My semester/time here in Senegal has reached the half-way point. I feel like I should reflect on my experience as a whole thus far.
If I had to use one term to describe the past two months, it would be "eye opening." In many ways I knew what to expect as far as cultural differences go, as well as obvious issues that come with traveling to a developing country. What I didn't know was how I would personally react to everything. I have felt some pretty extreme emotions since coming to Senegal... I knew that unemployment and poverty are major issues, but there is worlds of difference between hearing that in class or reading it in a book and seeing Polio survivors without legs crawling around on the street begging for money. I also knew that Senegal's current government is somewhat corrupt, but seeing people burning tires and rioting in the streets in protest of government actions (namely, turning off the power whenever it sees fit) puts a new face to that as well.
One thing that I did not expect is the overall bitterness of the Senegalese (or West Africa in general) towards former European colonizers. All problems are blamed on the fact that the French took all of their wealth. I have never felt so guilty for simply being white than when Elizabeth (who was living at my house at the beginning of the semester) told me in reference to my upcoming visit to Goree Island that I was going to see what "you white people did to our ancestors." (Goree was a hub in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade era). In my African Literature class, literally every book or short story has framed the antagonist/bad guy as the Westerner. One of the Senegalese students told my American friend here that Africa should kick out all the white people and close its borders to them forever... this was not coming from an older person, but a 20-year-old college student. It was sad to hear this, because I hoped that our generation would be accepting of others, no matter what continent or country they are from.
I am incredibly happy with my decision to study abroad here, though I have not fallen in love with the country like so many other students do when they study abroad other places. I have learned so much, not just about Senegal, but also about myself. This experience has forced me to question and reconsider a lot of my former beliefs. For instance, I went into college thinking that I would study international development, then work for an NGO, and essentially save the world. After being here for just two months, I have to say that I have seen just as much negative as I have positive in terms of Western-based NGOs. First of all, so much development work seems to be a second form of Western domination; many development projects force Western ideals on African people, assuming that Africa must modernize in the same way Europe and the US have. One topic that is very frequent in class discussion is womens empowerment as well as excision (female circumcision). The latter topic makes me so angry and I am entirely against it, but as an outsider, I recognize that I do not fully understand the role it plays in society here. There have been many western NGOs that have come to Senegal teaching about its health risks and why it is "wrong," but people continue its practice anyway. Any real societal change has to come from within the community itself; people do not appreciate outsiders coming in and telling them their traditions should be stopped. One of the more frustrating things here is that since gerontocratic hierarchies are so powerful, anything the elders do not agree with won't happen. So much work in terms of womens rights is halted because the female elders do not agree that women should have the same status as men. Rather self-defeating in my opinion, but that's the way it is, I guess. Anyway, that's my rant.
There are many things about Senegal that are starting to grow on me, however. The weather is cooling down a bit and is actually quite beautiful now. I also really just love how generally laid back everything and everyone is here. The food is also becoming more appealing, although I still miss my American food (read: Starbucks). All of the people here are gorgeous, and I love the fact that women do not have this societal pressure to be super thin. I recently discovered that soda is made with REAL sugar here, not high fructose corn syrup, and is rather delicious. This may be a bad thing, because I never drank soda before because I didn't like the taste, so this may start to be an unhealthy habit. I am really surprised I have not gained at least fifty pounds since getting here, but all my clothes still fit so I am not going to worry about it.
Random story: two nights ago, I was lying in bed, pretty much asleep, when I heard something scurrying around my room. I was sure it must be a mouse or some kind of small animal, but when I turned on the light, I found the largest cockroach I have ever seen in my life fluttering around on the floor. I went psycho on this thing... It is definitely the largest creature I have ever killed. For the rest of the night, I was so paranoid that an army of giant cockroaches were going to come and avenge the death of their friend. Thankfully I haven't seen any since.
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