What an incredible journey! This semester is just flying by. I cannot believe that I have already been back from Senegal for a week and a half. I almost don’t even believe that I went so I suppose it is a good thing that I took so many photos. Senegal is such a wonderful place. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to travel to Africa already.
For preparation for Senegal, we learned in class a lot about the history, geography and politics of the country. We touched a bit on the daily life of a person living in Senegal, but that was what we were really sent to find out for ourselves. The culture of the Senegalese is so much different than that of France and the U.S. In Senegal, every custom is founded upon the idea of Turanga or hospitality and it is very visible throughout every encounter. All the doors are open, there is always food for unknown guests and it is expected to shake hands and wish peace on every person you pass on the street. Everyone is so generous, kind, and helpful. The culture of the Senegalese is so interesting so different. I am glad that we had the opportunity to stay in a host family as there are so many interesting things about the culture we would have otherwise not learned especially being there for only 10 days. Our host family is Muslim which 95% of the country is. They have 6 boys and 5 girls living at home. The mom stays there and works all day cooking, cleaning, doing laundry etc. The father is a polygamist, as many men are, and had other wives thus would spend only a few nights with ours. The accommodations were very nice. I had a roommate from SLU with me and another American girl studying in Senegal for the semester. We stayed in a very clean house with filtered water and such. The only difficult part was the hole for the toilette... That was a tricky thing to get used not only because it was a hole but also because swarms of mosquitoes liked to hang out there at various times of the day… very tricky indeed. We had a great family which I am sure I will have to go visit again some day.
From the moment we landed on the 5th every moment in Senegal was just packed with things to do. Our first night we slept on mattresses on the floor of a hotel called Coumba Ndao. We had a traditional Senegalese dish that we all came to know very well: Yassa Poisson. Because Senegal is on the coast, most everyone eats a lot of fish. Needless to say I was not disappointed with my chicken when returning to France. When we awoke the next day, we walked to the Baobab Center to meet our guides and teachers for our petit sejour in Senegal. After a brief orientation of the week’s agenda, we went on a neighborhood walk to find the things that we would probably like to know the location of when in Senegal... like our host family’s home. The rest of that day, and the day after, were full of lectures and such so that we could have a better understanding of the culture we were going to live in. We attended a lecture on Islam, Senegalese culture, and women’s issues. For lunch, we had a traditional Senegalese meal where we sat “around the bowl” which means everyone shares one big bowl on the floor and eat with hands.
On Tuesday, we visited la Mosquee de la divinite. We met the mosque keeper and learned some of the history of that mosque. It was absolutely beautiful and right on the coast where the majority of towns people fished throughout the day. After visiting the mosque, we went to a Coranic school to visit the first/second year classrooms. They were just the cutest kids and all so sweet. They were learning Arabic and French could recite many verses in Arabic as well as many songs in French. I thought this was amazing as the spoken language in Senegal is wolof and many children do not get that much exposure to French before school nonetheless Arabic. After lunch with our host families we went to an English classroom to talk to some of the students studying English in the Lycee (like high school) level. I talked with a girl who was studying English to use in business school, which she was hoping to get into for next year.Wednesday, we ventured downtown to look at the markets. Chaos. I have never had so many people come up to me at the same time and offer me things... even marriage! The markets were fun though as we could use our bargaining skills and the little Wolof that we knew. It was so sad though to see all the poor children asking for money. Every time you turned a corner there were more and more. It was so hard not to give to them, but there are so many and if you give something to one of them, they all come up to you asking. The solution I used was candy so that everyone could have some. Nonetheless it is so hard to see so many children suffer with no option. After visiting centre ville, we went to Goree island right outside of Dakar. It was such a beautiful island. In the 1800s it was used as a port to ship slaves from Africa to the Americas. It was really powerful being in the Maison des Esclaves (House of slaves) and to walk through the rooms titled, “homes,” “femmes,” and “enfants.” We also went to a women’s museum to see the progression of women over time in politics and other fields after seeing a presentation on how the island has been used in the past both for good and bad.
Thursday we left early for Rufisque, town outside of Dakar inland about an hour. We went there to see the effects of the advance of the sea caused by global warming. After I got locked in a bathroom for a good while, I attended a lecture on the advance of the sea with photos and progression slides. The changes were unbelievable and the results terrifying. Houses, schools, factories, and even the cemetery were slowly being swept away by the ocean. There was garbage everywhere too, even worse than Dakar, because of the effects of the ocean. The poverty was incredible and the lesson made most of us stay silent throughout lunch thinking about it. After lunch, we got back on the bus for Toubab Dialao. Toubab Dialao was a beautiful place. Most of us felt so out of sorts having just come from Rufisque, but it was a nice relaxing place we felt very comfortable in. We stayed the late afternoon on the beach until it was time to commence the evening’s activities. That night we learned African dance, tribal drumming and batiking (a form of art on fabric).
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were pretty low key days. Friday we went to the Musee de Leopold Senghor who was the first president of Senegal also well known for his French poetry. After we ate Chobungin in Joal, the town where Senghor lived and visited “seashell” island where 95% of the population is Catholic. After we went on a safari and saw giraffes, rhino, beautiful birds, and all kinds of other animals. In the savannah there was a also a tree dedicated to the Griots or story tellers of Africa who are the keepers of the oral tradition. Saturday we visited the Chef de Village of Toubab Diaolao and had a calm day around the beach before coming back to Dakar. Sunday was a free day and so we went to Centre Ville a bit and the beach. After getting sand in everything we own and getting a nice sunburn we headed back up to Baubab district and had a late lunch.
Monday we visited two school and the community center in Sangalkam. It was fun to talk to the children and to give them gifts. After, we went to Lac Rose for the afternoon. Lac Rose (Pink Lake) is called that because of the high salt content in the water therefore giving it a rose hue when the sun hits it. We learned about the trading of salt there and walked around the salt piles while vendors tried selling us things… that sounds familiar. Then, we got back on our 4-wheeler into a traditional village to see that way of life. It was very interesting to learn about the traditional way of living but even more so to see it live. We got to see the women work and also got to try some of the jobs they do. We then went 4-wheeling in the desert. The funniest thing happened there: we were going up a hill and our 4-wheeler stopped.. so we had to get out to give it a rest. We played in the sand and what not and before we knew it a vendor was running full speed at us to sell us things.. it was the funniest thing. After, our off-roader got to working again, we went to the beach side to watch the most beautiful waves I have ever seen. The beach was untouched and just magnificent. The only place where there was any construction was a little formation of tents for tourist to stay in but we didn’t even see them until leaving. When we finally got back to Lac Rose after our 4-wheeler stopped working for good.. we got Fanta Cocktails and went back to Dakar for out final dinner.
The last day we went to Centre Ville for some shopping then left for the airport at 8:30 p.m. to catch our 11:30 flight back to France. The trip to Senegal was amazing, like I said sometimes it doesn’t even seem like I went. There are so many more details I could say about each and every event, but hopefully you will get some more information through my photos.
Ba Bennane!
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