Many villages in Senegal are home to around a thousand people. Traditional village homes are made from mud bricks with wooden roofs entwined with millet stalks and are often decorated with numerous family photographs. Some villages will have their own Mosque in a country that is 92% Muslim (with prayers held five times a day) and most villages will have a well from which water is collected (only 17% of the rural population having access to running water.) Various animals from goats, sheep, chickens and cows roam freely around the family compound.

Senegal has rich traditions and the importance of greeting in a Senegal village cannot be over emphasised, although the ritual can seem strange to people living in the hurly burly of the west. 'Salaamalekum' is an almost requirement before further interaction can take place. If not said you'll probably be told "s/he went to learn how to greet" in other words, you're rude!

Life can be harsh in your average Senegal village. The day starts with a breakfast of baguettes of bread, followed by a wash in a freestanding, communal concrete building with two tin sides. By mid-morning children go off to school, whilst many girls stay at home helping with chores, and older lads drive carts led by donkeys to collect water from near by wells.

Fathers either work on the land in their millet and sorghum fields or travel to urban areas returning only at weekends. After completing their household tasks the women of the family will often take food to family members working in the fields before preparing items that can be sold at market such as cooking ingredients. The village day ends with a meal of a little meat on lashings of rice around 9-10pm, then sleep, and ready for the next day.