Senegal - Fandene-Village-Life

After couchsurfing in Dakar, being impressed by the sudden richness, the high buildings and European supermarkets, we soldiered on to Fandene to finally reunite with Jano and Daniela.

The both had been working there on and off for nearly a month and under the guidance of Jano, who is a carpenter, been building shaky shelves with the wonderful tool of Daniela’s Swiss army knife... – respect! Madita and I basically came on time to attend all the farewell celebrations, celebrate Jano’s birthday, eat tremendous amounts of especially for us cooked vegetarian food, being clapped at and thanked for our help (embarrassing!) at the inauguration party and go to the Thies open-air-disco (= Balztanz). My tremendous contribution to the work sums up to carrying water from the well to the construction site – and that at best two thirds of the quantity a local woman would carry in one go (while at the same time carrying a child on her back). Well, still better than what the men contribute to carry these tons of water – sit in the shade and cook tea, waiting for the women to finish.

Thanks to Betty the village now has a sewing workshop, where the women out of the surrounding villages can utilize sewing machines and maybe earn an extra-living for their families. The few bits and pieces of the discussions at the inauguration which were translated for us from Wolof into German pretty much revealed the same male stupidity to which we are used in Germany:

Men: “So if that’s for the women, what do we get?”

Betty: “Well, you can also use the workshop, maybe the men on monday and wednesday and the women on the other days.”

Men: “And who is supposed to take care of the children if the women come here???”

No comment.

 At work - Maßarbeit mit Luxustools;)

 We are family!

Winner of the last fashion contest - Betty with Kids

 The first dog ever been taken for a walk around Fandene - but I admit, 24hours later I gave up on trying to resocialise this little bitch of a dog :P

 Inauguration Party - shake it baby!

 Besbo de luci moner, besbo de luci moner, besbo de luci moner Janööööö, besbo de luci moner!

 Attention please, arrival of the VIP Guru Shri Shri Shri Bubu-Janö

 At night in Fandene

 Versteck ums Eck -corner hideout for all those who don't wanna be dragged on the dancefloor...

And this Christmas I wish to have in my snowstorm globe: Bubu-Dan & Bubu-Jan <3 (pssssst - the snow effect is not photoshopped, its the damn dust on my lens...)