I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t be thrilled to be told I could go home tomorrow instead of waiting for another three months. Having said that, I’m having a great semester so far. I know I’ve started falling in love with Dakar, Senegal, and my semester abroad because today I found out that Suffolk University will be closing its Dakar campus and I felt a loss. CIEE is looking to continue renting the space it currently occupies, but part of the experience here is participating in clubs with Suffolk students with whom we can bond and practice our linguistic skills. As I thought about it I realized I was sad because students in the future will not have this same experience, though they may have something different and just as rewarding, it won’t be this experience. My language partner is going to be taking the TOEFL exam and is hoping to be at Suffolk in August (which means we could continue communicating in person this fall!).
Just prior to leaving the United States and in my first week or two here I questioned if I had made the right choice. I questioned if giving up the familiarity of Europe for a country with unreliable infrastructure, food I knew I didn’t love (i.e. fish), and immersing myself in a country where I don’t have to say word to stand out because the color of my skin does that for me, was been worth it. I am confident that it was the right choice. Last Friday during my African drumming class local children came in and danced to the music we made and led us in a dance at the end of the lesson. On the way home from school today I walked through a crowd of people pitching tents on the side of the road to celebrate the prophet’s birthday (they’ll be praying all night and tomorrow is a national holiday). You pay 20 cents to ride a colorful and packed car rapide to your destination and look down realizing that you can see the road beneath the vehicle. The sense of community is reinforced every night as we all eat from the same bowl. These are things that simply would not have happened had I chosen to study in France or somewhere else in Europe. I could not have made a better choice.
I realize some of you may wonder what it’s like for me getting to school each day because that’s information I’ve come to take for granted. I walk to school each day and it takes me about half an hour. I turn left out of my house passing the UN, a hotel, a little bookstore, and various street venders. I then cross the street and cross the street a few more times, working my way through the traffic of two traffic circles. Just as I reach the opposite side of the second circle there is a Catholic primary school. I walk along a busy road for a while passing several fruit stands, some clothing stores, a butcher, and a mechanic. I turn left just before a building under construction which is located right next to a DHL. I walk on that street for just a couple of minutes and turn right onto the next street where I pass the Cuban and Palestinian embassies and another primary school. At the end of that street is another fruit vender. Then I must turn left onto Rue Cheikh Anta Diop. There has been massive construction going on there since we got here and each day I’ve had to work around a different section of road being paved. On Cheikh Anta Diop I pass a Turkish restaurant, a flower store, the place where public transport vehicles are kept, a mechanic, and CIEE/Suffolk is located on the campus of École Nationale Économique Appliqué (ENEA).
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*Suffolk's Dakar campus for clarification.
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