All in a Day's Work

Every day in Senegal provides new opportunities for cultural exchange and discussion. My job as a Peace Corps. Volunteer is to work on projects with interested parties and to form lasting relationships with members of the community both to learn about their culture and teach about ours. Living in a foreign country and immersing yourself in a different culture gives you a great deal of perspective about American culture and the roles different groups play within different societies and our own. If I accomplish nothing else in my service here—which isn’t really even a concern of mine at the moment—I will surely have many meaningful discussions about life here in Senegal and abroad. I’ve never been one to shy away from a discussion, no matter how controversial the topic, and I’m especially passionate about the rights and treatment of women which makes just about any otherwise ordinary day here a little interesting.

During last week’s trip to Kedougou, I accompanied my friend to a high school Amnesty International club meeting in a small village outside of town. My friend interned for Amnesty International before coming to Senegal and I was pretty impressed that there would even be a club like Amnesty International in a high school so isolated from everything, so we decided to check it out and hopefully help them get the ball rolling. Naturally, we showed up about ten minutes late for a meeting that was scheduled to start at 10am and didn’t end up happening until after lunch, which provided the perfect opportunity for the aforementioned cultural exchange and discussion.

In my nearly 11 months here, I’d like to think I’ve learned a lot about Senegalese culture. Admittedly, I’ve dropped the ball in terms of Senegalese cuisine and it’s preparation and plan to remedy this by cooking lunch with my host mother this weekend—not because I am a woman but because Senegalese dishes are a big topic of conversation and have thus far isolated me from many a scintillating conversation. To make a long story short, during the four hours that my friend and I waited in a village compound for the meeting to start I asked the AI club President what we were watching his host mother make for lunch. Instead of just answering the question, he started to laugh and asked if I don’t know how to cook; which I naturally answered with an honest “no.” He was shocked and said, “What? You are a woman. Women are supposed to cook.” I was shocked and said, “What? And YOU are the President of your Amnesty International club?!” Luckily for him, this happened around hour two and my friend and I had an additional two hours to explain why things like that may be ok to say in Senegal but are very offensive and inappropriate in other cultures, namely in Amerik.

Granted, not all Senegalese people feel it’s inherently a woman’s job to cook and I acknowledge that there are American men that would share the belief that a woman’s place is in the kitchen, but all in all I found the discussion to be a success. There was a cultural exchange and even on my personal day I got the job done!

Starving...

Remember all those times growing up when your mother told you to finish all your food because there were starving children out there that wish they had what you have? It’s true, Senegal has officially entered the “hungry season” and I’m sure all the people eating rice and water or a piece of bread for lunch and dinner would love the opportunity to have so much food that they can’t even finish it all; although, even if they did they would never waste it—people that know on any given year they or one of their family members can starve to death generally have a little more respect for food. Luckily, I live in a big town with a relatively well-off family and don’t have to worry about any shortage of food but I recently spent some personal days in Kedougou visiting my friend’s village and it was quite eye-opening.

Before I left, a friend who just returned from a trip down south warned me I should pack some food because there is nothing to eat and all the volunteers down that way are loosing a lot of weight. I assumed she was exaggerating but packed some snacks just incase. Between the 100k I biked and the daily watery and/or oily rice we ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I can honestly say I don’t know how the villagers find the strength to work so hard. Peace Corps. Volunteers have the money to buy necessary dietary supplements but their villagers don’t and in many villages people die every year. My snack supply was exhausted in no time and I was dreaming about bread with mustard—generally pretty gross but surprisingly delicious when you are starving.

Understandably, this entry may be a bit of a downer but now you know someone that is actually living where there are starving people and it’s my hope that you’ll be a little more aware and definitely more thankfully for our way of life in the U.S. In Spain, I ran into some Americans and someone asked why I’d want to go all the way to Africa when there are people in America that need help. I’m here because I’m going to spend the rest of my life trying to help Americans but I won’t always have the freedom and independence to live abroad and try to help people with issues the majority of Americans don’t even know about and/or can’t sympathize with. I’m here because I’m American and they are Senegalese, but more importantly, we are all people.


In other news.. I've added a bunch of pictures from my time here on my shutterfly account! Check it out or send me an email and I'll give you my info.

I thought this was a particularly pretty picture from my recent trip to Kedougou.