More questions from my mom

written Saturday, 21 April 2007


1. What creatures have you seen there? Do people keep goats and chickens? What about lizards and insects? Do people there have pets at all?

Let's see... I've seen a few monkeys, but that's about it for exotic animals. People do have goats and chickens, and sheep, even in the city. One of the other trainee's families even has turkeys. All those animals are going to be dinner someday. I've also seen cows, donkeys, and horses wandering around in the streets, but I haven't seen anyone keeping such large animals in their courtyards.

Lizards are all over the place, scampering up walls and trees. I haven't seen any interesting insects really, just mosquitoes, flies, and regular-looking spiders.

People here don't really have "pets" the way Americans do, for company, but some families, like mine, have cats. I think the cats are there to keep away mice and other unwanted animals. No one here pets cats (except me, the crazy toubab).

2. Do they brush their teeth?

I haven't seen anyone brushing their teeth with a toothbrush and toothpaste like we do, although those things are available in some stores. People mostly use a special stick to chew on and scrape their teeth with, which apparently is pretty effective at preventing cavities. But people don't seem to be very conscientious about doing it every day, and when I visited the village a few weeks ago I saw that a lot of people were missing teeth.

3. If you get water straight from a deep well, is it
clean enough to drink as it is?

Not by my standards. It seems that villagers do usually drink their water "as is" from their wells, but us picky toubabs need to filter it and add bleach or something to kill bacteria.

4. What is the deal with feminine hygiene? How is that taken care of there?

I haven't talked with any Senegalese about this, but Peace Corps people have told me that people mostly use cloths (good for the environment, but kind of gross). Tampons are available in the toubab stores, but they're really expensive and most Senegalese don't even know what they're for.

5. Is there any prenatal care for pregnant women? Do children get any vaccinations?

There is prenatal care for pregnant women, and one of the things I am supposed to do as a Peace Corps Volunteer is to try to teach people about prenatal care and why they should go for checkups. Doctor visits usually cost about $0.50, but even this is expensive for many villagers, so many people will only go to the doctor when they are very sick. Prenatal visits are starting to catch on, but women in villages still mostly deliver their babies at home unless they live really close to a health facility because being in labor on a donkey cart for an hour or two is not fun.

Vaccinations are available quite cheap for kids, and it seems that the Ministry of Health here is really pushing them and trying to educate people about why vaccinations are important. But it is still entirely up to the parents to do it, not like in the US where you have to have certain vaccinations to be allowed to go to school (and anyway not all kids go to school here, so if the Senegalese government tried to make vaccinations a requirement for going to school, it might just decrease school attendance).

6. Have you been fishing yet?

No. The village I'm being assigned to is supposedly only a mile from the Gambia River, though, so I may have the opportunity (not that I really want to - I don't like fishing or killing animals in general, and I don't particularly want to have more fish in my diet either).