Senegal's former leper village struggling to escape stigma The Petite Cote, the sun-drenched heart of Senegal's tourist industry, boasts mile-upon-mile of shimmering Atlantic coastline shaded by towering cocoa palms -- and the country's largest former leper colony. Officially designated as a "social rehabilitation village", MBalling's inhabitants wish it could return to being simply a village like any other. Images and soundbites.