March 19 approaches

I apologize for the long pause since my last entry.  Our activities have resumed - albeit under another name to appease those threatened by the heading "peace" - and I am happy to report that we will be maintaining a focus on grassroots-driven ideas to create stable and healthy communities.

I was waiting until I had some clarification about the fate of our program since AED announced that it was folding, but it appears that we will not reach anything remotely resembling clarity until the month of June at the earliest. So we press on.  I have a large number of activities to develop and execute in the coming weeks and that has meant relighting the fires under my staff and myself.  We had all become rather complacent after months of relative inactivity.

Tomorrow is the full moon and the spring equinox. It is also "supermoon day" apparently because of the unusual promixity of the moon to the earth.  If you read the Internet, you will also see it is for some folks the "End of Days" day or just a "cataclysmic events"day.  I had no idea this day was so important.  I have not had a lot of time to research all the significance but in Senegal it carries another importance. It is the date the Senegalese opposition has chosen to hold what the press is calling a "large-scale Egyptian styled demonstration to topple President Wade."  It is interesting that Egypt is now the phenomenon of reference; it is as though Tunisia never happened.  But I digress.  According the press, the government ordered a new batch of crowd-control equipment for this special occassion and has already stationed units in the vicinity of the planned marches.  It is very unlikely that we will see any of that here in Ziguinchor. But I plan to follow the course of events via radio.  None of my colleagues believes the marches will last past dinner time because no one is expecting them to produce any real change.

I started writing an entry for the blog a week ago that became a bit too long.  It is a recap of what led me to this project in Senegal and the possible avenues forward.  I will post it to the internet on Sunday - after the march update - and add more pieces as the week wears on.

Here are some links the upcoming march.  Enjoy your weekend!

Senegal Braces for "Tahrir Square" Protests  and Tension brews in Senegal ahead of protest