Small Town Sahel

So I live in a small town. We have one main dusty drag through town that runs all the way to bigger cities multiple hours south and north of here. All the motorbikes buzz up and down this road, the grand market, the hospital, the artisan market, the mosque, the NGO´s, and lots of little entrepreneurs who sell fuel, or produce, grains, mechanics, phone products, street food, and tailors, lie along this route. There is much more to discover yet of course. Quite a few people live here and most of the expanse of Dakoro is residential. It spreads out in every direction from the main street.

We do have a post office here. There is one postal number for the town and then just add the name or where you work and that should do it. Mail leaves twice a week, so it´s not exactlz busy, in fact Ive never seen another soul there except the post man and his family. They live right there behind the post. They are some of my favorite people to visit. The kids are adorable and took me as a friend instantly the first time I dropped off a letter.

The lay of the land is not hilly, but undulating so that one can´t see all the way down main street. And don´t imagine any tall buildings because everything is one level including the hospital. Imagine mostly mud-brick walls with painted metal doors that lead into the dwelling space of people.

Many families of several generations live together on one big property with few enclosed buildings. Mud-brick walls divide living spaces of goats, people, kitchens, etc. It´s common that families consist of multiple mothers with one husband, so the numbers of brothers and sisters are usually at least in the teens. When they marry, they will likely find their own space within the same family housing and start their family there. Some who have the means find their own house.

So even though this is rural, the population numbers aren´t small. The outlying villages where I work have numbers like 52,000 and 46,000 and they are significantly smaller than Dakoro.