A posting from Emily Prior, ‘11, after arriving in Senegal.
To rewind, when I was halfway through my sophomore year and study abroad destinations were all the rage for conversation, I, too, began flirting with the numerous destination possibilities. I am a Leadership Studies and French major, so any logical assumption would be Paris or some quaint little town in France. After all, my mother studied in France and her study abroad stories are probably what convinced me to study the language in the first place.
But, as much as I love the idea of traveling to France, I wasn’t sure if I wanted that to be my study abroad experience. I wanted my time abroad to be more than a look into the life of another culture and, instead, an opportunity to truly put all hesitations and preconceptions aside, divulge into the lifestyle of a completely foreign culture, and hopefully learn more about myself because of it. In fact, I was almost looking forward to the somewhat uncomfortable yet completely real situations and problems I may come upon. From health issues, to social issues, to simple emotional issues dealing with such a different environment, I wanted to fully experience an entirely new lifestyle and in turn be prepared for the hardships that will likely come in one form or another.
So, I made a checklist. I needed the French component, the Leadership Component, the “Experience” Component, the Life-Transforming Component, the obvious Safety Component, and voila!
Dakar, Senegal here I come.
With CIEE Dakar’s “Language and Culture” Program, I hope to study the makeup of a completely different society and, with every establishment I come upon or law I learn about, I can find the leadership that is embedded in it. Senegal’s poverty will force me to step out of my comfort zone and think about the routes of poverty or the difficulties of leading a country with fewer resources. The makeup of the citizens will force me to think about race, social issues, and the customs that make up a country. The predominantly Islamic society will force me to think about the value they place on religion compared to that of people in the United States and understand how Islam is woven into their daily life. And, to top it off, I will still be speaking in French, chatting it up with my Homestay Senegalese Family or just trying to grasp everything my French professors are saying during lectures - in short getting the experience I wanted.
Now, back to the present. Today has been my first day in Dakar. Yet, after the events of today, it feels much more like a week than a mere 14 hours in this country. I flew in from Dulles yesterday evening and landed at around 6 am. After landing and going through customs, we loaded up our luggage onto the CIEE buses and drove towards L’université de Suffolk- the university that we will be temporarily living in this week and will also be studying at during our time here.
We almost instantly found our temporary rooms, chatted briefly with our roommates and collapsed. Then a few of us decided we would take a walk to the cliffs and find the pretty mosque we had seen on our drive in. We followed Route de la Corniche Ouest which took us along the ocean. While there is a lot graffiti in the town, almost all of it is political, and it was entertaining reading the French protests throughout the walk. Half of the Senegalese welcome us in French and the other half welcome us in Wolof, their local language. I have learned that the typical wolof greeting starts with Salaamaalekum and the typical response is Maalekum salaam.
Our leisurely sunny walk to the cliffs ended with us soaked in the rain from the storm that hit - mid promenade. We were greeted at the door of the dorms with 20 students just staring at our soaked attires saying “awwww” in unison. But the rain didn’t stop and in a matter of minutes, we experienced our very first Senegalese flood! I brought extra towels, a headlamp, flashlight, etc. to Senegal thinking that I may need it once or twice. I didn’t realize ALL of it would be put to good use my first day. The dorms flooded to just below our knees and we had to pile our suitcases on top of our beds.
The flood picked up and we were eventually relocated to a hotel where I am currently sitting. This hotel seems luxurious. We have HOT water, electricity, bedding and air conditioning. We are staying here until our dorms are fixed, but are supposed to move in with our Senegalese families on Friday and may not make it back to the dorms before then. The actual program begins tomorrow so I’m going to go practice french… au revoir!
