Senegal

Senegal. My hope when I applied up for this program was that they would take me somewhere in the world that I would probably not choose to go on my own. When I opened my email that day in December, I realized my wish had been granted.

I have the very slightest of connections to this west African country. Many years ago, I was fortunate enough to have a student in my classroom who had once lived on the streets of Dakar. It was complicated circumstances that brought him to my classroom, but I was forever grateful for the opportunity of getting to know this remarkable boy. Another small tie that I have to the country is that a former pastor went to serve in Senegal for several years. It is actually one of the very few countries in Africa that I feel confident in its location, especially as I play Worldle every day.

But aside from that, I am learning alongside the many of you, who have joined in my excitement about my adventure, while also questioning, “Now where exactly is that?” I know very little, but within the next few short weeks, I hope to understand a whole lot more. I will share with you now what I do know.

As for exactly where it is, well, that one is actually a fairly simple answer.  It is the most western point of continental Africa.  It is one of the few countries in the world that completely encompasses another country inside of its borders.  Senegal, if looked at through the lenses that we sometimes view clouds, could look like an animal head with its mouth open.  If that image works for you, The Gambia would be the tongue of the animal.

The history of Senegal, like any country where people have inhabited for tens of thousands of years is complicated, and as I don't truly understand a lot of it, I will only share a brief history.  The area was ruled by a variety of different African kingdoms until the Europeans arrived in the 14th century.  French, Dutch, English and Portuguese all had settlements and trade routes in this area throughout the last several centuries.  They were trading wheat, ivory, pepper and of course the horrible act of trading enslaved peoples.  It wasn't until 1960 that Senegal gained independence from France, meaning of course that the country is still relatively young while the land and the people who inhabit it are ancient.

Today, Senegal exports many natural resources like gold, petroleum and phosphoric acid. After those, its largest exports are fish and peanuts. I loved hearing about peanuts, not only because I’m someone who grew up on peanut butter and honey sandwiches and now has peanut butter powder in her smoothies everyday, but because of the Alabama connections to peanuts. After the boll weevil destroyed cotton crops in Alabama in the early 20th century, George Washington Carver, who was working at Alabama’s Tuskegee University developing crop rotation methods that included planting peanuts. In 1938, Dothan hosted the country’s first Peanut Festival. When traveling internationally, I always love to find simple connections to my home state.

As soon as I heard that I would be traveling to Senegal, where French is the national language, I began a few minutes of DuoLingo every day.  Will I be able to carry on conversations in French? Non.  But, I hope to feel more confident with greetings and be able to pick out a few words here and there.  It sounds like many people in Senegal also speak a local or native language, the most common one is Wolof.  I hope to learn some Wolof while I'm there, because I especially love how much of the greetings focuses on peace.

Fashion is something that gets very little of my attention.  In fact, if I'm being honest, it should probably get a little bit more of my attention.  Is it comfortable?  Does it make me feel good?  Do I have to iron it?  Does it have pockets?  Those are truly my biggest concerns.  But it sounds like Senegal is on the cutting edge of fashion.  I am hopeful some of that style rubs off on me!

In my preparations for this trip, Fulbright inundated with me articles about education, culture, economics and women's rights in Senegal.  It was the article on the overwhelming hospitality of Senegal that excited me the most.  Coming from the south, hospitality is something that I treasure, and something I am deeply proud of.  But when reading about the Teraanga of the Senegalese people, I felt that there was so much more we should and needed to be doing here.  I'm honored and thrilled to be traveling to a place known for such warmth.

As part of my study on global education with the Fulbright program last year, I developed a lesson plan for my fourth graders which incorporated the knowledge of natural disasters in our curriculum with more global connections.  My goal was to help students realize that even though they hear about climate change, and have a vague understanding of it, that it is truly affecting the daily lives of people around the world.  In groups, students researched places like California, Louisiana, Bangladesh, Sahara Desert, Greenland, the Maldives, and the Gobi Desert.  It seems perfectly poetic that one of the cities where I will spend much of my time in Senegal, Saint Louis, is also one of the cities most affected by climate change.  I believe upon my return, I must include this coastal city into the research project for my students!

I have so much to learn about Senegal, and I am so eager to broaden my knowledge of another corner of the world, and I hope I can share it with you as well.  One thing I am most eager to experience is the sunset.  Dakar is the last place on the continent of Africa where the sunset is visible, and well, that just sounds magical to me.  I've always loved sunsets.  It is isn't just the beauty that they bring but the feeling they invoke.  It's the marking of an ending as well as a new beginning.  It's also one thing my parents and I love to do together whenever I have the pleasure of being home, on the "farm" for a few days.  

Peace be upon you!