart. During that time I just spoke with Krishna, a girl from my program who lives in Kaolack and who works at APROFES. I hadn't seen her in a few weeks because I opted out of the trip to Saint Louis that she went on the weekend before. In retrospect I'm glad I didn't go because she said it took her 10 hours total to get there and the same amount of time to get back and she only got to be there fore 12 hours. She said it was worth it though and I'm sure Saint Louis was a beautiful city. She told me about her experiences at the micro-credit firm of APROFES where she is working now instead of the main office. She talked primarily about her issues with the Senegalese men who would come in and constantly harass her at the micro-credit firm about whether or not she was married. She said they would often say things in Wolof to her then in French when she didn't respond and pester her consistently. She could only remember two occasions when one of the women stepped in and did something about the men. This has been a common experience with the girls in our MSID group, as many of them, if not all, have been approached by Senegalese men in regards to their marriage status. Many of them have even proposed to by men on the spot.
We spoke about their experiences in our Cultural Analysis class and our professor explained that he thought this was the case because of the way American women are portrayed on television and in movies. In American movies he said, two people always fall in love very quickly, then they are in bed together and then they get married. So because of this media portrayal Senegalese men think that American women are more likely to sleep with men and get married than Senegalese women. He brought up how sexual scenes are shown much more on American television shows and American movies than their Senegalese counterparts. From my personal experiences here I would agree with that because I have yet to see a scene depicting sex a Senegalese television show or movie. I've only seen it in an American movie (Get Rich or Die Tryin') and my siblings turned the volume all the way down when it came on. The explanation by our professor was undoubtedly met with backfire by our class about the variety of American movies that are shown in Senegal. I could understand his reasoning, because I understand that power of media and the impact that it has on people's perceptions. Especially when one group only has media to form their opinions of the other group since many Senegalese do not interact with Americans on a daily basis. This is the case I think at least in Kaolack, Dakar may be another situation since there are many Americans who study abroad and work there. Although this is not an excuse for their actions and they should take their interactions with American students, like Krishna, who ask to be left alone and are in no way interested in marriage, to be a clear sign of the faultiness of their perceptions based on television and movies.
When it was about 17:00, we loaded the bus which reminded me a lot of the bus we took to Pikine. They said that we were supposed to be there by 18:00 so the fact that we were still leaving early on Senegalese time meant that it was pretty far away. The first half of the ride to the village was smooth as we were on a paved road, which was probably the best I've been on since being in Kaolack. We also saw some construction workers fixing up a part of the road that had a lot of pot holes in it, which surprised me because I rarely saw construction in process in Kaolack and Senegal in general. Halfway there we veered off the main paved road and onto a dirt road as we made our way to the village. At many points during our journey off road I felt like the bus was going to tip over but luckily it never did. As we passed through a number of villages on our way to the destination people would stop what they were doing and stare at the bus. It's always an interesting feeling for me passing through villages and seeing the life there. I think about how dramatically different my life is the states from the lives of many of the people in the village. I saw young men collecting large sticks to make walls for their compounds and roofs for their houses as well as a group of young people huddled around a well drawing water from it. Two activities which have never been necessary for me.
When we got to our destination a group of young boys ran towards us and greeted us as we got off of the bus. They brought Krishna and I chairs to sit in as the men who we came with began taking down drums, speakers and other equipment down from the roof. It was then that I realized that we brought the performance with us and that the people in the bus were the ones who were going to be acting, singing and playing music. As we waited for them to set everything up a couple of the men began playing their drums for the children who quickly gathered around them. Before I knew it there was a group of about 30 kids listening intently to the music of the drummers. I was in awe by how much the children were in awe of the drummers. You could tell how much happiness and excitement the kids got just from listening to the beat of the drums. They were all completely zoned into the drummers and whenever the drummers did something funny or tried a new beat, all of the kids broke into laughter. I just really enjoyed seeing how content all of those children were just from the sound of the drums.
When they finished playing the drums Krishna's host mom asked us to move our chairs to the circle of chairs where the performance would be. We were actually on the grounds of the school of the village. A lot of the young students had helped set up the chairs and the benches that we would all be using later on. After we moved our chairs I saw that the door was open to the classroom and I really wanted to check the school out since working at the Chamber of Commerce most of my activities and opportunities for learning have been in the areas of economics, business and agriculture. So I wanted to use this opportunity to learn more about the school system/situation with schools as my only experience with education and schools was in the village of Toubacouta when we visited the Koranic school. We walked into the school and the director/principal was sitting down with a few of the other performers. Then Krishna and I began asking him a variety of questions in regards to the school.
He explained that it is a French secondary school for kids who are 10 and 11, and it was established in 2009. The Senegalese schools go by the French system since they were colonized by the French. The school had 106 students, 50 boys and 56 girls. I was surprised initially by these numbers because in Senegal the ratio of female to male secondary enrollment has historically been very low as it was .4 in 1970. Although this ratio has improved dramatically over the years and was at .918 in 2011. He showed us the schedule for the students and all the subjects that they study. Since it was a French school they took a variety of different subjects like in American schools; history, mathematics, sciences, writing, oral comprehension, French. This is in stark contrast to the Koranic schools where they only study the Qu'ran.
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| Koranic School (Toubacouta) |
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| Koranic School (Toubacouta) |
After we spoke with him about the class structure and the curriculum he showed us the other two classrooms which were outside. At first we were looking at them before I didn't quite know what they were then he said that they were in fact two classrooms. The "classrooms" were completely made of tree branches and grass, just like the walls around the homes in the village. He said that in each classroom they could fit 25 kids which meant there would be about three kids at each of the 8 desks.There was a blackboard put up on the wall in each classroom and they had different basic french words on pieces of paper that were stuck in the walls. I say walls but the entire classroom was actually made of branches. I couldn't believe the conditions that these kids had to study and learn in because so much of my learning is about my environment. If you're physically uncomfortable I know how hard it is to mentally concentrate on the subject at hand. However, if you're out in one of these classrooms with the heat of Senegal and all of the insects and mosquitoes, I don't know how you can concentrate day to day. Although, they likely are used to the conditions because it's all they have, I think it still takes a lot of mental and physical strength from the kids which I admire. He explained that the reason that these two classrooms were necessary is because they were still waiting on the other building to be completed, which is going to serve as the other two classrooms in the future hopefully. Although the construction is dependent on an Italian man who has apparently been on vacation for the last three weeks. He showed us the bathroom which he said was exclusively for the students and that if the parents need to use the restroom they had to go to the village to their own homes.
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| The outdoor classrooms |
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| Interior of the classroom and the director |
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| Classroom under construction |
We then ask him about some of the primary problems he's had with running the school. He said that sometimes getting the support of the parents is difficult because they say that their kids don't know anything so there's no point in putting them in school. This is why continuous participation and attendance is a common problem for the students. He said that all children have the ability to learn and that he always encourages the parents to put their kids in the school. I asked if he has any trouble providing for all the students who need an education since there are so many children in the village and he said that he has space in the school for any child who wants to learn. I thought his perspective was inspiring and from first impression he seemed like the type of person I would want to run a school. At least in terms of his positive outlook and complete faith in children. He said that he often has meetings with parents from the community to try to convey to them the importance of education.
I asked if he felt that the cultural disconnect between Senegalese the French school system poses a problem for some of the parents. He said that there is still a large percentage of students who are enrolled in the Koranic schools, but he encourages collaboration between the two schools and that lately more and more are coming to the French school. Although overall he said his biggest problem was finding funding because he could not depend on the state for help and assistance. Speaking with the director and seeing these conditions was extremely informing, because I understand that he is not the only one, but one of many who is facing these problems with education. He helped me really understand the problems that these schools in the villages are facing and they how they make do with so little at times. The public school system in Senegal is struggling, even at the university level, and it is having trouble accommodating the growing young population of Senegal. The percent of the total population enrolled in private schools has been on a steady decline due to this growth.
I asked if he felt that the cultural disconnect between Senegalese the French school system poses a problem for some of the parents. He said that there is still a large percentage of students who are enrolled in the Koranic schools, but he encourages collaboration between the two schools and that lately more and more are coming to the French school. Although overall he said his biggest problem was finding funding because he could not depend on the state for help and assistance. Speaking with the director and seeing these conditions was extremely informing, because I understand that he is not the only one, but one of many who is facing these problems with education. He helped me really understand the problems that these schools in the villages are facing and they how they make do with so little at times. The public school system in Senegal is struggling, even at the university level, and it is having trouble accommodating the growing young population of Senegal. The percent of the total population enrolled in private schools has been on a steady decline due to this growth.
Then Krishna's mom called us over because the performance was about to start. It began with the drums playing music while the other women, whom we came with in the bus, sang and danced. At one point girls from the crowd would run into the circle and join the women dancing for a few minutes, then run back to their seats. It reminded me of middle school when people would form circles at dances and people would go into the middle of the circle to dance when they felt inclined. Everyone in the crowd loved when the girls did it and you could here people clap louder and cheer whenever a girl would go into the circle. I thought it was interesting though how the girls were the only ones to run and go dance. There was a group of guys standing to the right of the performers from where I was sitting and none of them went into the circle to dance.
The director of the school whom we had spoken with earlier thanked everyone for coming and said a few words about the event. Then Krishna's mom got up and spoke on behalf of APROFES since she is of the heads for the Kaolack branch and she came as a representative since this was an APROFES event. She introduced Krishna to everyone which was nice although I could only understand when she said our names and that we were American.
Then the act began. The act consisted of 3 story lines which all were purposed towards shedding light on women's rights in Senegal. The first story line was about a man who was attempting to sell off his 13 year old daughter for marriage. He had attempted to give her to a family friend who rejected his proposal. Then the father went to the village chief to ask for his help with finding a man for his daughter.The village chief declined to help the father with his search and ended up calling the police on him because it was illegal since his daughter was so young. The second story line was about a polygamist family with a man who had two wives. He treated the second wife better than the first wife as he gave her chickens and supported her financially more so than with the first. So the two wives went to the village chief to resolve the problem and he called the husband to change his ways. After we departed the village for Kaolack, on the bus one of the actresses explained to me that she thought these situations were the reason for the domestic violence in Senegal. She said that when polygamist households begin to face financial hardships, the man stops supporting one of the women. This is problematic because often the wives are financially dependent on the man, so argument and frustration ensues which leads to violence. The third story line was about a teacher and a student with whom the teacher wanted to begin relation. The student explained that this was not okay because she was the student and he was the teacher, and he was not supposed to abuse that relationship. So she went to the village chief who contacted the teacher to explain that was he was doing was wrong.
I noticed that although the themes of all of stories were in support of woman's right, it was always the chief of the village, a man, who made the final decision and fixed the situation. I thought that although his decisions and opinions empowered Senegalese women, the fact that he was making these decisions on behalf of the women supported the patriarchal structure of Senegalese society, which the act was purposed to combat in the first place. However at the same time the village chief is a figure who is established in Senegalese culture and tradition as the one who makes the decisions for the village. So even though he is a man, it says a lot this figure who everyone in the village recognizes as a leader is working on behalf of Senegalese women in the skit.
Then the act began. The act consisted of 3 story lines which all were purposed towards shedding light on women's rights in Senegal. The first story line was about a man who was attempting to sell off his 13 year old daughter for marriage. He had attempted to give her to a family friend who rejected his proposal. Then the father went to the village chief to ask for his help with finding a man for his daughter.The village chief declined to help the father with his search and ended up calling the police on him because it was illegal since his daughter was so young. The second story line was about a polygamist family with a man who had two wives. He treated the second wife better than the first wife as he gave her chickens and supported her financially more so than with the first. So the two wives went to the village chief to resolve the problem and he called the husband to change his ways. After we departed the village for Kaolack, on the bus one of the actresses explained to me that she thought these situations were the reason for the domestic violence in Senegal. She said that when polygamist households begin to face financial hardships, the man stops supporting one of the women. This is problematic because often the wives are financially dependent on the man, so argument and frustration ensues which leads to violence. The third story line was about a teacher and a student with whom the teacher wanted to begin relation. The student explained that this was not okay because she was the student and he was the teacher, and he was not supposed to abuse that relationship. So she went to the village chief who contacted the teacher to explain that was he was doing was wrong.
I noticed that although the themes of all of stories were in support of woman's right, it was always the chief of the village, a man, who made the final decision and fixed the situation. I thought that although his decisions and opinions empowered Senegalese women, the fact that he was making these decisions on behalf of the women supported the patriarchal structure of Senegalese society, which the act was purposed to combat in the first place. However at the same time the village chief is a figure who is established in Senegalese culture and tradition as the one who makes the decisions for the village. So even though he is a man, it says a lot this figure who everyone in the village recognizes as a leader is working on behalf of Senegalese women in the skit.
I had an interesting conversation about education for girls in Senegal with my host mom, Binta Sarr, who is the director of APROFES in Kaolack. I asked her whether she thought the people in the village valued education, because I had talked with a friend about this subject. I asked specifically about the people in the village because I knew that the people in the larger cities valued education. I have lived in two major cities of Senegal, Dakar and Kaolack, and almost all of the young people who come from families with the financial ability to send them to school, attend a school or university. My mom explained that over the years the people in the village have come to value education more and more, however there is still a grand problem with parents taking their children out of school to work. When the boys are taken out of school it is usually to do agricultural work for the family, which is very important for Senegal. However, they take the girls out of school is to send the girls to work and be maids for families. She said that even one of our maids, Adama, was taken out of school to work for her family and she hasn't returned ever since. She wanted to go to school however her father made her become a maid to help provide support the family financially in the short term. My mother explained that it's the father who makes the decisions for his children and often the women in the family because he is viewed as the person who knows what's best for everyone. She thought that for this reason it is important to address the beliefs of the parents, who choose to send their kids to school or keep them at home.
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| Adama and her baby |
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