How Mamadou went to college

“I did not go to college to study. I went to college to escape fishing."

This story I heard from Mamadou, whom I met in a fishing village in Senegal.

“I did not go to college to study. I went to college to escape fishing.”

“As a kid, every night we had to go fishing with my father on the sea. The boat would leave at midnight. We came back at 6:00 am. We cleaned the fish, I washed myself and run straight to school. In those days, we had school twice a day: 8:00 – 12:00 and then 15:00 – 18:00. So at noon, I came back home, ate and went straight to sleep. I slept one hour and then prepared to the afternoon school, and went to school again.”

“After school, I came home at 19:00, and I had two hours to learn Quran. When I finished, it was dark already. We lit small lamps with fish oil and I did my school homework. I went to sleep at 23:00. This was my second hour of sleep. After one hour, my father would wake me up and we went fishing.”

“One time, our fishing net got stolen. My parents were in despair. But that day I danced with joy. I knew that at night we would not go fishing.”

“I lived like this for six years straight. Fish, school, sleep, fish. During this time I studied very hard, and I was best in class. I knew I had one, only one chance to escape this life. If I made it to college, I would move to live in a boarding school and there would be no more fishing. And one day, the dream came true. Very few children were admitted to school in Kaolack. But I was one of those kids.”

“The day I left for the boarding school, I knew I was free.”