Six Months in Senegal, A Reflection

Well, this is not really a reflection as much as it is a list of observances. A reflection might imply it is more personal or with really deep insights. This is neither, really.


So this past weekend I celebrated my official 6 months In Country, as we say. Yea, 6 months, weird huh? When a fellow PCV in another country near me hit her 6months, she wrote an email listing all of the things in her life that had drastically changed, keeping tally in a way of her different experiences. While I don’t have a tally, I have some general thoughts, listed in no particular order

Ways my life has changed in the past 6 months:
-I now get almost daily marriage proposals
-I bathe outside in the sunlight, with a bucket and well water
-I live in a 3x4m hut with a grass roof, `nuff said
-I am malnourished… (working on overcoming that though)
-Coffee is Nescafe with powdered milk rather than a beautiful and delicious latte
-I LOVE buckets
-I hand wash and line dry all of my clothing
-Rarely do I really understand what is going on around me
-I can use up to 4 different languages in daily interactions
-I realized that I cannot kill every cricket in my room, but have the right to be annoyed by them, but especially by frogs and mice in my hut
-I am rarely ever actually clean
-I hate traveling in this country, but also cannot stay in my village for more than a few weeks without going more than a little crazy.

Ways my life has remained the same:
-Ridiculous things happen to me or around me on a daily basis
-I have great friends and family (in the States and in Senegal)
-I love mail and email
-Simple things make me happy
-I dance a lot
-Oatmeal with peanut butter and bananas is still my favorite breakfast, when chocolate chip pancakes aren’t available
-Crowds and lots of people overwhelm me
-I journal a lot

There are a lot more than listed for both, but these are the ones that really stood out in my head as I sat typing at the Kaolack computer this morning.

It is crazy to think about how much things have changed in my life in 6 months. I constantly feel torn between thinking I still know nothing about life here and realizing how much I do in fact know. I’ve been here 6 months, but that’s still only 6 months. However, I was able to reasonably answer new trainees questions about life in Senegal, which made me realize I do actually know a lot. Another Volunteer, 1 year in, mentioned that 6months in Vols shouldn’t be invited to help with PST because we are too new and thus know nothing, but then some COSing Vols stood up for us, saying the first 6months is when you really learn the most in the shortest period of time because life is just soooo different and you have to adapt fast. It was energizing meeting the new trainees and knowing that my Stage is no longer the newest group In Country. I see some things in them that remind me of my Stage and it’s good to be able to observe things in them that I’m sure the Vols we met during PST saw in us. Really, it is like high school or college. My Stage is now the sophomores of PC Senegal, or "wise fools" as the word means. I think it is quite fitting.