day four of village tour

5. January

Last night, Khadi and I stayed up late trying to plan our AI for today. We ended up talking for hours and forming only two questions. We were so frustrated with the process that we eventually just gave up.

We woke to a new day with the hope that our frustration had not been in vain. In a way, it was because it turned out to be such a straightforward, nonchalant conversation with the villagers that little or no planning had been necessary. This reinforces the need to first experience, not intellectualize the lessons I will be learning here.

One problem our group faced was some of the villagers hoping to be paid for their discussion with us. We had to explain AI and our objectives once more as we struggled against being seen as tourists looking to just objectify the village, not students looking to enter into dialog with it, to learn from and eventually (through a relationship to the organization with which we are working) contribute to its further development.

We talked with two teachers and the principal of the college (middle school). We sat outside in plastic lawn chairs at a wooden desk eating bananas and talking into the late morning. They were so receptive to the concepts of AI as they answered our questions with inspiring accounts of their education system’s successes, which included the community’s insistence for a middle school planned for another village as well as high enrollment and test scores. I don’t know that I am prepared to intellectualize the entire experience yet, but I do know that the discussion provided me with hope as to the functioning of education in the village context. I think of my mother’s cooperative school as I reflect upon the participation and support Dindéfélo provides for its school. Mothers cook at the cantine and anyone on the street will ask why a stray child is not in school. The mindset of the village is one of participation from all members cooperatively. This provides an ideal (though under resourced) setting for the classroom. Modern education has much to learn here. I worried that institutional education would alienate villagers, but this place has managed to integrate it into their own setting. To become educated is not a way of escaping the community, but of contributing to it. For example, one of the teachers with whom we spoke was a native who had gone to university in Dakar and returned to work in the college. I tried to just listen as the community spoke, to ask questions and then learn from the responses as they came.

I did the writing for the group. This involved standing in front of an audience of two French teachers and another francophone as they dictated what I should write on the huge papers pasted on the blackboard. I don’t think I have ever been so intellectually frenzied. I tried to keep up with them but was quite obviously frustrated with my own imperfections in French and in my handwriting that I struggled for all four pages of work. Regardless, I managed to get through it and I think my French and my confidence are better for it.

I spent the rest of the day in bed, sick from the food and dehydrated and tired from the sun. I need sleep and recuperation before I continue with this work ---though I feel confident about it thus far.