Food & Cultural Exchange

[Senegal Photo Album 2]

Since the local custom for eating is to gather around a communal tray with everyone eating from it using their hands, we unfortunately couldn’t join the family meals. buildOn had to ensure food is safe for our stomachs, which aren’t accustomed to the local unfiltered water and food, so a Senegalese chef and her two daughters cooked three meals a day for our team.

The team gathers around the food under a tent.

Our chef. Her couscous (above) was divine!

Occasionally, she cooked western food for us (from left: crêpes, lasagna, and frittata)

Cultural Exchange

In the afternoons, we gathered with the villagers and engaged in activities. One day, they introduced us to Senegalese wrestling and how to hull and make millet couscous, and we taught some swing dance moves. On another afternoon, men and women gathered separately to have a gender talk.

Senegalese wrestling is a national sport. A lot of boys start wrestling at a very young age, and they were really serious and fierce!

One of our own takes on a 6'2" guy!

Demonstrating how to make millet couscous. Pounding millet with this long and heavy pestle requires skills. The movement is dynamic and rhythmic, and they mix in extra beats by tapping the side of mortar with the pestle as a drum stick.

Shifting the pounded millet to remove the hull.

Washing and rinsing millet until the water is clear to remove debris and extra hull.

Teaching/learning swing dance moves.

Having gender talk with the ladies. Lots of interesting Q and As. Surprisingly, only one woman said she didn’t like her husband having multiple wives. The rest of the women said they do not mind, and prefer to bring in someone they like into the family to share and ease their duties as wives and mothers.

Q: How do you know which wife the husband will visit at night? A: Usually the rotation is scheduled, and the wife who cooked that night will have the husband.

There are a total of 4 photo albums from this trip:

1. Arriving at Keur Bangou and Work Site
2. Food and Cultural Exchange
3. Life in Keur Bangou
4. Time with Family and Departure

All images © 2019 Kay Tsuji, otherwise noted. All rights reserved.