Koulouk Mbada Immersion Trip

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.

—Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims’ Progress (1869)

This needed a post of it's own.  

Steve is one of the onboard chaplains and has formed a friendship with a tribe chief named Songo.  Together, they arranged for us to visit his village for a cultural immersion trip.  I'm still processing it all.  

34 of us were on the dock at 4:45am to begin the journey to the village.  Songo met us on the dock.  I'm not sure what I expected when I met him for the first time but Songo is a delightful gentleman who wears polos and trousers just like anyone else.  I was expecting something more tribal and elaborate and was stunned to see him.  After the 3.5 hour bus ride, we arrived to the village of Koulouk Mbada.  We met the village elders, mayor, and Prefect.  The mayor is a woman who wore the most beautiful purple dress (I'm not sure what the local name for it is).  All of the men stood when she arrived which is a cultural norm that I did not expect.  Her position is highly respected.

We were divided into groups and sent off with our hosts to meet our families.  I'm quite certain this was the first time that most of the children had ever seen a light skinned person.  They were so inquisitive and just stared at us incessantly.  Bambi, Ayson, and I shared a room in the home were we were provided with all of our meals and a safe place to sleep.

It was hot.  Incredibly hot.  According to some weather sites, it was about 106 F, but it felt much hotter than that.  The sun is relentless.  Mornings are an industrious time while it is still cool and most everything stops about 11:30-12 until later in the evening/afternoon.  

The families were warm and welcoming.  We had a translator with us who helped as much as he could with the language barrier.  They speak a language called Serer which is a very new language to me as it did not seem similar to any of the other languages I have been introduced to.  It was very difficult to learn and pronounce.  We did our best and there was a LOT of charades.  LOL

We were taken to the local mosque.  We were not allowed to enter as we, aside from not being Muslim, had not done our absolution to become clean.  Women are allowed in the back rows if there is room, otherwise they remain outside.  Men wear simple patterns and there are no objects, paintings, or other distractions in the room.  The object is to remain in constant prayer and meditation with only God on your mind.  Any item or design that could distract you is removed. 

The clinic is about 2km away and consists of 3 rooms. The one pictured is the room where women give birth.  It is nothing more than a simple palate bed with a mosquito net over it.  There are no medications, resuscitation equipment, and only very limited supplies (her box consisted of a scalpel, umbilical cord clamps, and a surgical mask).  The midwife of 30 years was there.  She delivers between 25-30 babies here every month and our fast math added up to 9000 deliveries.  She told us that 2-3 per month experience complications that require going to another hospital but she did not elaborate. 

There is an elementary school nearby but all of the high school children walk 7km each way to school daily.  There is currently fundraising opportunities to help with the school.  The perimeter wall alone is a cost of over $50,000.  There is an agreement with the government that if the villagers provide 2 of the 12 proposed rooms and the bathroom, that the Senegalese government will step in to provide the remainder of the school.  If you are interested in donating to this cause, I will gladly put you in touch with Chaplain Steve.

My life is forever changed.