“I had a passionate desire to examine
into the productions of a country so little known, and to become
experimentally acquainted with the modes of life and character of the
natives. I knew that I was able to bear fatigue, and I relied on my
youth and the strength of my constitution to preserve me from the
effects of the climate”
“Few women have more than five or six
children. As soon as an infant is able to walk it is permitted to run
about with great freedom. The mother is not over solicitous to
preserve it from slight falls and other trifling accidents. A little
practice soon enables a child to take care of itself, and experience
acts as part of a nurse. As they advance in life the girls are taught
to spin cotton and to beat corn, and are instructed in other domestic
duties, and the boys are employed in the labours of the field...at
forty, most of them become grey-haired and covered with wrinkles, and
but few of them survive the age of fifty-five or sixty.”
“Perhaps the barbarous practice of
hunting the African elephants for the sake of their teeth has
rendered them more intractable and savage than they were found to be
in former times.”
“A deeply-rooted idea that the whites
purchase Negroes for the purpose of devouring them, or of selling
them to others that the may be devoured hereafter, naturally makes
the slaves contemplate a journey towards the coast with great terror”
Extracts taken from Mungo Park's
Travels in the Interior of Africa which
offers a fascinating look at the areas of the Gambia, Senegal and
Mali, from the perspective of a 1790's Scottish doctor. A travel book
in the strictest sense – talking about the trip he took, in a
chronological fashion, with minimal historical diversions, much of
what he notes is still noticeable today as you can see above
about child-rearing, as well as house design in the provinces, to time
keeping. Written before Britain had ended its part in slavery, he
takes a matter of fact, if not negative opinion of it, although in
the introduction to the book, mention is made of the work's later impact in
slavery's abolition. At times pompous, as are most foreign accounts
written by Europeans of the time, in the two years of the journey he
clearly came to love many aspects of African life, and the book its
truly interesting. Talking, as it does, of the countries before there
had been much colonial interference, the strict tribal chiefdoms and
petty kingdoms still feature strongly in the lives of the
inhabitants, largely free from white influence, that could not be
said a generation later, and for that, it offers a very useful
pre-colonial view of the area.
(Sunset on my final night in my village)
I have
been unfortunate enough to spend the last three nights in hospital,
and have, as a small positive, been able to read rather a lot. A
blister earned while gardening in front of the cathedral last week,
which was straight away cleaned (twice in fact) and covered in a
plaster, managed to become infected somehow, and coupled with
diarrhoea, fever and some persistent stomach cramps (it is still
unclear if any of this was linked, or just unfortunate to happen at
the same time), I was admitted. The finger was cut open by a surgeon and lots of
greenish puss drained, and lots of bags added intravenous into my
arm, and, well, I feel much better, and cant wait to get out, as the
food has been frankly terrible! So on top of Mungo Parks, I read Bill
Bryson's Mother Tongue,
a slightly dated look now at the history of the English language. A
fascinating read for anyone using it as a first language, or who has
had to study English, concerning as it does the illogical (and
sometimes logical) way the language has grown and developed, and I've
included a few quotes:
“The
casual affirmative word yeah
was until fairly recently a quaint localism confined to small areas
of Kent, Surrey and South London”. (I am from Surrey)
“Ok
first appeared in print on March 23, 1839, in the Boston Morning
Post” (My birthday)
“Consider
that in Britain the Royal Mail delivers the post, not the mail, while
in America the Postal Service delivers the mail, not the post”
“Smith
in the most common surname in America and Britain, but it is also one
of the most common in nearly every other European language. The
German Schmidt, the
French Ferrier,
Italian Ferraro,
Spanish Herrero,
Hungarian Kovacs, and
Russian Kusnetzov are
all Smiths”
I have
also managed to read Philip K. Dick's The Death Maze,
an enjoyable sci-fi story concerning human interaction in a new
planet colony, and a few more chapters of Moby Dick,
which is still proving rather hard reading.(Update... I have given up on it)
In what marked our
final week of work in Thies, energy has dropped rather as the
adrenaline levels have lessened. Which is not to say it was a slow or
wasted week. If anything, two of our most important days of work
occurred. For some reason I have no photos at all from this week.
On Thursday, we
held a big meeting involving 26 Marabou (leaders of the Daara
schools), and the specific health insurance organiser tasked with
ensuring all 3000+ talibe children have formal access to hospital
care here in Thies. Currently only 23 out of 332 Daaras are members
of the scheme, and it was my idea to have this meeting to work out
any problems inherent in the system, and boost membership. It is
unclear yet how successful we were, but as 11 more marabou attended
than we invited, and the meeting overran by more than an hour, and no
one walked out, I am calling it a success!
On Friday, another
activity organised (and funded) by ICS saw us travel to a rural
village, 20 minutes or so outside of Thies with a doctor, and spend
the morning diagnosing the various ailments of patients from the
surrounding area. It was a big success, with over 100 people
attending, and again, a nice legacy to finish our service with.
As
there is little of interest to be done next week (debrief and
goodbyes), I thought I would include this next part here- a
comparison between Sierra Leone and Senegal, based on the three
months I have spent in both now. While both being 'West African', the
differences are greater than the similarities, and this is more than
simply from different colonial masters. Of course, comparing one
country's capital, with another's more rural 3rd
city isn't entirely fair, but hey, its what I will do. Compared to
Sierra Leone, Senegal is:
Cleaner – less
rubbish on the street, although it is still rather high
Less drugs –
Public ganja smoking was common in Freetown, and cocaine and heroin
easy to find, neither of which has been my experience in Thies
Less drinking –
94% Muslim in Senegal, compared to 70% in Sierra Leone, and even
lower in Freetown
More sand – Sand
everywhere! Many side streets in Thies, and even Dakar are unpaved
and simply sand. Sierra Leone suffered from mud instead.
More vegetables –
Lunch here consists of rice, fish, and a potato, yam, carrot and
cabbage, significantly more than Sierra Leone.
More
people – Thies, the 3rd
largest city, has over 400,000 people. Kenema, in Sierra Leone, had
ust over 150,000.
More colours- Due
to more people wearing traditional clothes here, there are more
colours on display
Taller/slimmer –
Almost all of the tribes here are taller and the people slimmer than
in SL
Coke less dominant
– Pretty much the only soft drink available, and bottler of the
only beers, coke was huge in SL. Here home made drinks are very
popular, and coke has competition thankfully!
More suspicion –
Despite having a freer press and government, and no history of
fighting, people seem more suspicious of strangers. SL seemed
slightly more welcoming.
In both countries,
people's time keeping is atrocious, as a general symptom of their priorities regarding
punctuality. My counterpart often wakes up late, but insists on still
showering and eating breakfast, and thus ensures being late for work.
This is coupled with what might be described as a general laziness. I
don't mean this as a negative, but rather to describe the feeling of
many towards work in general. I think Mungo Park sums it up well, if
bluntly, writing in 1790 when he says:
“If he has
anything of consequence to perform, it is a matter of indifference to
him whether he does it to-day or to-morrow, or a month or two hence;
so long as he can spend the present moment with any degree of
comport, he gives himself very little concern bout the future”
This is of course a
huge generalisation, and is in no way meant to sound racist. I should
add now that there are none of the personal and social blights that
stress and over-work causes to the West, or especially as I
experienced in Japan, where 70 hour working weeks are not uncommon.
But when our working day was 9-12 3-5, and even that drew strong
complaints from many of our counterparts, the frustrations of only
having ten weeks in order to achieve what we hope has been change and
success have been great.
I am very grateful to ICS/Y-Care for giving me the opportunity to live and work in two very different (and challenging) environments, and to everyone who donated so that good work could be done. Thank you.
