In a little Bambara village about 50K southwest of Tambacounda, Peace Corps Volunteer Camille lives with her host family and her dog, Tiki. Camille is an Environmental Education Volunteer and has been in country for about a year and a half. Some of the work that Camille does in her village and surrounding villages is promoting good post and prenatal health practices. Over the past 8 months or so, Camille met with a number of women in her area to discuss topics such as breastfeeding, malaria prevention, diarrhea and rehydration, hand-washing, and baby nutrition. Camille worked with various women in her village to be able to train other women how to properly care for their youth. At the end of the program, Camille promised the participants a fete (party) that would involve a health fair to demonstrate what they know about healthy maternal practices to other men and women in the community. This is where I come in. Camille needed a number of volunteers to help facilitate the causerie stations and encourage the women who are leading the sessions. Seizing the opportunity to visit another volunteer’s site and assist in her project, I volunteered.
The morning of the health fair, I and five other PCVs started out on our bicycles for Coeur Bamba (Camille’s village). It still being in the midst of the rainy season, we ran into a temporary torrential downpour, we then overshot our “exit”, which is actually a small village on the side of the road that we were supposed to turn off at. About 5K down the road, we encountered another volunteer, who is more familiar with the area, and his counterpart on their bicycles heading to the same event. The only difference is they were going the right direction. After doing a little bit of backtracking, we found the road we were supposed to be on. About 2K further into the bush we came across a Peace Corps vehicle stuck in the mud. We got off our bikes to help push the car out of the mud, and then mounted our bikes for the last kilometer and half to Camille’s village.
Once we arrived, Camille showed us her hospitality by giving us water to bathe and then we were ready to help out for the day. I was assigned with another Wolof speaker to assist in the demonstration of how to make a oral rehydration solution that is necessary to replenish your body with salts and sugars when you have diarrhea (a major problem in the villages). We also discussed ways to prevent diarrhea. We worked with one of the woman in her community who already knew about the points of the causerie, but was just a little bit shy getting started. After a couple tries, she was able to present the causerie without our assistance.
Of course, no Senegalese event is complete without a lunch of ceebu gen (rice and fish), tom-toms, and dancing. By the end of the day, it was too late to bike back to Tambacounda, so we got a ride with Peace Corps and slept sound.
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