Friday, March 02, 2007

Post elections

well so I'm back in the village, sort of. After three weeks of training in Thies, a weekend of softball and socializing in Dakar, and an in-and-out schedule of being in the village; I am set to take up a long stint in the village. Hopefully. The presidential elections have come and gone with little excitement or violence. There was talk of fraud and of some violence leading up to the election but once the results came back with the incumbent winning another 7 year term, life has carried on with no protests. I have my feelings towards the 82/83 year old president, who is named Abdulye WADE, that i would like to share but will not due to the Peace Corps request that we remain silent about Senegalese politics in an open forum. But if you ask me in private discussion i will be more than happy to talk at length about what i know and think. Not surprisingly I have found myself very intrigued with the system of government and more so with the attitudes and power support amongst the people. Most fascinating is the difference of opinions from the village to the city, or more specifically from Thies, a city i am familiar with and the city considered the most hotly contested, and my specific village in the Kaolack region. My family in Thies had a strong distaste for president WADE because they believe WADE to be a corrupt and autocratic president who has illegally seized more and more power while over stretching resources trying to modernize Dakar. They are an educated, although not wealthy, family who campaigned for SECK, a former Prime Minister in WADEs government and now one of his chief rivals. My village friends disliked WADE because he has refused to buy all the peanuts that are grown in Senegal at a fixed rate like previous governments did for many years to support the rural agrarian lifestyle. Any economist could explain the ramifications and reasons of a country buying all of a single crop produced to sell on the international market and that really is not something i can speak intelligently on except for the basic principles of free market capitalism. But i did get a laugh from a teenage boy in my village who said something that everyone in the world can understand and relate to. Abu came to my hut on Monday night to tell me the results of the presidential race. He explained that WADE received 58percent of the vote which meant there would be no run off and that WADE won on the first ballot. He was clearly disappointed. When i asked why he disliked the president he said because WADE only cares about the rich people. He said all politicians only care about the rich. I told him Americans feel the same way.
And so now i have just over 21 months to do work in the village. Crazy to believe i have been in Senegal for almost 6 months now. Already i am experiencing struggle and disappointment trying to get projects under way. As with life, once something goes wrong every little pain and mishap builds into something bigger than it really is. My chicken coop is going to be more expensive and difficult to start than i had previously anticipated. Who knew chickens would need frequent vaccinations? And on the first day of their life? My garden is still weeks away and it now looks like i might not have enough time to get it stabilized before i leave for my trip to France in 6 weeks. I had a little spat with my village father, and a more difficult than anticipated time adjusting to the loneliness and isolation of village life again after nearly a month spending nearly every minute with my fellow volunteers training and going out. But really all is not bleak. I just bought 2 kilos of hermaphrodite papayas which i am going to consume and save the seeds to be planted in a couple months on the eve of the rainy season. I found a contact with USAID who might be willing to spray the perimeter of my villages gardens and pepeniers to keep out the gigantic/machine like grasshoppers who have been destroying every living plant in sight. I don't know how to explain these grasshoppers. It is as if they are a biblical plague that is only occurring in a small are of the Kaolack region. Measuring almost 6 inches long, they swarm by the hundreds and fly into you when walking out into the bush.
Lastly and most importantly, I am going to France in the middle of April to see my parents. What could not be exciting about that? oh right, trying to buy an airline ticket outside of Dakar. Whatever, it comes with the experience.
Brad