FEBS

Les Femmes Ensamble pour une Bonne Sante

We have a project name and acronym! Woo hoo! If there is one thing I have learned about international development work you are nothing, NOTHING I tell you, unless you have a cool acronym. Logo, t-shirts, cups, and bowls coming soon.

FEBS is OK right? Women Together for Good Health
a project for migrant domestic women the world over!
Picturessss

Last night the urban migrant adult literacy group I work with, APADA, started a 4 day leadership training on using theatre and other methods to teach about health and development in Senegal. Pretty sweet right?

They started clapping and made me get up and dance in front of like 100 people. Pretty hilarious as I was wearing a Senegalese outfit and was the only toubab dude in the joint. Afterwards I went to Leanna and Ben's place and one of the girls (who danced with Leanna at the training) came over with Ben's brother randomly. We decided to snap a pic

I always have these expansive dreams of my little projects turning into international progressive movements that change the world.... let me walk you through this one.
So I have this program here in Yoff, Dakar. Repeatable, successful, tangible. I put the same program together in New Orleans when I'm at school. After that, I get friends and public health colleagues and Universities around the world to start putting this project together and in 3 years time we are a civil society organization bridging a health awareness gap for a marginalized and vulnerable group! Then we get invited to all the the conferences to present our project and to illustrate just how simple and easy it is to make a difference in peoples lives. haha.



In other less boring news the METS have won their last 6 games, 8 of their last 9 and are in first place of the NL East. Bay and Wright are finally hitting. Reyes is back in action, Ike Davis is a hoss, our catchers are making all the difference for the pitching staff, and Pelfry and Niese have become legitimate #2 and 3 starters (it only took them 3 years) behind Santana and the bullpen can pull the erratic Maine and Perez out of tough spots over this home stand despite having no regular setup man. Just like a week or so ago we were 4-8 and I was thinking "here we go again, another painful season" but low and behold I think the Mets showed the (people who care about baseball) world that they can win, I'm a simple man thats all I ask.

I think if you can dance like no one is looking, play cards, cook, and smile you can get along with just about anybody and overcome any language barrier.

Dinner Chez Fatou, Mets 20 inning game, Questionnaire Central in Yoff

Saturday night I come home from a long day of questionnaire giving eat a huge Senegaelse meal in Mamadou and Fatou's apartment. Mamadou is my landlord, hilarious, speaks pretty great English and used to play professional soccer in the US for a few MLS teams. Here is his wikipedia. Fatou is an amazing woman and great cook. She teaches me how to make Senegalese cuisine and makes fun of my daily goings on. Here's our apartment building on the left.

Anyway, so I get back from this huge, amazing dinner at like 10 and I fall asleep. I wake up at like 2 AM and just start clicking through the internet and see that the New York Mets, mah fave team, are locked in a 14 inning battle with the St. Louis Cardinals (my Grandpa Kirk's favorite team). This looks like an awesome thing to watch, but being as I'm in Senegal its impossible, right? NO! In fact, I called the family at home on skype and they set up the camera so I was looking straight at the screen, marvelous. I got to watch the last 5 innings live on TV in what ended up being a great 20 inning game. Metsblog always has a good recap and here is the espn video.

The real major thing that happened this weekend was the excellent questionnaire giving that went down all Saturday afternoon into the evening in a community near mine in Yoff. I had (left to right) Fatou, Fatou, Monsieur Dieng, and Coumba to start. Coumba got married in the middle. I swear. I don't truly understand what happened but she got a call while she was doing questionnaires and then she left because she got engaged to be married. Felicitaciones Coumba!


After she left she was replaced by the wonderful Binta who works so hard and is just a great lady and an amazing friend.

We did 40 questionnaires each taking between 10 and 20 minutes. A huge accomplishment. M. Dieng knew the migrant households in the community and was such and pro. He walked us around and dropped us off one by one and people welcomed us in and answered our questions.

Even I got in on some of the action. (My French to Serer translator sitting next to me)
I will publish the statistics from the surveys once I have them finished but my observations of the day were: I love all of the action in the streets of Senegal. Kids, adults, everyone greets me with a smile. My team was incredible on Saturday. Everyone we dealt with was really nice, warm, and welcoming all day. No one said "get out!" or "never come back!" It was all smiles and good ol fashioned Senegalese teranga. We are all in this together, you know? These women may not know much or anything about the science we in the West take for granted, but they have a lot to teach us about how you treat people and what kindness and dignity really are. Here, they may not have much money, but people actually work together and help one another. Something that is rare in the US. True solidarity.