Time flies by so quickly! So many of you may be wondering where I’ve disappeared to over these many months. I finally decided to upload some of the posts that I’ve been slowly working on.
My village, Kassack Nord, is in the region of St. Louis (the northernmost region of Senegal). It is about 80 km from the coast along Route Nationale* and then 7 km off the road, north of the main highway. Well, there is a road, but the quality leaves much to be desired. It is also on a road between the towns, Mboundoum and Rosso. Part of the Sahel, my village is arid for most of the year, until rainy season. The proximity to the coast prevents the days from becoming excruciatingly hot as in other parts of the country, but during hot season, the temperature can reach 110 to 115 degrees F. Few trees grow in the area, with the heavy clay and saline soil, not much grows here; on very hot days, the earth peels and cracks like it’s sunburned; it’s a gentle reminder that we live in the desert.
Thankfully, we have rice fields.
And a tributary of the Senegal River.
Kassack Nord was founded in 1966 to promote rice cultivation in the area. My community is roughly of 3000 people, mostly of whom are of the Halpulaar ethnic group. They speak Pulaar du Nord, which is one of the Fulfulde languages. The language is complex and has many verb structures and tenses. The beauty of the language (it sings) somewhat offsets the complexity and frustration felt when first learning the language.
Most of the people are rice farmers. While there are other sources of income for some people (fishing, gardening, boutiques, having a horse/donkey charet), almost everyone works a rice field. During the rice growing seasons, the village empties as they go into the fields to work and bring in the harvest. Many of the people are hard-working and try to make a decent living for themselves.
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