The
adventure has begun! Nearly two weeks
ago, I was sat on an aeroplane at Heathrow airport, full of anticipation about
what the future might bring. However,
life here is such a world apart that it is impossible to try to imagine it. Every day, as I wake up under my mosquito net
to the sound of tropical birds and bleating, free-roaming goats, I have to
remind myself that this is not a dream.
For the
present, we are staying in the small fishing village of Yenne, situated just
south of Dakar. School children here are
still enjoying their summer holiday and will be doing so until
mid-October. For this reason, my PT
partner, Lauren, and I have been giving English reinforcement classes in a
summer school before moving to our main project in two weeks’ time.
Despite the
preparation given on training, walking into a classroom full of expectant
students and being told to teach has, at times, been challenging. However, having fallen into more of a rhythm
now, there is no better feeling than having a successful lesson. Each day we alternate between teaching a
beginners’ class and an advanced class, although there is still much variation
in ability within these classes. It has
been great fun to let lose my imagination and be creative in the
classroom. So far, there have been some
heated debates, crazy games and lots of laughter.
We are
always extremely busy and there is never a dull moment. I think the reason for this is that everyone
in Senegal is so hospitable and friendly.
Being new to the village, we provide quite a fascination for the people
here. All are keen to entertain us. After finishing our morning classes at the
summer school, there always seems to be somebody around who will extend an
invite to us. It could be to come and
drink ‘atiya’ (Senegalese tea), go to the beach, or someone will simply want to
introduce us to the rest of their relatives.
Living here is like being welcomed into one, big family, especially
since everyone introduces themselves as so-and-so’s aunt, cousin, brother
etc. We have even been adopted as the
aunts, wives, or sisters of those in the community.
Each
evening, we take classes in Wolof, the most widely spoken dialect of
Senegal. This has been a particularly
enjoyable part of the day. All are keen
to help us practise and are impressed when we can address them in their local
tongue (even if they do laugh at our accents!).
However, Wolof greetings can take a while. It is not sufficient to just say ‘hello’ to
passers-by. Having asked how the person
is in both French and Wolof, people then ask how your family is, how your
morning/afternoon/evening is going, where you are going, what you are doing,
where you come from, before finally saying ‘goodbye’ or ‘see you later’. As you can imagine, it can sometimes take an
awfully long time to get from one end of the road to the other!
The sense of
community is even felt at meal times.
Food is eaten out of one, large dish for all to share. This can be at a table or sat on rugs on the
floor, the latter tending to be the norm.
Everyone is welcome and families never seem to mind if there are a few
extra guests to dinner – there is certainly always enough food!
Despite what
anyone may say, the Senegalese really do love their football. Whether you are walking past an open stretch
of land, along a beach or even on the road, you are sure to find some sort of
match taking place. At the weekend, we
attended a match in the village, along with almost the whole local
population. On our return, the number of
people traipsing back to their homes was comparable to the crowds streaming
from the stadiums of professional football matches. Locals are now even keeping me up to date
with Swansea’s progress, knowing that I come from Wales!
It is
impossible to share all my experiences and thoughts from these last few days in
a single blog post; however, I have been having the most amazing time here and
am very much looking forward to the months ahead of me.
