Mangi fii (rekk) - I am here (only)

Forewarning: This post is really long, sorry! There's pictures at the end though!

In the past week, I have said “mangi fii rekk” several hundred times as part of the common greeting. The entire greeting translates to be: Peace to you. - And to you, peace. - How are you doing? - I am here only. - How is the family? - They are there. -Praise be to God. - Praise be to God.

I am here only, it's a powerful phrase. Everytime I say it, I do so in only partial truth. I have adjusted to Senegalese life in many ways these past two week, but I am still rather connected to life back in the US. That's not a bad thing (I think), it is just a challenge to the notion of “being here only.”

I am here.

I am here only.

There is such power and beauty in those statements, which I think comes from the emphasis on being present.

I began to realize the importance of being fully present (physically, mentally, emotionally) this past semester. I was trying to juggle an unhealthy amount of commitments and my to-do list rarely seemed manageable. As much as I tried to ward off pre-occupations when I was with friends or needed to focus on completing a single task, rarely was I entirely present or living in the moment.

This semester, so far, has been the complete opposite. A new school and a new community has meant fewer commitments and more free time (almost too much). That will change in the next few weeks as our semester long classes begin and I will hopefully be able to start volunteering or interning at a local organization.

It is still a choice to be present and live in the moment. Everyday, I choose when I leave my house to walk to school and how much free time I allow for conversations I might have along the way. I largely choose how much time I spend at the Boabab Center with other English speakers, how much time I spend on the internet connecting with people back home, how much time I spend with my host family. There are a numerous quotes and pieces of advice about spending your time wisely, and the hodge podge of them all seems to be that where you invest your time, you invest your life. I think Mumford & Sons touches on the heart of the matter in their song “Awake my soul”

“In these bodies we will live,
in these bodies we will die
Where you invest your love,
you invest your life
...awake my soul...”

It's still a choice to explore and embrace aspects of a different culture, especially in moments when I yearn for comfort. It's in those moments that lyrics from Say (All I need) by One Republic become convicting. Since being here, it seems like every single lyric in that song has described my thoughts and emotions perfectly at one point or another. For the sake of the length of this post, I'll only include a few. A video of the entire song with lyrics is at the end of this post.

Do you know where your heart is?

Do you think you can find it?

Do you know where your love is?

...Well all I need

is the air I breathe

and a place to rest my head

I am miles away from the comforts of my life in the US but I am here in Dakar, a place filled with treasures I'm only beginning to discover. In the past two weeks, I've tried to find the appropriate balance of spending my time and mental energy between life in Senegal and life back in the US. Yet again, I've found that balance is overrated and is not what I should be striving for. Striving for balance gets in the way of following you passions and your heart.

"You are never static, and there is no such thing as balance. You are going up, or going down. What we perceive as balance is the ability to recognize these states and maximize the quality of our reaction to them" – Unknown (at least to me)

And the key to “maximizing the quality of our reaction to them [these states],” I think, is being present. I will strive to be present with my host family and the people I encounter here in Senegal as well as in my interactions with you all back in the states. When I greet everyone, I hope to be able to rise to the challenge of saying “I am here” or “I am here only” in as much truth as possible.

This last quote, I think, ties in a lot of the lessons I've learned since arriving here.

A day spent without the sight or sound of beauty, the contemplation of mystery, or the search of truth or perfection is a poverty-stricken day; and a succession of such days is fatal to human life.
Lewis Mumford

On a lighter note, here's a tiny glimpse of how being in Senegal has changed my daily life:

- my host family's goats baa every morning at 6am, and throughout the day

- I wake up an hour before I need to have breakfast to take my anti-malarial pill

- breakfast is bread (baguette), butter, and tea. Yes, I now drink tea, and I already know that cereal will be one of the first “home” foods I crave.

- Everyone speaks Wolof, and most also speak French. Even though this last week of school consisted almost exclusively of Wolof classes, most of the conversations I hear around my house and on the street are completely foreign to me. Learning a language takes a lot of energy!

- Lunch is the main meal of the day and we have at least a two hour break from school to go home and eat with our families. My host brothers come home from school and eat with my host dad and I and any other distant family who happen to be here. We all eat from one main dish, filled with rice, some meat (usually fish), a few vegetables, and a delicious sauce.

- The television is usually on. I watch soccer with my host dad, MTV with my host brothers, and my favorite- Fresh Prince of Bel-Air dubbed in French with my host sister.

- Dinner is relatively late, between 8:30 and 9:30pm. What we eat varies. The first night, we basically had spaghetti and bread (baguette) which threw me for a loop.

- Nobody EVER thinks I've eaten enough, ever.

- I hear the call to prayer several times a day

- And when I go to bed, I feel like a princess as I fall asleep under my mosquito net.

And, as promised, pictures!

Okay, I wanted this to be at the end of the pics, but this is my room. Note the mosquito net!

 Fish! I've eaten fish pretty much every day, and often I have the joy of seeing its eyes, mouth, and even teeth while I eat. This was one of the few meals we've eaten from individual plates (because it was one of the first days here and it was before we moved into our host families).

This is the apartment building where we stayed the first night. It was much nicer than it looks.

 This picture was taken from the roof of the Baobab Center and overlooks the nearby neighborhood which is not far from where I live.

This is one of the two Baobab Center buildings, where most of our classes will take place.

This is my host family's house/my house. (In Wolof, suma ker.)

And this is the backyard. Note the sheep pen and the prayer mats on the clothesline.

Nit nitay garabam - A person is another person's remedy

I've been here for just over a week, wow! It's been an amazing week, filled with a wide range of emotions. My mind has been flooded with curiosity, joy, discomfort, beauty, pain, loneliness, bewilderment, and gratitude. Before I left, I promised myself I'd try my best to write in a journal. I've watched my paragraphs become lists as the amount of lessons I've learned and experiences I want to remember seems to have multiplied with each day. I'll post some of the lessons I've learned to this blog but there is no way to fully express the extent of what I've learned already- about Senegal, about myself, about others, about life...anything and everything it seems. Through this all, the Senegalese proverb “nit nitay garabam” (a person is another person's remedy) has rung true so loudly.

I am so lucky to have such a network of support here. I'm doing this study abroad program with four other girls from Beloit and we've met people from other schools who are also studying at the Baobab Center. The staff there are dedicated, energetic, encouraging, and of course a little sassy. (Before we came, an adviser told us that the Senegalese have sass, especially the women. SO TRUE.) I'm living with a host family- Ndeye Coumba is my host mom, I call my host dad Pape, I have a 7 year old host sister Mariam and 11 and 14 year old host brothers Mohamed and Moctar. They're very laid back and have made me feel so welcome. My relationship with Mariam so far revolves around card games and gymnastics, I talk music with Moctar, and soccer, religion, and politics with my host dad.

Senegalese society is very communal; much emphasis is placed on relationships. Buying a soda from a boutique is not a simple transaction, it's about building a relationship too. The common greeting starts: Peace to you. - And to you, peace. - How are you doing? - I am here only.

There are three older men who sit on a bench a few buildings away from the Baobab Center that I pass several times a day as I walk between the Baobab Center and my house. I greet them as best I can in Wolof (the main language spoken here) and at the end of our short conversations, they remind me that they will be there when I return. As I was struggling to put Wolof phrases together, one of them told me that he was there (and will continue to be there) with the purpose of helping me (and others like me) learn Wolof. My interaction with him raised my spirits incredibly.

Later that day, I met a young man visiting from Gambia who didn't speak much French or Wolof. Our 15 minute conversation in English seemed to be just the human connection he needed.

A few days later, I took a different route home from the Baobab Center, past a sandy soccer field that had been empty that morning but was now filled with action. A group of seven or eight young girls came up to me while I was talking to a few men watching the game. We talked, played, and sang for probably 20 minutes before I continued on my way. When I was about half a block a way, two of them ran up to me independently just to say goodbye. Such precious moments!

I have also treasured the contact I've had with a few of you from back home. A simple "hey there" brought such a bright smile to my face. Thank you everyone, from Senegal, the US, and everywhere else for being so full of riches and for being my remedy time and time again!

The amazing Beloit girls here with me. This was one of our first Senegalese meals at the apartment building we stayed at for our first night.

Bi Bu Njëk Ndank - The First Step

I've taken my first malaria pill, my bags aren't packed yet but everything is in piles, and at this time tomorrow, I will be on a plane headed to Senegal. AHH! The Arabic phrase “Inshallah” (God willing) that's scattered throughout Senegalese conversation is really appealing right now. I'm nervous and excited but most of all I'm eager to be there and learn from every person and situation.

Here's some basic information about the program I'm doing:

- I'll be staying with a host family in Dakar, which is the capital of Senegal. If you look at the map, you'll see where Dakar and Senegal are located in the larger scheme of things. Fun fact: The region of Dakar contains the westernmost point of mainland Africa.

- The official language of Senegal is French and the regional language predominant in Dakar is Wolof. Everyday conversation is a blend of French, Wolof, Arabic, and a little English. Communication shall be interesting! (I have taken several years of French and know a little Wolof.)

- The school where I'll be studying, the Baobab Center, is also in Dakar. Their mission is "to promote cross-cultural understanding, social justice and the health and well being of Africa's people through effective communication and transformational training" by partnering with the local community to implement culturally appropriate solutions to social justice issues. (That mission statement in an of itself really excites me!) The students are mostly foreigners from the US on study abroad programs or preparing for Fulbright or Rotary scholar work. The professors are all Senegalese and classes are held in French. I'll be taking classes on “Dakar in Transition” (the effects of globalization on Dakar), Culture, Gender and Politics (studying Senegalese literature), the History of Islam, the People and Culture of Senegal, and Wolof. We'll also have some sort of independent project but the details are unclear at this point. I'm excited!

As I head into this, there are a few insights that have really stuck with me:

"I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason bringing something we must learn and we are led to those who help us most to grow if we let them" - "For Good" from the musical Wicked

“Everyone a learner, everyone a teacher, everyone a leader” - The Unheard Voices by Stoecker and Tyron

And some Wolof phrases:

No ko bokk - we share it. If something is worth having, it is worth sharing.

Ndank, ndank - step by step. The sense of time in Senegal is very different than here in the US. Things will happen, Inshallah, God willing, means that they may or may not happen. There is more emphasis placed on relationships than completing tasks. In preparing for studying abroad, the other Senegal-bound Beloiters and I have joked about “Dakar Time” being the reason we receive delayed information. For example, we just received our host family information today, the day before we leave the US. Everything moves more slowly, and that is something I hope I learn to embrace throughout my time in Senegal.

Fayda - sense of self

"Faydah is knowing yourself, knowing what you want. To feed your family, you must have the faydah to work hard in the fields...Faydah is what makes dreams come true, what lays the path ahead of you as you walk through the forest. It allows you to accept a friend's invitation for tea, it guides you as you treat others with the respect that you deserve for yourself. Faydah gives you the courage to take decisive action. It is the seed God planted in your heart and your life is meant to serve its cultivation...Faydah grows in the heart. The heart has no borders or limits, in time or space.” - Give with Gratitude by Katie Kruger

I'll try to update this blog often with stories, pictures, and reflections but in all likelihood, I won't post more than once a week. Feel free to comment and ask questions!

Also, here's a taste of Senegalese music! It's mostly in Wolof but there's some French in there too.

I'm so nervous but SO EXCITED! A huge thank you to everyone who has supported me in big and small ways along this study abroad process!