Modou

Modou has become a good friend in the past couple weeks. He took me to the Katchikally Crocodile pools and gave me a tour of his village of Bakou, the market and even his home. Modou is a guard for a local company and makes the less than the equivalent of $50 US dollars a month. The guards all work 5 days a week 12 hour days and their shift can flip-flop from day shift to night in the same week. His home consists of 2 concrete rooms each roughly 8×8 feet square. One room is completely bare, save for a small coal cooking pot about the size of a coffee can tucked in the corner. The other is his bedroom, a small bed with a foam pad and tattered cover. I single bare light bulb hangs from the ceiling, pointless as he cannot afford electricity. His wall is adorned with a small old picture of a flower and a magazine clipped picture of the late Princess Diana. He is proud of his job and takes pride in his uniform and his home. He shares a single cinder block outhouse and water faucet with the rest of his immediate neighbors. He is always quick to smile and is teaching me both of the major local languages, Mandinka and Wolof.