Gas nanu robinet bi

(My apologies in advance....  This blog post is from November 20.  I thought I had posted it, but you all know my computer illiteracy; alas, I only saved the document and never submitted it.)

Great news…the water pipeline extension for the community garden has finally been installed.  We began two weeks ago, early in the morning.  My host dad and I arrived first and measured out the positioning of the faucet so that it would be situated in the middle of the field.  We then waited for the men from my village to arrive so that we could begin digging.  They came slowly, but eventually we had about 15 men.  And, in Senegal, 15 men means 15 opinions about what should be done.  But they all worked hard, swinging the pick axes to break up the hard dirt.  We needed to dig 44 meters with a depth of 50 cm and wide enough for a shovel to be used to scoop out the dirt; if you do the math, that’s a huge displacement of soil.  And, despite it being the start of cold season, it is still very hot.  The men worked all morning, taking turns passing off the tools.  Gas nanu robinet bi.  (We dug the water pipeline.)

As midday approached, the men weary, we decided to call it a day and continue another time.  On this second day, there was still a lot of work to be done.  We worked right up until lunch.  But, this time, the work was completed.  We set up the pipes, and they burned a hole in the old pipe to install this new one.  All the men cheered when they saw the water gushing out of the new pipe and happily washed their faces in this water.  They are all proud of their hard work – the line literally installed with their sweat and labor.  Now, the next project to tackle is setting up the fence.

But, it was not all work.  At one point, we all took a break to eat “ndye.”  They took a pile of fresh peanuts from one of the men’s fields and set them on fire.  The plant matter sustains the fire, and the peanuts are deliciously roasted (and turn your hands black when you eat them).  I loved watching all the men crouched around the pile of peanuts, contentedly eating with the trench they had dug stretching out beside them.  We also brought the coal stove to the field to have a short tea break as well.

 Before we began.  One man from my village posing next to where the water tap will eventually be located.

 The men working hard to dig.

 Still a lot more to go distance-wise and depth-wise.