School and Stuffs

My classes aren’t that heavy of a workload, which is nice because even though there isn’t a lot of actual homework, we are learning so much here all the time by speaking the languages, interacting with our families and friends here and just daily life here. I don’t start class until 12:30 most days, and Fridays we don’t have class cause it’s reserved for field trips, traveling to rural places, internships and community service.  

The classes I’m taking are: French, Beginner Wolof, Contemporary Senegalese society and culture, Environment and Development in Senegal, Education in Senegal, and then a living and learning in Dakar Seminar class. A couple of my classes will be taking tons of weekend trips around the country, going to the sites of places we are learning about so I’m pretty excited about that! For my senior project I’m trying to observe and find patterns in the culture and in people here, so I have this giant word document of just a mind barf that helps me process everything I’m learning and experiencing here. That is also why it’s been hard to keep up with this blog because when I sit down at the end of the day to write, it’s not organized or processed enough to share, but just a jumble of my thoughts and recollections and reflections on things I’m doing and experiencing.

Wolof is taught in French, so when I’m learning wolof, I’m translating it into French, not English, so I have three languages going through my head at once sometimes. I have the basic conversational greetings down, but it's such a foreign language that I forget what I learn pretty fast. Everyone says I’ll have it pretty well by the time I leave cause it's not too difficult of a language once you get the hang of it because there aren’t really verb congugations. The thing about Senegal is that people don’t really stick to one language though when they talk. Unless they know you only speak French, they’ll start a sentence in French and then finish in wolof, or young people will throw in English words sometimes. For example, “maangi fi rekk” means I’m doing well or I'm in peace, but young people will sometimes say “Maangi cool!” or “maangi nice!”

Our student “lounge” is on a roof, which is pretty much the best thing ever. We share the building with Senegalese students so I spend a lot of time with my Senegalese friends up there. I like to sit on the edge of the building on the roof and eat lunch there – the Senegalese people freak out and think I’m going to fall off, but it's really not dangerous I swear. 

Its hard to believe I’ve been here for almost two months now. It seems like I’ve been here a lot longer in the sense that I feel like I’ve known some of the people here for years! But at the same time it feels like time is going by too fast and I can’t believe I’m only going to be here for a few more months. Definitely the best part about here so far has been the people! I’ve been getting to know the other Senegalese students, which is a great way to get to know the city, culture, and language. They’re all really nice and super welcoming. After spending so much time with them I’m starting to talk like them and use a lot of French slang and Senegalese expressions. This picture below is probably my closest group of Senegalese friends. I spend a lot of my free time with them. They also are always looking out for me and making sure that I stay away from anyone that might not be safe, are always accompanying me home etc. They tell me and my other American friend all the time that we are part of their family and it is the sweetest thing ever! There is an expression in French that they say a lot, “on est ensemble,” which essentially means we are family, we’re together (but not in a romantic sense). Also people don’t keep track of their debt with each other if it’s just a small amount, and if you say that you owe someone money they don’t like it because there should be an ongoing relationship of helping each other out. I kind of like that, cause that means that sometimes people cover me or buy me food but then I do the same thing for them so its just this circle and it feels good not to be keeping track of little money things. 

People in Senegal text a lot just checking in and asking how your day is going or if you’ve rested well today. They’re so sweet and I love them so much. I was sick last week for about 5 days after eating something questionable on a weekend excursion, and I got texts from all of them asking me where I was and wishing me a speedy recovery and checking in with me, and one of my other Senegalese friends even came over to visit me to keep me company while I was sick! I also spend a lot of time drinking tea at friends houses because tea is kind of a big deal. People are also in and out of each others houses a lot and you don’t really need an invitation all the time. I’m learning so much by just talking to people and interacting with the locals. I am surprised at how well I’m able to understand and speak French too. 

My friend and I have been going on runs with our friend Youssou, which is a great thing to do with Senegalese people because they don’t have a competitive attitude about sports. All of the men here seem to be really fit, and when you exercise with them there isn’t this mentality of pushing yourself until you die, or of being better than anyone else, it’s just about being fit and having a good time doing it. We even sing sometimes in Wolof while we run and clap along! We go to the gym sometimes and work out there, and Big will lead us in exercises and dancing and one time the power went out and we did step in the dark with candles and it was really cool!

Nightlife starts here around 11 or 12, but people usually go out at about midnight or 1am. In Senegal people stay out all night when they go out so I usually get back at 5 or 6 in the morning if I go out on the weekend. My sister dresses me up when I go out which is fun, because Senegalese women always look really nice and put together.

Time is not very precise but pretty general. Life is so much more slow paced here than in the States. Part of that has to do with the fact that there isn’t as much employment here and people tend to spend a lot of time with each other and resting. Even when I was walking with a few of my Senegalese friends they kept telling me to slow down and that I was walking too fast. The other day I had a friend over for lunch and I told my host mom I had class at 2:15, but she still insisted that we keep eating and then have tea and fruit after lunch, so I was 20 minutes to class and it wasn’t even a big deal. Saying I was late to class because I had to finish lunch and drink tea is an acceptable excuse for being late here. Only in Senegal… Learning about their values makes me able to see American values more clearly too and my own. People here rest a LOT. In the USA if you rest too much people call you lazy. But here if you don’t rest enough they tell you that you need to rest. Or if you are sick or even sniffle, they say that it’s because you haven’t been resting enough or you’re not eating enough. Individualism isn’t really a big thing here either.