The fifth and last day of Pecadom plus dawned and I was
rather tired. I’d been biking and
driving around for four days now, and on top of that was the frustration of
trying to assist these dsdoms using my limited French and general lack of
communication. So I don’t think I was in
the wrong to be sort of dreading what the day would entail. Would the car burst into flames? Would a flash flood strand us
indefinitely? Would it be another
frustrating day of appeasing hypochondriacs?
So on this final day we would be going to the far south-east
of the Saraya region, into Jolonke territory.
You might ask, “what is a Jolonke?”
I’m glad you asked! Well, I don’t
really know very well. They’re a sort of
Mande people, but apparently they’re far sundered from Malinkes or
Jaxankes. What do they do down there out
in the bush? Who knows? They’re so far isolated that Peace Corps does
not train anyone in Jolonke.
Hello Jolonkes
So there were four of us going and only three villages. Good news right? That means that I could double up with
someone who spoke a Mande language so I wouldn’t have to struggle through it in
French. Wrong! Jolonke is so different from Jaxanke that
Chad couldn’t understand anything they were saying, and since he doesn’t speak
French… that’s right, another day of broken French!!!
YEAH!! BROKEN FRENCH!!!
So we get to the health post, give a causerie to the dsdoms,
and were on our way. The dsdoms were
saying how the road was too rough and there was a giant hill that couldn’t be
ascended. Did that stop Tidiane? Not at all.
We slog through the rough road until we finally get to the giant hill…
and it was this hill that finally defeated him.
I kind of wanted him to try to ascend it, just for his track record, but
the car had already taken quite a beating, so he didn’t try it.
So we get to the village which is named Wamba. That’s right: Wamba. This day is already awesome just because of
how amazing the village name is. We get
there and guess what happens? Everything
goes according to plans! We go to each
compound, we ask who’s sick, we take their temperature, if they have a fever we
give a TDR, and if they come up positive we distribute ACTs. Wasn’t that easy?! Why couldn’t it be like this is every
place? Seriously, this was like some
kind of Mande paradise. Let me paint a
word picture for you. Imagine rolling
hills with a quaint village on top. As
you enter the village you see animals in the street. But wait, they’re in great shape! I’ve never seen animals look so good in
Senegal. People were petting the dogs
and letting the cats cuddle up to their feet.
It was like I entered some sort of Mande twilight zone.
Also, I got to take some great pictures of Chad apparently assaulting Senegalese children:
Come now Chad, what did she ever do to you?
Anyway, I was happy to end my Pecadom Plus adventure in such
a pleasant area. Of course, we got rained
on biking back, but the pros of my experience far outweighed those cons. If Peace Corps trained Jolonkes, I would
really suggest that site. Of course,
they’re like literally in the middle of nowhere. I guess when the new stage gets there just
ask “who is willing to live out in the middle of nowhere with little to no
possibility of ever leaving site or going to the regional house?” “Also, you’ll speak a language no one has
ever heard of, so you must be fluent in French!” I’m sure there would be at least
one.
And that was it. We
drove back to Kedougou in Tidiane’s car, listening to Tidiane’s very thoughtful
views on Islam and Christianity. I
arrived back at the regional house just in time to catch the tail end of
Emily’s birthday party, and I even got cake.
All’s well that ends well.
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