Chapter 1001 Wrestling Champion
"Master, I finally understand why you want to fight the elephant," Ilkakuchi said, leading a calf behind Xiao Peng. Xiao Peng had now become a 'white man', and flour was sprinkled all over him from head to toe.
They stayed in Senegal for a long time.
Everyone knows that the East African savannah is rich in life, and every year there is a spectacular East African migration. However, West Africa is far less diverse than East Africa. Due to years of development by European colonists, many natural landscapes have been destroyed.
But relatively speaking, Senegal is very good at protecting nature. One-third of the country's land area is forest. Another one-third is grassland. It can be called a green country.
Xiao Peng had a blast here: "It's much more fun here than in Mauritania: there are forests, grasslands, and coastlines! Most importantly, there are roads—although the road conditions are terrible."
He is now in the Ziguinchor district of Senegal's Casamance region, home to Senegal's largest rice-growing area.
It was the rice planting season when Xiao Peng arrived here. Seeing them working on the soil, Xiao Peng became interested and helped them. He soon became good friends with a group of young people here.
This group of young people is known as the Papa Momodo Working Group. They are from the nearby village of Jibelin, where young people from all families come together to work. These young people help cultivate the fields of those who are physically weak and unable to till the land.
The name 'Papa Momodo' comes from the names of the two leaders of this group.
Why are Africans so strong? You can understand this by visiting the rice fields: this is completely non-mechanized farming: they use a very unique long shovel to work in the rice fields.
The biggest feature of this shovel is its incredibly long wooden shaft, which seems to be nearly three meters long, and its curved head, shaped like an orange segment. They use this long tool to turn over rice paddies, and how can they not be strong to do such heavy farm work? Without exaggeration, I feel like any of these people could enter a bodybuilding competition!
And the people here mature so early! While they work, a group of women sing and dance beside them. Of course, those women aren't just there to cheer them up. Here, men and women have exactly the same social status. After the men plow the fields, the women take on tasks like planting rice.
Senegalese girls are generally plump; any of them could be put into a breast augmentation clinic in China and become a model. Xiao Peng saw a few girls and assumed they were mothers, breastfeeding for their size. But when he asked, he realized the oldest was only fifteen.
Xiao Peng had no problem communicating with them. Although this place is not part of the city, everyone speaks French - French is the only official language in Senegal.
Senegal was originally a French colony.
It is interesting to note that Senegal is also a very poor country, but the reasons for its poverty are quite different.
Within Senegal lies the nation of Gambia, the "world's greatest power," the very nation that boasts slogans like "a thousand soldiers sweeping across Russia, a thousand soldiers sweeping across China." Gambia's terrain resembles a sausage, surrounded on three sides by Senegal except for a narrow estuary.
In fact, Senegal and Gambia were originally one country. Because Senegal was a French colony and Gambia was a British colony, they became independent after the end of World War II and finally became two countries.
It's common for a country to split into two or more countries. How many countries did the former Soviet Union split into? Didn't Czechoslovakia also split into two countries? Korea and North Korea; Germany and Hungary... There are so many examples like this!
But generally speaking, after a separation, either both countries become rich, or one becomes rich and the other poor. But what about Senegal and Gambia? Both countries are now extremely poor after separation, even poorer than Zimbabwe, which has the highest denomination of its currency, "one hundred trillion."
Well, that might be a bit insulting to Zimbabwe. Although their currency was once famous for having countless zeros, Zimbabwe's economy has recovered quite well with the help of China. They've also adopted a new currency, abolishing the old one with countless zeros.
In fact, the economies of Senegal and Gambia were very good.
After all, the geographical location of the two countries is very good. Senegal is also the largest salt producer in West Africa, so after independence, Senegal's economy developed rapidly and for a long time it was considered a wealthy country in Africa.
Things changed in 1981.
At that time, Gambia's founding father, Gawara, approached Senegalese President Diouf, hoping to merge the two countries. After all, the two countries had already been a unified nation. A merger would allow for joint economic development. The two hit it off, and the Republic of Senegambia was established.
But although the idea is good, the reality is very bleak: the two countries have been in constant conflict over the issue of national dominance. On September 30, 1989, Gambia announced its withdrawal from the Republic of Senegambia and then became an independent country again.
After Gambia's independence, various domestic conflicts began to erupt in both countries: a few years later, a military coup took place in Gambia, and the 29-year-old Jammeh overthrew Gawara's regime and became the president of Gambia; and Senegal was not much better, with various riots continuing.
So the two rich African countries disappeared, and two super-poor countries emerged in their place.
How poor are you?
The Papa Momodo team is from Gibeline, a village of several hundred people, located about a hundred kilometers from Ziguinchor, southern Senegal's largest city, along the Casamance River. According to Papa, there are about a dozen similar villages in the Ziguinchor region, and none of them have electricity! There are no household appliances at all.
Not to mention household appliances, Jibelin is a big village here. The only modern equipment Xiao Peng found in the entire village was a bicycle - and there was really only one!
Besides singing and dancing, their only entertainment here is wrestling. More precisely, wrestling competitions are used throughout the Ziguinchor region to foster friendships among villages. Every year at the end of the rainy season, a wrestling festival is held, with villages taking turns hosting wrestling matches.
Xiao Peng had originally gone to join in the fun, but because he and Ilka were the only foreigners present, they were invited by the local youths to compete. Xiao Peng became addicted to the game, tossing almost every wrestler to his knees, and ultimately won the grand prize—a calf.
So what's with the white flour on him? This wrestling festival also has a "blind date" element, where women will sprinkle flour on the men they like.
Now Xiao Peng has enough flour on him to make a pancake!
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