Shout Out to the Ladies!!
No one denies that life is hard in a village; but village women are hardly ever acknowledged or appreciated for the difficult work they do and the impact they have on the lives of everyone in their compounds. This said, some very dynamic health volunteers in my region decided to hold two weekend-long celebrations for the women in their villages. They scheduled events and trainings to work their maternal health message into activities that celebrate and acknowledge the hard work of village women. Of course, I tagged along to lend a helping hand and show my support during one of the weekends.
Pulling water from a well, pounding grain, and carrying firewood are hard work when you have your strength and a good deal of energy; however, they prove quite dangerous when you are pregnant—a condition that generally doesn’t lessen the work load for village women. For this reason, our message was to work less or with a friend when pregnant. We started the weekend by going to different parts of the village and challenging village women to a tug of war. In case you couldn’t guess, we five toubobs were schooled by the village women every time; however, we chose to further embarrass ourselves by starting a dance circle and showing off our not very good Senegalese dance moves in each compound. It got the villagers energized and spread the word about the “party” we would be continuing later. For the rest the weekend, the health volunteers mixed health causeries with activities aimed at including village men and showing them the difficulty of women’s work.
The most memorable events of the weekend were a grain pound-off and a water pulling race. For the grain pound-off, two women and two men pounded grain for a specified amount of time and then compared the final product. It was difficult to even get two men to agree to participate and after watching them pound for a minute I could see it was probably because they knew they were going to be beat. Then came the water pulling race which was the most entertaining event of all. Again, two women faced off against two male volunteers. A baby was strapped to each man’s back (like they almost always are for village women) and each team was given two big buckets to fill and run back to the village on their heads. Watching a village man run back to the village with a bucket on his head and a baby on his back was one of the funniest and most exciting things I had ever seen. Everyone in the crowd was so excited to see who would win that we all ran back to the village following the participants and screaming. Naturally, one of the men couldn’t or wouldn’t put the bucket on his head and the women won again.
After the events were over some of the men who would not participate engaged me in “conversation” about why we weren’t having a celebration for how hard the men work. I did my best to explain that we know men work hard as well but women also deserve some recognition and appreciation for their important work. Regardless of what they took from the weekend, I know that the men that participated or just watched were entertained and if only for a second, acknowledged how strong and hard working their women are. All in all the event was a success and something I will never forget.
Not only did the weekend give me a chance to enjoy myself with friends while celebrating Senegalese women, it also gave me the opportunity to see how much I have grown since coming here. I remember refusing to dance in front of people, thinking that everyone was always making fun of me—which they generally are—and feeling hurt. This past weekend I was able to dance all over a village full of people I don’t even know, enjoy myself, and not care what anyone thought. It was a great feeling.
Pulling water from a well, pounding grain, and carrying firewood are hard work when you have your strength and a good deal of energy; however, they prove quite dangerous when you are pregnant—a condition that generally doesn’t lessen the work load for village women. For this reason, our message was to work less or with a friend when pregnant. We started the weekend by going to different parts of the village and challenging village women to a tug of war. In case you couldn’t guess, we five toubobs were schooled by the village women every time; however, we chose to further embarrass ourselves by starting a dance circle and showing off our not very good Senegalese dance moves in each compound. It got the villagers energized and spread the word about the “party” we would be continuing later. For the rest the weekend, the health volunteers mixed health causeries with activities aimed at including village men and showing them the difficulty of women’s work.
The most memorable events of the weekend were a grain pound-off and a water pulling race. For the grain pound-off, two women and two men pounded grain for a specified amount of time and then compared the final product. It was difficult to even get two men to agree to participate and after watching them pound for a minute I could see it was probably because they knew they were going to be beat. Then came the water pulling race which was the most entertaining event of all. Again, two women faced off against two male volunteers. A baby was strapped to each man’s back (like they almost always are for village women) and each team was given two big buckets to fill and run back to the village on their heads. Watching a village man run back to the village with a bucket on his head and a baby on his back was one of the funniest and most exciting things I had ever seen. Everyone in the crowd was so excited to see who would win that we all ran back to the village following the participants and screaming. Naturally, one of the men couldn’t or wouldn’t put the bucket on his head and the women won again.
After the events were over some of the men who would not participate engaged me in “conversation” about why we weren’t having a celebration for how hard the men work. I did my best to explain that we know men work hard as well but women also deserve some recognition and appreciation for their important work. Regardless of what they took from the weekend, I know that the men that participated or just watched were entertained and if only for a second, acknowledged how strong and hard working their women are. All in all the event was a success and something I will never forget.
Not only did the weekend give me a chance to enjoy myself with friends while celebrating Senegalese women, it also gave me the opportunity to see how much I have grown since coming here. I remember refusing to dance in front of people, thinking that everyone was always making fun of me—which they generally are—and feeling hurt. This past weekend I was able to dance all over a village full of people I don’t even know, enjoy myself, and not care what anyone thought. It was a great feeling.
posted by Ashleigh | 4:29 PM
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