Ibel, A Remote Village

During the spring break, one of my students invited me to visit his village in the southeast corner of Senegal. A two-day trek from St. Louis where I was living at the time, the trip to Ibel was not the kind that gets written up in travel brochures! Our transportation included everything from bush taxis to peanut trucks. Along the way, we saw baobob trees everywhere. An amazing tree whose life cycle runs exactly opposite from other plant life, the baobob supports both animal and human life in an unforgiving landscape.

The day we arrived in Ibel, the villagers were enjoying their very FIRST market day. Theirs was a barter economy; no money ever exchanged hands in the village. They had never had a market before, and the experience was a new one for them. Yoro Diallo, the student who had left this village many years before in order to get an education, was treated like the prodigal son, returning at last to his home. He was thrilled to see the market underway and his family and friends were equally excited to see him once again.