A Health Club in Action

Well I’ve officially hit the milestone of 1 year in Senegal! It truly is amazing how quickly time flies, especially when I am so absorbed in throwing myself into this amazing work and culture while I have the chance.

One thing I knew from the beginning of my service is that I really wanted to work with kids. Kids just have such a fresh and fun energy that I love being around. After attending the malaria conference in December, I was inspired by the health club that a volunteer from Namibia started. So, I returned to site and decided to start my own. My principal was on board with the idea and pretty much gave me free reign.

I decided to work with just the 3 older classes of students out of the 6 at my school. There are NO extracurricular activities at the school, so the concept of a health club was a bit unusual to the students, but after explaining the idea, I had about 40 students sign up! And since the program is after school, I can run the entire thing in Pulaar. School is conducted in French, but since the kids are learning French at the same time that they are receiving instruction in that language, they are not as comfortable conversationally. It was important for me with health club that we spoke Pulaar so the kids could freely express their thoughts.

My one main concern about starting this health club was that I don’t really run the club with a counterpart – it is just the students and me. I know that, from a sustainability standpoint, this means the club will likely end as soon as I leave my community. However, not long ago, I was fortunate to receive a visit from a delegation from Peace Corps HQ in Washington DC who was in Senegal and visited a few volunteer sites. I brought up my concern, and one of the people from the delegation said to me something to the effect of “Sometimes volunteers get caught up in the idea of sustainability, and so if they don’t have a counterpart they don’t do certain ideas or projects. Just remember that education in itself is sustainable, and that is exactly what you are passing on to these kids.” It was one of those A-HA moments, and that sentiment has really stuck with me.

Using paint, bread, and "flies" to demonstrate food contamination

Each Tuesday, I gather my health club (usually about 20-25 attendees) for whatever activity we have planned that week. We started with a session about food contamination where we used paint and these hilarious flies I crafted out of construction paper and pipe cleaners to demonstrate how flies touch dirty things and contaminate our food. I think wasting a loaf of bread by covering it with paint was not something they had seen before, but it led to a good discussion on how to keep our food and water clean.

The next week we talked about what happens when we drink unclean water, and how to prevent diarrhea, a common health issue here, from causing further health problems.

Recently we’ve been doing a few sessions on hand washing. The school has newly built toilet facilities but no water source. I asked the students what they do then when they have to go to the bathroom. For pee, it’s just the squat and air-dry method. But for poop, when the answer I got was “Sometimes we use sticks” and “Then we just go back to class”, I knew something had to be done.

After a little research and a test batch at the PC regional house, we made homemade soap as a club!

  

Stirring the soap mixture

Showing the difference washing hands with soap vs. just water

Letting the final product set-up

Once the soap was dry, we built handwashing stations in front of the toilets at the school and provided the principal with the bars of soap.

The boys were super into cutting the sticks, probably because they
were in love with my Leatherman tool (thanks Uncle Dick!)

Putting the final touches on our "Tip-Tap" handwashing station

The club has been a big source of pride for the kids. We often have a group of other students outside the windows of the classroom peering in and wondering what we are doing. And unfortunately, due to my somewhat erratic schedule, there are a lot of weeks when we have to take breaks. But each time a kid says to me “Weli, you’re teaching us today, right?” I am reminded how awesome my job is here.

Our health club with a finished handwashing station!

Next lessons with the health club include personal fitness/exercise, healthy teeth (thanks to you who sent toothbrushes!) and a malaria curriculum that incorporates soccer.  I’ve got so many more ideas, but at least there’s still next year!

Thanks for reading. Peace & love,

Lindsay

First Trip to Africa: A Guest Blog by Ken & Vicki Swisher

Well as I'm sure everyone knows because I couldn't stop talking about it, my mom & dad just came to visit me here in Senegal. I've asked them to blog a bit about their experiences.

KEN/DAD

We arrived in Senegal and were met at the airport by Lindsay, thank goodness. We were accosted by young men, some with partial English, wanting to befriend us. With Lindsay's help we pretty much avoided them as we discovered they only wanted money for directing us, unloading our bags, or whatever they could think of. Then we got to the Budget rental car office to find no one was there.

Budget Office at the airport

A call was made and a few minutes later a nice man came and unlocked the door to a small room that constituted the Budget office. He indicated that no one told him we were coming. All that aside, he took care of our need and provided us with a Ford Focus, complete with more dents than any car I've ever owned, and that's saying a lot.

My first impression of Senegal after leaving the airport was the mass of humanity everywhere, what appeared to be extreme poverty, and a lot of trash.

View out the car as we left the airport

 As we drove to Tambacounda, Lindsay would indicate we were approaching a "major" town or village. Outside of each was a large trash area from the town, and the town itself consisted of small stands, dirt, horse drawn carts (charettes), lots of people, and vehicles all crammed into one place. The magnitude of dirt, poverty, and trash was a bit overwhelming.

Roadside stands

On to Lindsay's village. We were greeted by virtually everyone in her host family as well as others who she works with. What a welcoming, friendly, and warm group of people. They all made us feel like a part of their family.

Greetings as we arrived

Lindsay's host uncle lives in France and only comes to the village for about 2 months a year. He has built his own hut including tile floors, two outdoor patios, electricity powered by a solar panel, and a facility in back that has running water, a western-style flush toilet, a normal shower, and electric lights. Compared to Lindsay's hut, and those of the other villagers, we were in a mansion.

Our hut for the trip

Backyard of the hut

Lindsay's more simple accommodations

I was so impressed with their warmth and simplicity, and the fact that they seemed to have accepted Lindsay as a part of their village family. They kept telling us that she was Senegalese now and would not be coming home. Lindsay disagrees, as do we. While living in what we would likely describe as abject poverty, these individuals seemed happy and content in their lives. The children played and laughed. The adults socialized and worked with what appeared to be complete acceptance of their environment. The simplicity of their lives was refreshing.

The elementary school in the village consists of 4 rooms in 2 separate buildings. The buildings have no electricity or running water. There was a hand pump installed by some group, but the handle was broken so water was hand drawn from a nearby well.Everything at this time of the year was dirt and dust, which we understand turns to mud during rainy season.

Elementary school kids

Handing out school supplies to the staff of the school

One classroom is still held in a hut because there is no space in the building for them

The middle school was a 10-15 minute bicycle ride from the village. This school was also without electricity or running water. How great it would be to help in bringing electricity & running water to the schools. I truly believe improved educational opportunities may dictate the future for Senegal.

Middle School - these buildings were just built last summer

Meeting with the principal

VICKI/MOM

Yay! We have arrived in Dakar. There is our Valentine Lindsay. We are not in the US anymore - small, plain airport - no stores, merchandise, food, etc. Oh, and NO ONE at Budget car rental either but many young men wanting to help us for a fee. Lindsay is our Mom this trip and is rocking the language with her French & Pulaar (poo-lar).

We have had such a spectrum of experiences. Dakar is a big city with modern big buildings, autoroutes, but also dirt, garbage, Senegalese people everywhere selling foods, shoes, fabric, and more.

Ken kicked butt with his driving skills! Lindsay navigated and I hid behind her (sometimes) in the back seat while we maneuvered around sept places (taxis) with goats, luggage or people on top and often several people hanging on the back. Not to mention driving through towns with people lining the narrow streets and cows, goats, and donkeys randomly crossing. Truly that doesn't even touch what we saw in the hundreds of kilometers we covered.

Typical public transportation

My favorite time (not from a comfort standpoint and 3 days was enough) was interacting with Weli's (Lindsay's) family, villages, schools, putting faces with names and stories, playing with children, watching the tea ceremony, etc. 

Playing with a kid in Lindsay's house

 Her family essentially has no material wealth but is happy and work hard with known division of roles daily. The sounds of 5am call to worship, donkeys braying, roosters crowing, goats "sounding like screaming children" as Lindsay says were sleep disruptive but also comforting.

Walking around the village and hearing people of all ages call out "Weli, Weli, Weli" - it was obvious Lindsay has developed relationships with so many people who care for and respect her. It was wonderful to get some insight into the many things she is doing to improve their lives. It feels overwhelming and life is culturally 360 degrees from ours. Lindsay shared with us a verse one of her friends wrote to her: "Don't become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." (Gal 6:9)

With Lindsay & her counterpart

Visiting some of Lindsay's host family in another village

I feel blessed to have visited Senegal and spent time with our amazing daughter.

Thanks Mom & Dad!

From all 3 of us, thanks for reading. Peace & love,

Lindsay, Ken, & Vicki