I certainly found this out in Senegal. I spent the last year working for an international foundation in a rural town in Senegal, which the locals lovingly (or maybe not so lovingly, as you’ll soon find out) called “Tamba.” Senegal is a beautiful coastal country in West Africa where sandy, white, palm-tree lined beaches attract hundreds of (mostly French) tourists each year. I can tell you that Tamba was definitely off the radar for tourists, however. Tell any person in Dakar (the capital city) you’re going to Tamba, and they will certainly make a face and say in French, “ooooh Tamba, il fait chaud!,” which means “ooooh Tamba, it’s hot!” Yes, it certainly is. Tamba is in the middle of the country, part of the Trans-Sahelian Highway system---the crossroads stop for truckers from Mali on their way to the port at Dakar. It is a dirty, dry, red-dust covered city in the middle of Senegal, and for much of the year the temperatures top 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Electricity goes out a couple times a week (I didn’t have air conditioning either way), and the water is cut off much more than that (if you’re lucky enough to be a comparatively wealthy American who can afford such luxuries), so you want to be sure to keep your buckets and bottles full of water when the taps work.
The worst night I spent in Tamba was towards the beginning of the year, when a massive cricket invasion sent thousands of crickets flying around my house, dive bombing my head, then dying on the floor (why they were all dying, I’ve never quite figured out). It was like a Biblical plague, and I certainly no longer think crickets are cute, chirpy insects! But what’s a couple hundred crickets? I can handle that! I can handle the heat, the penetrating Sun, the dust, the relentless mosquitos, the power and water cuts, doing all my laundry by hand, sweeping my floor for an hour every day (to the point of blisters) because poor construction allowed mounds of red dust to settle on my floor every day. I can handle drawing stares and ceaseless attention because I’m a white, American female in a town of 80,000 with only 3 other Americans and no Europeans. Why? Because I wasn’t alone. The Senegalese people are some of the most amazingly kind and generous people I have ever met. No one goes hungry in Senegal because every family feeds the needy. At lunch time you will see the beggars going from house to house with their Maji or Adja (bouillon) bowls to be filled with rice, fish, and vegetables.
As part of the Islam culture in Senegal (the country is 94% Muslim), they are very serious about caring for the poor, including giving charity. I gained weight my first few months in Senegal because of all the families that wanted to feed me! I was “adopted” by a family of 13 across the street from my house, and it with them that I learned many things about the culture, such as how to cook Chebu Gin (the national dish), Maafa, and Yassa Ginard, and what family and generosity truly mean in Senegal. It was an amazing year for me, and allowed complete immersion in the local culture, something I hadn’t had during a 3 month internship with the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria during graduate school (which was also an amazing trip for other reasons, but it was more of the “expatriate” lifestyle in a capital city). Senegal was actually more reminiscent of my study abroad home stay in France, which was my first overseas experience, an incredibly opportunity that kick started my love of all things international.
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| Meredith with a few members of her Senegalese host family (November 2011) |
This brings us back to the present day and my new position as the Faculty-led Program Coordinator for the Office of Study Abroad and International Exchange. I’ve experienced a lot in the past decade, going to school out of state in Colorado, traveling to France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Nigeria, and Senegal, and though I’ve seen a lot of places, it is the people I have met all over the world that have truly defined my experiences and my open-mindedness today. Now I have the opportunity to both re-connect and establish new connections with the people of Northwest Arkansas and the community at the cultural hub of the region, the University of Arkansas. I’m incredibly excited about the faculty, staff, and students I’ll meet through my new position---how they will define a new period in my life and how I can be an instigator for students to have international experiences that will create the kinds of amazing memories I have.
