Home!

Thanks to all the students and adults who participated in this year's amazing trip! Great things were accomplished and lasting relationships were built. I look forward to continued reflection. Ba beneen yoon.

SEE ALL THE PHOTOS HERE: http://picasaweb.google.com/senegaltrip09

-Andrew K.

Drew-Lick Keur Sadaro Project Summary

School Garden

• Over 40 trees planted including papaya, lemon, mango, guava, orange, cashew, flamboyant, and shade trees.

• Approximately 70 tomato seedlings planted.

• Bougenvilla and other flowering bushes planted near the edges of the garden.

• Built 2m high wall, 150 m long, surrounding and protecting garden.

• A stone lined path installed.

• Watering and fertilization (sand, ash, manure).

• Garden education.

• Built chicken coop, proceeds of poultry sales to benefit school.

School Repairs

• New waterproof roof for the school directors office.

• Custom gate and partial fence made from re-purposed desks.

• 25+ desks repaired.

• Rebuilt and reinforced cabinet to be computer charging station.

• 3 teacher's desks repaired.

• Classroom window welded and repaired.

School Solar Installation

• Maintenance free fluorescent lighting installed in 4 (of 6) classrooms.

• Three independent maintenance free 50 watt computer charging stations created where 18+ computers can be charged per day. Solar panels are bolted and cemented to director's roof.

• Secure locking cabinet in director's office for computer charging and storage.

Computer Training

• OLPC operating system updates and durability tests on 25 XO laptops.

• FBReader software installed to be used with provided digital French books.

• 6 copies of French OLPC operating manual bound and distributed to teachers.

• Template handout created to help teachers and students navigate the keyboard (30 copies left with the school).

• Six 2-hour computer training sessions for local teachers (8 teachers per session).

• Three teachers trained on solar powered charging station installed in director's office.
  
  

• A deal was made with an American NGO in Thies to host the internet connection for Keur Sadaro. This internet service will hopefully begin in August.
  

• Two 2-hour classes for students (one class of 9 students and one of 23).Training included basic computer functions (using the mouse, keyboard, opening programs, word processing) battery charging and basic maintenance.

Clinic

• Vision tests for school children and teachers.

• Fitted some community members for glasses.

• Many people had their first experience seeing a doctor. Some people just needed reassurance of their good heath.

• Some people were referred to Thies for additional care.

• Infections treated.

• TLC given.

• Boy with abscess tooth tested and treated.

• Girl with very severe vision problems tested and prescription glasses bought.

• Girl with fungal infected feet treated.

• Girl with infected arm treated.

• Records of the overall heath of the village documented.

• Created a cultural map of a nearby village (Keur Demba Kebe).

Clinic Repairs

• Charge controllers relocated for easy reset access.

• Unmaintained batteries replaced with maintenance free batteries.

• One light relocated to outside porch (by request).

• Mouse chewed wires replaced with a plan to poison area around wires.

Locally Contracted Jobs

• Cinder-block garden protection wall constructed (150 m).

• Wood and palm canopy with created for serving school lunches.

• Four classroom floors demolished and resurfaced with a 10 year guarantee.

• Cinder-block chicken coop.

Community Events

• Community planning meetings.

• Distribution of soccer shoes, shirts, socks, and balls.

• Art project for children waiting at the clinic.

• Solar flashlights distributed.

• Awards given to teachers for top 5 students during graduation ceremony.

• 2 student-run girls only soccer clinics (one for younger girls and one for older girls).

• Entertainment provided by our bad dancing skills.

• Village-wide Wrestling tournament, 2 days of lion dance festival for school.

Maison des esclaves

Gorée Island was today's destination. I don't really know how to go about writing about this because there were so many strange mixtures of images through out this whole day so there's no over blanketing word that could describe it.

First we were greeted with millions of vendors, most offered gifts for prices far below what already paid for buying the exact same thing. this was disturbing but it certainly made us learn.

Next we saw the House of Slaves which was the most significant and important part of the island. The importance of the island was centered around this house that was built in the 1780s. It took part in the transportation of about 2 million slaves to america, and the loss of 1.6. Most students were quiet, moved. walking around seeing the rooms labeled 'femmes' or 'enfants'. There was even a room for the reluctants which was where Nelson Mandela sat in for 3 minutes, came out and cried. It was certainly interesting to see an incredibly influential place, and a place that helped form the ethnic identity of our own country.

After exiting the house we walked through the streets. The island is peach, light blue, warm red, and egg shell yellow, ringing of beautiful european architecture. It took the style of the french but made the colors more enriched with its own livelier spirit. Later we met by the beach and saw a tiny strip of sand jammed with people listening to Senegalese pop, enjoying the water, and Europeans with their interesting selections in swimsuit bottoms. It was really strange to also see the more wealthy tourists, i mean traditional senegalese clothing but accessorized with wigs, extensions, blinding amounts of jewelry, high healed sandals, it was all so weird to see after being in Keur Sadaro. There was a soccer match nearby and all the boys had shoes, cleats, matching uniforms, and it made me happy we chose a village like Keur Sadaro to help. This island was much more wealthy and it seemed to be a very playful and alive in comparison. But now that i remember these locations that i have so far seen on the island, the two don't fit together, even visually.

The tourists on the beach were listening to music, having drinks, swimming, relaxing but walk up two blocks and you have the ex-center of the Atlantic Slave trade, and over to the right 100 ft you have a naval base, and little before that you have an old french man sitting with a Senegalese escort.

Isin't that combination a little bit confusing?

Tomorrow we fly

goodbye mboor

Yesterday Aaron and I sat down to write something in hopes of recapturing a long days experience into a paragraphical list or something... but we both felt a bit blank.

it was the first time neither him or I had something to say...

i know can you believe it?

yesterday we went to gujal . its an island city where the ground is made of shells. Christians and Muslims live together, and the cemetary is a tourist location. Despite it being a rather morbid place, aesthetically, it was one of the most heavenly places ive seen.

Later we went boat riding in between islands of trees. We stopped to have lunch on one of them. It looked like an island i would wash up on after a wreck and later go insane on.

The ride back was bumpy, which didn't help the toilette requests, but i did have the best mango of my life.

today we go to dakar to get the shopping done and catch some last minute sun tan. For some people, it has been made obvious that sun block just does not protect, so we may come of the plane looking like gleaming shiny fresh strawberries.

till later

mona k

Nelson Mandela won the crab race but michael jackson isn't dead!

so i go for a nap in my room and i step out

thinking

im going to sit in quiet, enjoy the rhythm of the ocean and blog but

no

i walk outside and the issue is:

will it be montgomery or mandela?

two strips of wood placed paralell, made the racetrack for the crabs that have fallen victim to the ridicule of drewlick students.

the race ended and Madela wins!

so the debate started and students applauded themselves of their bets,

then

taylor walks out and says, in a suprisingly calm voice, "wait, guys, michael jackson died"

the five seconds of swallowing such a fact includes the following:

asking 3 times if its true,

questioning your own sanity

asking yourself if you remembered to take your possible-sideeffects-include-hallucinations maleria pill

AND LASTLY remembering "wait michael jackson can't die".

i looked it up and after it was found the it was only cardiac arrest we continued naming number 4 Madonna and number 6 britney spears

with the releif and celebration we moved on giving montgomery a few more chances to win

but

we also saw orphanage today

i stepped out afterwards hoping god didnt give me overies

having a kid now seems like alot of work, raising a strong standing independent human had me already a little bit worried and after an hour of cradleing, i was left emotionally drained.

i realized the first disaster is

[disaster is an understatment if you take into consideration the learning of the world word 'no']

is the kid learning to crawl

a gang of babies crawled away and crowded in the doorway

and you knew they were up to trouble

one baby, the one that was constantly crying, unsatisfied with his nursery limitations, even managed to open the door.

while these babies were a load to deal with, and reminded me even of the diffulty of taking care of myself, i realized how much effort is put in by the people working there. not just physical. scorching sun doing laundry is tireing in itself, but caring for all these kids who hardly have any relation to them... and not just caring, nurturing, giving up affection, takes more then just a good breakfest.

but if you use the term 'giving up', it sounds almost as though caring is an act of subtratcation. as though there is less of you afterwards

..........

i dont beleive that

mona k

Keur Sadaro Project Pictures : Round 2

I alone have about 700 photos. Collectively we must have thousands. Here are a few project pictures from our second round in Keur Sadaro. We'll try to get more up in the next few days. We're also working on an official summary of accomplishments which we will proudly post soon!
- Andrew K.

The secure solar charging station in the school directors office. With 150 watts of solar 18 computers can charge per day.

A new roof for the school director.

The chicken coup and garden wall (to keep out goats) created by local contractors.

The school garden is planted with over 50 different plants and trees.

We finished the solar lighting in the classrooms. The teachers used the lighting during final tests the next day!

Local contractors were paid to erect a palm and wood canopy so that kids can eat/hang out outside during the rainy season.

There were more rounds of computer training for the teachers and students.

The Second Round

The second round in Keur Sadaro passed way faster than the first, all things considered. People were less stressed, the kids were more agreeable, and everything was just more bearable.
While it didn't feel like it while it was happening, we accomplished a lot. I was in the gardening group, and we planted over thirty trees, as well as basil and climbing vines. The garden was noticably greener when we left, and it had a brand new gate (which took Justin and Ian (both Lick '11) the entire time to make) as well as being ringed by a formidable concrete wall.
I don't know as much about the other projects, but from what I've heard of them, everything seems to be complete. The OLPC group taught computer classes daily, with Ms. Nauss explaining about the computers in English and Annika (Lick '11) and Gracie (Drew '10) translating her words to French. Solar panels were ran up on every roof, as well as a new cement ceiling on top of the principal's office and cement floors in the buildings where they were really potholed. A small cafeteria is in the process of being run up in the middle of the schoolyard (courtesy of local masons), as well as a chicken coop in one corner of the garden. The clinic ran really well, though sometimes it got a mite chaotic (everyone was really excited to get pills). Cali and Shellby (both Drew '10) started a soccer clinic with the girls in the village, which turned out really well.
The villagers put on a wrestling match towards the end of our stay. Some parts were similar to American wrestling, like the holds and such. However, others reminded me that I was in a foreign country. Senegalese Wrestling is more a test of balence than of strength. Since the match ended as soon as someone's back touched the ground, you had to be aware of all your bodyparts at all times. I learned this the hard way, in an impromptu wrestling match with Justin (Lick '11) at our compound. My toe slammed into the ground, and I walked with a limp for the rest of the day.
Other than a pretty bad puking spell, there were no other serious maladies. Most of us got the kind of diarrhea that seems common from eating fish and rice day after day after day, and a couple of students picked up minor colds. For all the disease that the media paints Africa in, we got off pretty lightly.
All of this feels really weird now, looking back on it. I woke up this morning in the near poverty of the village, with a bedbug-infested mattress and a floor full of sleeping children, and now I'm about to go to sleep in a five star beach resort.
But more on that tomorrow.
-Aaron M.