Lessons from Guede (The Village)

I learned an incredible amount about development, Senegal, people, and myself through our school garden project in Guédé. In life you need to be flexible. In development you need to be like silly putty. Silly putty in multiple ways. Silly putty because nothing is going to go as you originally thought. The direction of our project changed multiple times in unexpected and uncontrollable ways. Decisions were made and things were changed without our groups’ knowledge by village partners and staff within our program. This was a challenge at the time, but was by no means detrimental to the final product. It was beneficial. This is because “our” project was not only our (myself, Sydney, and You) project. It is the project of the people who are living there first and foremost. And in our case it was also the project of the staff, who have much more experience and knew much more about Guédé and its context.
However, from what I have heard, read, and seen, westerner domineerence is where so many development projects fail. And this makes community members where the development projects take place skeptical of the generally domineering outsiders. And I definitely felt this skepticism and mistrust when I first arrived in Guédé. As I mentioned in my first reflection paper, initially I wasn’t looked at as a collaborator. I wasn’t seen as someone who was there to respect the culture, the people, or the village. I was simply seen as a pocketbook; a means for materials that they could not afford.
But I am glad to announce that the initial barriers of mistrust were broken down by the end of our stay in Guédé. And overwhelmingly so. Genuine friendships were born and a mutual respect gained (We received a special heartfelt thank you from the assistant director of the primary school. It was obvious that his attitude had changed and that he now held a respect for us and the work that we had done with his students). A beautiful permaculture garden was produced as a result. The trees planted, the fence built, and the seeds sown have connected the community to the garden in a physical manner. But that is only small part of the newfound connection to that plot of Earth. More importantly, it was the person to person friendships that were formed that will keep people coming to the garden. And even if the garden physically fails, it will never be forgotten because of these friendships that were formed. The sweat, the frustration, the fatigue, the injuries, the laughter, the learning, and the growing that we (two American university students, one Senegalese university student, Guédé students and teachers—all of us people) shared can never be forgotten. It was genuine, it was mutual. I completely lost the feeling that I was coming to help this rural African community. I was there with my friends and family investing myself in my community.
Nonetheless, it was my community for only 5 weeks. This was something that I could not control and was probably the biggest impediment to the overall sustainability of the project (the lack of ability or willingness of people to spend long periods of time in a community is why almost all development projects lack long-term sustainability; this supports the argument that true sustainable development must come from the actual community members, who are invested in the community for the long haul). It is a challenge because the relationships that we had formed have become more removed (they can never completely end). The garden was the medium for the formation of these relationships and therefore its success is challenged. But I am sure lasting friendships will grow between the students in Guédé as the garden grows. And I know that the students have the knowledge and ability to successfully manage the garden. In fact, they had more knowledge about many gardening skills than me and a far better understanding of the local environment than I will ever have (For example, on the last day I was taught by one of the students how to separate flower seed from their shells without losing all of the seeds). I am sure that I learned more than I taught. This was not something that I necessarily expected at the commencement of the project. However, I have realized that you must be open to learning from the vast knowledge of the community members in order to begin to attempt worthwhile and beneficial work.