And we’re off! Our first filming mission for 2010 has begun in Dakar! Muriel, our chief operator, landed on Monday. She was welcomed by Adjaratou, one of the linguists with whom we work and Thierno, Head of the Department of General Linguistics and African languages at the University of Dakar, who guides us through the labyrinth of local bureaucracy…

Muriel at the airport before leaving

Right now Thierno has real concerns since the filming equipment has been held up at Customs… a good start! We cross all our fingers in the hope that the issue will be resolved and that the equipment will get to Bédik in the east as soon as possible. There is an important traditional festival there in the coming weekend and we don’t want to miss it.

The team stayed for another 12 days or so before making its way to Dakar (this takes a whole day and is no easy task…), before leaving again by boat for Casamance. There we meet Sokhna, another young Senegalese linguist, who will be managing the film content in a baynunk community.

We plan to work with two languages from now until the beginning of April, médik and baynunk, in partnership with the Sénélangues project of the LLACAN (CRS) laboratory, whose goal is to document 20 or so Senegalese languages in four years.

If all goes well, other teams should come to the area in the months and years that follow. And those of us who need to stay in the office to organise everything will revel in dreams of the magnificent photos that the teams will send us…