At Richard-Toll, in the Saint-Louis region in the north of Senegal (376
km from Dakar), an event called "Israel Day," sponsored and organized by the Senegal Shalom Club, took place on December 20, 1997. The
participants included a total of 70 people who came from all over
Senegal - MASHAV alumni from 1963 to the present.
From the previous day onwards, Richard-Toll reverberated to the sounds
of Israel, with the arrival en masse of the Shalom Club members. There
was an outstandingly friendly atmosphere at this Shalom meeting, with
enthusiastic reunions of former alumni who reminisced about the
different training centres, the instructors and, generally, about life
in Israel.
Saturday, December 20, 1997, was Israel Day. It began with a warm
welcome being given to the Israel Embassy delegation headed by Ms. Noa
Furman, Second Secretary. We would like to express our highly justified
thanks to her and express our appreciation of her competence and
willingness to make herself available. She spared no effort to ensure
that Israel Day would be a thorough success.
After a "family photograph" had been taken on the outskirts of the town
of Richard-Toll, a series of visits began. The first was to the
Senegalese Sugar Company, the country's only industrial sugar plant and
one of Senegal's largest companies. Its workforce includes many MASHAV
alumni: indeed, its Managing Director, Jean-Claude Mimran, is the
Honorary President of the Shalom Club.
The visit enabled our members to discover many new things, both in the
processing factory and in the plantations, where 7,500 hectares (18,000
acres or 29 square miles) of sugarcane are growing with the experimental
use of the Israeli Plastro Gvat drip-irrigation system. We would like
here to thank our enthusiastic guides, Doudou Ndiaye Tall and Mamadou
Dieng, head of Farm 2 and head of the harvesting section respectively.
Next came the visit to the veterinary surgery and pharmacy of Aboubacar
Niang, veterinarian, himself a Shalom Club member and graduate of the
Shefayim course on Small Ruminants in Tropical Climates (1995), who has
drawn inspiration from and made use of the experience he acquired in
Israel.
The morning's program concluded with a visit to Baron Richard, a
historical site which symbolizes the past of Senegalese farming. Baron
Roger put his stamp on the town which today bears the name of his
botanist gardener, Richard. (In Wolof, Senegal's common language, "Toll"
means "field".) The people used to say, "I'm going to Richard's Toll -
hence the name "Richard-Toll."
After the lunch break, the official ceremony was inaugurated at the Gite
d'Etape Hotel, chaired by Noa Furman. At her side was the Prefect of the
Dagana Department, the Mayor of the Richard-Toll Municipality, a member
of the teaching profession who had enabled us to organize the earlier
and highly successful competition about Israel. This competition was
organized among the fifth-form pupils of the Alpha Mayoro Grammar School
of Dagana, the Richard-Toll Middle School and the Bakary Diallo Private
School, with six prizewinners in all.
After watching a slide show which gave a wide-ranging view of Israel,
the audience was particularly impressed by the eloquence and familiarity
with his subject of Jacque Mariel Nzouenkeu, Professor in the Faculty of
Legal and Political Sciences at the Cheikh Anta Diop University of
Dakar, who introduced the topic of the peace process in the Middle East.
The utilitarian and the pleasurable were combined in this marvelous
day, which concluded with a highly enjoyable cocktail party. Shalom Club
members had enabled Richard-Toll to experience aspects of Israel. The
day concluded with the song "Hevenu Shalom Aleichem" ("We Bring You
Peace").
Our thanks go to: The Prefect of the Dagana Department, the Mayors of
the Richard-Toll and Dagana Municipalities, the Departmental Inspector
of Elementary Education, Dagana, and the teachers at the educational
institutions.
Special appreciation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in
particular MASHAV, all the personnel of the Israel Embassy in Senegal,
our warmest regards and deepest appreciation to Ms. Noa Furman, Second
Secretary at the Israel Embassy in Senegal, for making herself
available, for her sense of anticipation and her competence, all of
which she made available unstintingly to guarantee that Israel Day would
be a resounding success. Once again, we should like to say: Anachnou
Modim Lachem Mikol Halev ("We thank you with all our heart"... in
Hebrew!).
Shalom Shalom Shalom
Amary Diouf
Secretary-General of the Senegal Shalom Club
Graduate, course on the Role of the Workers' Movement in National
Development (1974), Afro-Asian Institute, and
Modern Irrigation and Agricultural Extension Methods (1996), CINADCO