First Ever Day of Female Army Recruitment in Thies, Senegal

If you click on the word Thies, you should be able to see and hear a soundslides of the first ever recruitment of female soldiers in this city east of the capital Dakar (in new window click on play in bottom left hand corner). Hundreds of young women, single, without kids and between the ages of 18 and 23, waited for hours for the slow selection process to begin, hoping to get one spot out of 300 being offered nationwide.

Many said this was their only hope to find a job.

I used a wrong setting on my new H2 zoom recorder, so the sound is a bit watery, and tried slower, more regular pictures on the soundslides. It's also my first project involving a group rather than a single person so overall I am not sure it really works.

But it's all about experimenting and finetuning. And if you want to hear some dusty sounds, impatience, wolof, French and English with a Senegalese accent, as well as many hopefuls with lots of enthusiasm for the new possibility of a career in the army (yikes!), don't hesitate!