Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Looking back

Sitting in a Cairo coffee shop yesterday with my two lifelines--cappuccino and wifi--at my fingertips, I marveled at how those first weeks in Dakar would have been easier if only I'd had a few tastes of western luxury. But really, looking back, I can't help but feel a sense of accomplishment, not necessarily from having survived the last four months in Senegal (something I didn't think I would be able to do, much less to stay on), but more from learning to live that life, and, the kicker, to be downright content with it. And it's freeing in a way... to realize I don't have to be dependent on internet and coffee and western conveniences, but that my life is more fulfilled by personal interaction starting with the many people in my house who never gave me personal space to the greetings in the street to making music in the courtyard with my good friends and having ataya (Senegalese tea). In that culture, we create fewer boundaries and more occasions to share what we have, which sadly arises from the poor living conditions but happily creates this larger social desire to give and to share.

My first lesson in this came the first day I moved into my family's house and my roommate and I realized we were going to be sharing a bed (not to mention a very small room), and when Zodiac commented on it, my host mother replied, "On portage tous au Senegal. C'est comme ca." (We share everything in Senegal.) And it was this sentiment that was echoed in action and in word throughout my stay and it was something that we as Americans studying there began to adopt as well. If I had money, I paid. If you had money, you paid. If I had water, you drank it. If I had an orange, everyone got a slice. And on and on. At one point I even had a (baay fall) fellow explain to me how in his brotherhood they share everything including candy to the point that if someone has one piece of candy, it's sucked on and passed from one person to the next. I've never seen it done, but you get the point.

I found it provides a sense of comfort and a strong sense of family, especially for someone like me setting out to live in that country alone. I think this is also why whenever anyone is introduced it's, "this is my brother or this is my sister or my grandma or my mamma" when in fact they really aren't, at least not by blood. It took some time to realize it and become familiar with it, but when I finally did, I felt the same protection and the same trust and just the overall feeling of being taken care of the same as I do when I'm at home in South Dakota.

So being away from it all and being in a different environment has given me the time and space to mull a bit over some of my experiences. Hopefully there's more to come. I also have photos and stories to share from Casablanca and the Red Sea. All in good time.


At die kaffee shoP, y0


View (vue) from Jeremy's flat (did I just use that word?)

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