Everyone I told about going abroad would always ask, "Are you excited?" "Are you ready to go to Africa?", and I would answer with an unsure affirmation because I never quite knew for what I was supposed to be excited. I had done a lot of reading on Dakar and read news about what was going on in the country, but any feelings of excitement that I had never exceeded my feelings of nervousness, so I didn't think my excitement was ever genuine. Coming to Senegal was something I only talked about but never quite wrapped my mind around completely. My feelings prior to arriving in the country and this continent could really be summed up as nervous anticipation of an experience that I knew could not be anticipated. The one thing I did hope was that this experience would help develop my perspective on my own life and the lives of those around me, a change that I knew wouldn't just occur from the trip itself but it is something for which I would have to work. However today was the day that all of these thoughts of anticipation came into fruition.
I left last night at 10pm from JFK airport after my Uncle Sonny dropped me off, the last goodbye for the next 3 ½ months. The plane flight was 7 hours 15 minutes which isn't bad at all considering that I made the 4.5-5.5 hour flight from NY to CA twice in the last 10 days. The flight went very smoothly and I was able to sleep for a good portion of it, missing both the dinner and breakfast that they served on the plane. However when I did wake up I was in Dakar, which was a surreal moment as I had finally arrived and I kept thinking, “Wow I’m finally here.” I had talked about this trip so much and now I was here. I then began to think about my friends at the school who I had just seen the night before. They had just begun their academic at Columbia, a school full of stress which leaves you thinking that you never have enough time, always moving from one thing to the next, trying to make the next deadline, finish the next essay, study for the next test, make the next club meeting, all in one of the world’s busies most fast paced cities. I needed a break from it all and this trip provided that break for me.
I saw men riding horse carriages around the city among the cars and motorcycles.
After waking up we left our bags in the hotel and headed over to the WARC for our first traditional lunch in the country which we had during our orientation. While our instructors Waly Fale and Maria went over different essentials of the program we shared a combination of delicious drinks among the 15 of us. After the drinks they brought out 4 large plates of food and 4 or 5 people ate from each plate in a communal style.
I left last night at 10pm from JFK airport after my Uncle Sonny dropped me off, the last goodbye for the next 3 ½ months. The plane flight was 7 hours 15 minutes which isn't bad at all considering that I made the 4.5-5.5 hour flight from NY to CA twice in the last 10 days. The flight went very smoothly and I was able to sleep for a good portion of it, missing both the dinner and breakfast that they served on the plane. However when I did wake up I was in Dakar, which was a surreal moment as I had finally arrived and I kept thinking, “Wow I’m finally here.” I had talked about this trip so much and now I was here. I then began to think about my friends at the school who I had just seen the night before. They had just begun their academic at Columbia, a school full of stress which leaves you thinking that you never have enough time, always moving from one thing to the next, trying to make the next deadline, finish the next essay, study for the next test, make the next club meeting, all in one of the world’s busies most fast paced cities. I needed a break from it all and this trip provided that break for me.
I saw men riding horse carriages around the city among the cars and motorcycles.
After waking up we left our bags in the hotel and headed over to the WARC for our first traditional lunch in the country which we had during our orientation. While our instructors Waly Fale and Maria went over different essentials of the program we shared a combination of delicious drinks among the 15 of us. After the drinks they brought out 4 large plates of food and 4 or 5 people ate from each plate in a communal style.
When we exited the plane and went through customs and I then received my first 3 month visa. We then went into the baggage claim area, only a few steps away from where we got our visas and I got my first look at the composition of our MSID 2013 group. First thing I notice about the group is that there are 13 participants in the program this year and I am 1 of 3 males on the trip and the only African American. I was not surprised by this fact being that a majority of the students are from the University of Minnesota or schools in Minnesota (5% Black), however it was a bit ironic being that we were in Africa.
We boarded the bus on the way to the hotel where we would be staying during our first night. On that first trip through the country I noticed how undeveloped the city was which I found very surprising. I thought that because Dakar was the politial and economic capital of Senegal that it would be more like some of the cities in the US but this was not the case. During the trip I saw buildings which looked like they had been started but there was no intention to finish them as there were no workers currently working on them.
We boarded the bus on the way to the hotel where we would be staying during our first night. On that first trip through the country I noticed how undeveloped the city was which I found very surprising. I thought that because Dakar was the politial and economic capital of Senegal that it would be more like some of the cities in the US but this was not the case. During the trip I saw buildings which looked like they had been started but there was no intention to finish them as there were no workers currently working on them.
When we arrived at the hotel each of the participants went up to our assigned rooms to drop of our bags and settle in. Both I and my roommate jack took naps as were jet-lagged and entirely new experiences can often be tiring.
Here is a view from the hotel window looking out onto the rooftops of Dakar.
After we all finished eating we had three different teas, which is a tradition after a Senegalese meal. All of the flavors of the teas and the drinks we had had before the meal were so distinct as they were flavors and aromas I had never tasted before. For each round of a tea the woman preparing the tea poured the tea from the kettle into each of the cups then she carefully poured tea from each of the cups into other cups which I think was for cooling purposes.
After drinking the teas and finishing up the orientation we returned to the hotel. That night a few of us did a little exploring around the area near the hotel before dinner time and we went for a drink at the nearby store which was nice and relaxing although I was still pretty tired. For dinner we had chicken and frites, which was in stark contrast to the traditional lunch we had earlier, and with the dinner my first day in Dakar was over.
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