Almost time to leave...

As I get ready to leave this beautiful country, I've been thinking back at my time here and some of the little things I'm going to take with me when I go home. I need to find a way to keep my connection with Senegal and continue to be involved there somehow. I don’t want to just leave and then never really return to this place or just lose contact with people. That’s what is difficult about studying abroad, is I feel like I have established a great life across the world with great people, and then it's just over. I can’t just move onto my normal life again and leave it all behind..I just can’t, it's a part of me now. And my experiences here have had such an impact on me. 

One thing I’m definitely taking back to the USA is just to consciously go out of my way to give more and help people here and there. The week before I left, I was frantically last minute gift shopping with Abi, and we ran into this guy that had sold something to Abi the previous week. He got his four friends together and they took us everywhere we needed to go shopping in Central Dakar without asking for anything in return. Granted, they probably had nothing better to do, but still. They gave up their afternoon to help us find everything on our list, and made sure we didn’t get mobbed by annoying vendors trying to rip us off because we were toubabs (white people). We practiced wolof with them, and bought them some mangoes as a thank you for helping us all day. How often in America would you ever see someone just join a couple foreigners and help them with their shopping? People in Senegal as a whole I noticed are just much less concerned with themselves and their own agenda than in the States, and are much more concerned and aware of the people around them. 

Another thing that I have really lived and experienced here is that when you consistently do things for others it really does come back to you. I’ll buy my friends all a banana one day, and the next day someone else will buy me a mango or a taxi ride when I have no money. If it's not a big amount, people don't keep track of what they owe each other, because when you do something for someone, people don't want you to pay them back, they want you to pay them back by building the relationship, or paying it forward. For instance the other day, I was completely out of money, had no access to an ATM  and needed a couple dollars for a taxi in the morning. So my friend Youssou runs all the way to his house, and comes back with a little bit of cash to get me through until the next day. I thank him several times, and he just says "On est ensemble!" Which literally means "we are together." But basically means we're family, I look out for you and you look out for me. I love this philosophy. the expression "on est ensemble," is not a french thing, but comes from a wolof phrase and it's just translated to that in French. I heard this phrase almost every day.

I am going to make more of an effort when I get home to say hi to people more, ask them how they're doing and actually mean it. To take the time to ask people about their families, their studies, if they are in peace! I don’t know if that works really in our culture to do this to random people but I can try and then see what happens. I actually was around a giant group of French people when I was playing a gig with Sous L'Arbre at a birthday party few weeks ago, and the majority of the people there were white and French. I was tempted to go up and give someone a huge enthusiastic hello with a fist pump and a high five, and greet them 5 different ways in wolof. But then I remembered that white people don't really do that... I then struggled with myself for a couple minutes and then realized that I honestly had forgotten how to greet and start conversations with white people.

I also feel more sympathetic and empathetic towards people who are needy. People can be so rude to homeless people in America. My friend Big always tries to give his spare change to people who need it, and starts up conversations with people who might be sitting on the street all the time, asking about their day and making sure they're "a l'aise." Or if he has candy in his pockets he gives them to the Talibé, along with a high five or a pound it. I remember he told me once that if everyone just cared a little bit more about strangers, and gave a little bit more, then the world would be a much nicer place - which is so true. He said that money has no value if you're not using it for good. There was a lady once who was really distressed, and needed about ten bucks to buy medicine at the pharmacy for her mother who was ill. I wasn't sure or not if I was being scammed, but I gave it to her anyway, and she took my phone number and said that we will keep in touch and that she would let me know how her Mother was doing. She told me that because I did a nice thing, someone somewhere would would do something nice for me. Then not long afterwards I was out of phone credit, and I get a text message saying that an anonymous person has sent me ten dollars worth of credit to my phone. 

Something I’ll also take away is patience. If the wifi doesn’t work, its not the end of the world. If the employee doesn’t have the right change for you, get over it. If the bus is late, its late. If your car breaks down, it happens! Things constantly would stop functioning or not work in Senegal and you could either freak out and let it ruin your day, or you could just get over it and realize that it's really not the end of the world. I honestly can only remember hearing someone complain about 3 or 4 times while I was in Senegal. When I think of America, people are constantly complaining about how tired they are, how they don't have the newest model of the iPhone, or how they have to wait in traffic, etc. 

People in Senegal are late to everything - I was an hour late to our farewell dinner with my school because I had to stop by a friends house to visit on the way, which meant that I had to talk to every member of his family for a few minutes, ask if they were in peace, and how everything was going. Then I would see more people on the street that I knew so I had to talk to them too. You can’t just be in a hurry all the time here, or people will wonder why you can’t even take the time to talk to people. This reminds me of back on April 4th, the day of our Independence day concert. It was scheduled at 10pm, and by 9:45 Abi and I were just finishing getting ready and were scrambling to get out the door as fast as possible, which mean't that I missed dinner. We hurried as fast as we could to meet Aba, and when we tried to get a taxi and Aba calmly said that he would rather walk. We told him that if we walked then we would get there after 10, which is when he reminded us that we were in Senegal, not the US, and that the concert would start when it started! And sure enough, when we got there at 10:15 the venue was practically empty, and half the band hadn't even arrived yet. I definitely did not need to skip dinner. A l'aise!

Which brings me to say that time is NOT money! I know Americans are productive people and we get a lot done and that is great and all, but that doesn't mean we have to feel bad about having too much down time,  or for doing things that might not be making us money, but make us happy. One of my Senegalese friends pointed out to me something about the way we think about time. He said to me, "look at the way that Americans talk about time. You spend time, you waste time, you kill time. You talk about time as though it is something you need to keep track of and use up." When he said that he made me think of time in a different way. Then I thought about how the Senegalese think about time. For most of them, time doesn't really exist, and neither does age a lot of the time. Americans are very good at doing, and doing many things at once. We make to do lists, we plan out our time to the last second. While Senegalese people are so good at just being. 

I think that Americans subconsciously feel like when we are stressed out, it is okay because it means that we are accomplishing things. If you think about it, as a society we are always seeking new forms of entertainment to keep us entertained and sane because we work so hard, but we aren't very good at just doing nothing, or spending quality time with people we people we love. It seems like we are an entertainment seeking nation but not really a pleasure seeking nation. People go on vacation all the time, but don't really know how to relax. Even people who think they are relaxing or having down time or present in what they're doing, are really on their cell phone or just watching TV. I felt like because I was spending so much of my time fully present with people and not doing my own thing or around people who were distracted or on their phones, I just felt much happier and more connected with everything around me. Instead of just texting a friend, you just actually go stop by their house. What a concept! I think because in our culture there is so much focus on being independent and following your dreams, we can sometimes get so caught up in that that we forget about our happiness, our health, and our relationships. 

While I may seem like I'm bashing Americans and America right now, let me just say that I do very much appreciate my country in a whole different way, especially after being here. Despite the fact that I keep comparing cultures and putting down Americans in this blog post, I also think there are so many awesome and wonderful things about America and Americans. And also if you're reading this, know that when I am generalizing Americans as a certain way, what I mean to say is that as a whole we have the tendency to do certain things, but I recognize that America is huge and very diverse and that I can't make generalizations about the entire country. I really do love our country, (even though its got a lot of issues) but every country has issues. Being here made me realize just how much opportunity we have in America, and how privileged we are. And no matter where I go in the world, home is home. I'm going to post more once I get home about that because I'm sure I will have some new things to say about it after arriving at home. 

Also I feel like my perception of wealth has changed so much. People have always said money doesn't buy happiness, but I feel like I really experienced that and realized how true it is. I mean, past the very basic necessities that you need, how much "stuff" you have really has nothing to do with how happy you are as a person. Buying a bunch of expensive stuff might buy you short term gratification, but it's not necessarily going to make you feel like a fulfilled person. As a whole, I found Senegalese people to be so much happier, less stressed out, and just overall satisfied with their lives then most Americans I know, and the amount of material things and even activities available to them  are so much less. Then again, maybe it's engrained in American culture to never truly be satisfied, and maybe thats why we go out and work so hard and get things done and are always setting new goals for ourselves.

In Senegal, they have so many less luxuries than we do - things we take for granted like hot showers, access to a wide variety of foods, and just tons of STUFF, all the forms of entertainment we have. When we are so used to having so much stuff, we freak out when we think we are running out of stuff, or when things don't go how we plan them to. Some of the kinds of things we concern ourselves with and get worked up over I've realized are just so un necessary, especially considering how much we actually have and how lucky we are to have the opportunities we do. I think something we can learn from the Senegalese people is to always be content with what you have, and make the people in your life a higher priority. 

Also, not to state the obvious, but people are people, no matter where you go. Despite differences in skin color, background, nationality, gender, etc. we all the same and want the same basic things. I also just wanted to post that picture because I think it looks artsy fartsy!