I was able to escape from Dakar for a week by accompanying the entomology department on a field trip to the small village of Bankedji (in the north central part of Senegal).
one of the homesteads in the area around the village where we placed traps
Bankedji is where the Institut has had a field station since 1992 to conduct vector surveillance
Bankedji,,,, The spaceship is a water tower
(mainly looking for Malaria, Rift Valley Fever and West Nile). Every year at the beginning of the rainy season (end of June/beginning July) till December the Institut sends out a team every two weeks. It’s important to get out there immediately after the first rains in order to survey the Ades sp. (they are the first to appear since their eggs are laid the previous season and remain dormant during the dry season).
To collect the mosquitoes there are 4 ways:
- Place live bait near ground pools between 6 and 10pm (2 goats, 2 sheep and a human)
Setting up the live bait near a groundpool
- Place 6-10 CO2 light traps in different human/cattle populated areas that surround the
Ibrahim setting up a CO2 trap
village (collected at 7am the next morning)
- Send out a team of locally hired catchers (young men) who have a shift 8pm-12 or 12-6am. They sit out and let mosquitoes land on their legs where they immediately capture them in a tube (the night’s catch is returned during the next morning)
- During the day more locally hired young men are sent to randomly selected residences
Instructions for the day catchers
and spray the inner rooms to collect any mosquitoes hiding there
On the road
On this trip was myself, Tad, Ibrahim (The Malaria guy in Entomology and Tads supervisor), Yamar (Also Entomology, doing the RVF and WN study) and the driver Che. We head out on a Wednesday and will return the following Tuesday.
I was told that the village was only 4 hrs away but I learned long ago to double the time someone gives you as a better estimate of travel time. I was spot on with the 8 hrs. Dakar has notorious traffic and between that and stopping for 45 mins so the guys could go on a fish hunt in a market we did not actually get out of Dakar till noon. Senegal has fairly good roads compared to other countries in Africa I have visited; this is partially due to a series of recent re-pavements done by the government in order to curry favor in the upcoming presidential elections. The longer than expected journey was mainly due to traffic in larger towns (Thies and Touba) and herds of goat, sheep and donkeys that decided the middle of the road was a good place to hold a confab.
Fun with food
When we arrive in Bankedji it’s already around 7pm, so we get the house/field station put together and start preparing dinner. I should have seen that evening’s dinner as an ill omen of
Breakfast
future meals. I had been assured that as a Vegetarian I would have no problem out in the field (Yeah, I should of known better). For the whole week our food schedule went as such: 8am –Breakfast (French bread, butter, eggs, chocolate and coffee), 1pm – Lunch (Fish and rice, rice is cooked in fish), 9pm – Dinner (Goat and rice, rice cooked in goat). There was one gas stove burner (like a camping stove) so all the meals where a one dish type of thing.
I had a hard time convincing my companions that ‘no I cannot eat the rice that has been stewing with the goat meat for 4 hrs, if I do I will more than likely throw-up and monopolize the bathroom ‘. So for 6 days I ate French bread, eggs and white rice (I cooked it separately after the other cooking was complete).
Oh, I was downing about 3 liters of water a day and I still felt dehydrated. How everyone else was able to drink coffee I have no idea.
Thursdays market
Thursday was the big market day in Bankedji, so we all walked over to get some goat and sheep from the hundreds of 
herders that were present selling their stock. One goat was slaughtered immediately and was ‘what’s for dinner’ for the next couple of days. Two goats and two sheep are being kept through the rainy season for the field stations use as live mosquito bait. The other three goats were slaughtered the last day we were in the village and the meat was taken back to Dakar by Yamar, Ibrahim and Che. Apparently it’s a lot cheaper out here so people always stock up before the return to Dakar.
The day to day
This was our schedule for 4 days:
- Wake at 8am, eat breakfast, identify the previous night’s mosquito catch
Mosquito Id - I see your proboscis
- 1pm – lunch
- 1-5pm – Nap time (It’s why too hot to do anything, I’m talking high 30’s Celsius or triple digits Fahrenheit, everybody kinda just sleeps off this part of the day)
- 6ish pm go layout all the traps
- 9pm – dinner (we eat so late because it’s too hot for cooking girl to start and sooner in the day)
- 10pm – go and collect the live bait
Yet another language barrier……
So it turns out that French does absolutely no good out here, most people only speak Wolof or Pulaar. So my laughable attempts at speaking French are even more pointless when the family where the next trap is being laid only speaks Wolof. My companions speak the local languages and I’m happy that they are keeping me in the loop with the occasional translation.
My Camera
I had my camera with me every time we went out in order to take pictures of the traps, I typically don’t take pictures of people in settings like this unless I have their permission or the
Tad,Ibrahim and a gaggle of kids who wanted their picture taken
insist on one being taken. If there are kids around I will not be able to escape without taking a dozen or so pics then showing them.
Toobob
Until now I had been pleasantly surprised that I had not noticed any particular name for white people being yelled out at me (In east Africa I’m constantly being called out to ‘Muzungo, Muzungo’). Well that ended in Bankedji. Toobob is the Wolof word for white man or anyone not African, It changes slightly to Toobaka in Pulaar (sounds like a name for a wookie). I had children yelling out at me ‘Toobob’, but none of it was in a demeaning way. It’s kind of like the kids saying ‘hey strange person’. The adults did not call us Toobob which was nice. I really dislike being lumped into a generalized category of ‘White man’ and all the stereotypes and connotations that come with it. I’ve gotten into some really interesting talks in the past about racism and racist names.
Did I mention I scared a baby??? When we were out placing traps one woman came over to say hello and her baby saw me and started screaming, I was probably the first white person they had seen. The incident made everyone else laugh, so at least it was entertaining to someone, just not the baby.
Hey look another white person…..
The whole time that we were in Bankedji people kept telling us that there was another white person in town who is with the Peace Corps, but I never seemed to run into her. On the day before we left she magically showed up at the field station, supper excited to speak English and take about stuff to other Americans. Ann Marie is working at the health dispensary in the village and was a little over a year into her stay in Bankedji. We spent a good portion of the morning and evening just talking about random things. Apparently in Kedougou there are a number of PCVs and she took it upon herself to give Tad and I an introduction via phone. She even gave me her Wolof language manual so maybe I can be less awkward when I try to talk to people.
One of the property owners wanted me to take his picture, the kid seemed less thrilled - the childs expression is common among small children when they see me. Kind of a ' who are you and why do you look so different than everyone else I know'
