It\u2019s my very first mission on the field and I can\u2019t hide my excitement. Everything is still new. After all, it\u2019s been less than two weeks since I arrived in Kolda. For this reason, I am looking outside the window with the curiosity of a child mingled with awe, not quite sure where to focus my attention. Too many stimuli for my brain, hence I am relieved when the jeep leaves the city heading up north. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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All of a sudden we step into a new dimension swathed in the faint morning mist. Pretty soon, however, the mist lifts up revealing a deep blue sky. Now, with the sunlight, I appreciate the landscape even more. Apart from the occasional villages, what I see is mostly nature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pure, uncontaminated nature as far as the eye\ncan see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I am still processing the natural beauty surrounding us, when the car comes to a stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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We have reached our\nfirst destination: the community garden in Kibassa. Two hectares of land\ndivided into 70 identical parcels owned by just as many women, each of them\ngrowing different kind of vegetables depending on the season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our arrival is not\nunnoticed. In fact, we barely have time to step outside the jeep that we are\nwelcomed by about a dozen women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
– \u201cSalam Aleikum\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n – \u201cBonjour\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n – \u201cNo ngooludaa!\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n They are saluting us in the three mostly spoken languages of the country – Wolof, French, Pulaar. A woman starts to tune some lyrics in Pulaar followed suit by the rest. The rhythm takes a crescendo. The voices are accompanied by hands clapping as well as by whatever it can be used as percussion. The energy is infectious. Personally, I had never seen anything quite like it. Despite not being able to understand what they\u2019re singing, my fellow volunteers and I are mesmerized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n I look at the group of women trying to take a mental picture of the scene: the wide smiles, the happiness on their faces, their feet stomping on the ground, the gaudy colors of their clothes. I want to remember every single detail because everything in this moment represents the vigorous energy of life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sane, the technician from FODDE, our local partner, acts out as our translator for the day and explains us the meaning of the song. \u201cThey are singing to welcome you and to say thank you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you<\/em>, Ajaaraamah<\/em> is a word that we keep hearing throughout the visit. Whenever a woman starts speaking, the very first word she utters is \u201cAjaaraamah<\/em>\u201d. I might not understand the word in pulaar but to be honest I don\u2019t really need to. Looking at their body language, at their faces is self-explanatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBeing part of this project has drastically changed our lives.\u201d <\/em>A woman says.\u201cThis time last year, the majority of our children were sick. People of our community were having health issues. Every day was a struggle for food. Our daily diet was based just on rice and peanuts.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The testimonies of the women were all stressing\nthe same message: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur health has radically improved, our children\u2019s health has improved. Our diet is better, more varied as well as more nutritional.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n However, the amelioration in terms of health isn\u2019t\nthe only positive outcome. Along with it, there\u2019s the financial impact of the\nproject: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe vegetables we grow are destined partly for our self-consumption, partly for the market sale.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Every woman is free to decide how much she wants to sell as opposed to how much she wants to keep for her household. The money they are earning from sales have become the main source of revenue for their family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNot only we have the economical means to provide our family with food, but we are also able to buy other things we may need. Last year, I didn\u2019t have money to buy food, let alone new shoes or soap! Today, I can afford all those things.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s incredible how a two-hectare piece of land\ncan change people\u2019s lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n When I was reading about the project all I could see was black ink on a paper. Surely, it serves its purpose when it comes to track the progress, evaluate it, report the results to the donors. You might scroll through the description, the numbers, the research, the technicalities, but the information you get doesn\u2019t compare to the experience of going on the field. Seeing with your own eyes, hearing with your own ears the testimonies of the people: that makes all the difference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The sterile numbers dissolve leaving the place to faces. The written description is replaced by the voices of the women. And right there, under a secular tree surrounded by dozens of women of a small Senegalese village at the border with Gambia, I have the confirmation of what I have been knowing for quite some time now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n This. This is why I decided to embark on this volunteering experience: for the humanity<\/strong> enshrined in moments like this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Debora Lucque 7:30 am Abdou, one of Alianza\u2019s drivers, is waiting for me, Cristina and Alex downstairs. He is going to drive us to the northern part of Kolda region, in the department of Medina Yoro Foulah which shares its border with Gambia. According to the agenda, we are going to visit two villages, Kibassa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[578,354,534],"tags":[173,313],"class_list":["post-7216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eu-aid-volunteers","category-senegal","category-voluntariado-internacional","tag-euaidvolunteers","tag-senegal"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Woman](\"http:\/\/actionaid.es\/voluntariado\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/portrait_2_ok-300x215.jpg\")
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