Macky Sall, MCA, and the new Diallo Bridge

Hello Readers! About a month ago I attended an bridge opening held by the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Senegalese government.  Myself and four other Peace Corps volunteers were given special tickets to attend the event in embassy style.

We were picked up in the morning by the embassy crew, including press,security and our very own ambassador, along with representatives of the Millennium Challenge Corporation.  For those of you who don't know, the MCC is an initiative created by the US Congress in 2004 in order to "lead the fight against global poverty."  There are posts all throughout the developing world, and the competition is stiff to receive funding.  For more information about the broader program see the MCC webpage. 

PCVS with the Ambassador and MCC Representative

In Senegal there have been quite a few programs involving agriculture, specifically in the Delta region, and addressing water salinity issues.  Those projects are all up north.  There is, however, one project that has been effecting my everyday life for the past two years: the Kolda road.

When I arrived in Kolda this road was the pits.  Literally.  A trip from end to end would take six hours of body jarring death wishes, numbed only slightly by the use of my Ipod.  I didn't leave Kolda very often. It was just too hard. And painful.

Macky Sall Greeting the masses

In the fall of 2013 they began work on the road.  It's a vast undertaking; about 260 km (99.42 miles) from Ziguinchor to Velingara. To put this in perspective it took me about 3.5 hours to drive the 226 miles from Albany to Rochester. For the mathematically challenged, that's 126 more miles and three more hours on the Senegal side.  Since then the projct has almost been completed: it now takes 2.5 hours to get the 150 km from Kolda to Velingara. Talk about progress!

In true Senegalese fashion there was a party to commemorate the project.  The road in Kolda ended with a bridge over the Casamance river. It has very appropriately been given the name Pont du Abdoulaye Diallo, a stand up guy known for being benevolent and wonderful.

Ambassador Zumbalt

As Peace Corps volunteers we were given the full embassy treatment.  We were picked up in air conditioned cars, given a tour of the new artisinal market, the bridge, and then headed over to MCC
's Kolda base for a chat with Ambassador Zumwalt, embassy staff, and MCC staff from Dakar and Washington.  It was a really great conversation in which Dakar staff took a really big interest in how volunteers live their lives and view Senegal, and it was really therapeutic for us to give all of our opinions and share stories from village.

Macky Sall was supposed to arrive late morning and ended up arriving early afternoon.  We wasted the time chatting, eating road snacks, and people watching.  Macky Sall and his entourage rolled up, walked down the street, cut the ribbon, and headed over to the government buildings to give a speach. I got to walk down the road with the entourage, and now I totally see why people join entourages. It's fun.

Speeches were also good.  They were given in French and relatively short.  A lot of people turned out and everyone was really excited to see the president.  Everyone in my village listened to to speeches broadcast on the radio and I got to talk about a really cool event for a couple of day

Traditional Kora Player

Les Gendarmes