Excerpts from Kirsten Rosenkrands’ Letters from Dakar, Senegal:

Out of control: Arriving in Dakar, feeling exhausted and in a daze after some forty hours of traveling, I find that my luggage hasn’t arrived, and that I am expected to explain our luggage problems in French. I soon realize that traveling is a whole lot more difficult than I expected. Talk about a wake up call!!! I got my suitcases a week later, but that whole fiasco made the first week here much more challenging then I had expected. Even though I had enough stuff to get by on, it felt so uncomfortable not be able to settle in and organize my stuff. Now that I think about it, clothes and other things from home, even if they were just books or vitamins, were very important to my feeling more at ease, more at home in my new environment.

Showing an interest in the host country: Being educated about the culture and knowing some of what to expect before coming has definitely helped me remain more patient with things. It has also helped me get to know the people here more quickly because they see that I am interested in their country, their way of life, and that helps them to be more open and eager to teach me things and share with me.

Being sick away from home: I think that for me personally, the most challenging thing since arriving in Senegal has been physically adapting to the climate. Even at this moment my stomach is feeling rather queasy and I have just knocked on wood, my form of praying that the feeling will pass without too much more pain. In the past three weeks, I have gotten really sick three separate times, each time being something completely different as well as being unlike any sickness I have ever experienced before. Being sick in such foreign surroundings is extremely draining both physically and emotionally

Being patient with myself: Overall, I think that the biggest thing that has helped me survive thus far is patience and being careful not to demand too much from myself too fast. For example, since we are learning another foreign language, Wolof, on top of our French, it is really easy to become mentally exhausted. A lot of the time I have no motivation to learn Wolof because French alone seems hard enough.

Worries about measuring up, fitting in: I also feel that I have to live up to the expectations of my host family. They have told me all about their exchange student last year and have great things to say about her. I guess that I am still at that timid stage where I am constantly worrying about what my family thinks of me, trying to avoid doing things that would offend them, but at the same time trying to maintain my sanity and my individual personality. It can be really easy at times to slip into the trap of comparing oneself to either other people or even just the culture itself. I have to be careful not to lose myself here while trying to integrate myself into the culture at the same time. Seems like it is going to be a touchy process.

The importance of patience: Patience in Senegal is a necessity, especially for a western foreigner, and has been critical to my survival here in more ways than I can count. It is woven into every part of Senegalese life. For example, there are constantly blackouts, and once in a while, no running water as well, and of course when the lights go out, it is often that I find myself in the middle of doing something or other. So, being the American that I am, I originally found myself stressing out in this situation. However, over time, I have been learning that this only adds more discomfort to things. In place of stressing out, I have discovered that a simple change in attitude, expectations, and perspective, can do wonders by helping a troublesome situation evolve into experience that is more meaningful and enjoyable than that of the previous one.

Other examples where patience has definitely been a virtue include the level of communication with loved ones at home and in other parts of the world, dealing with transportation, negotiating with street vendors, understanding that there is about a one percent chance that everyone in a group will show on time for an event or class, prolonged hellos and goodbyes because salutations are very important in this culture, and last but definitely not least, three out of the five shovels provided being used by three of the fifteen people who arrived an hour late to work at the permaculture garden site while the rest seem to just socialize and discuss things endlessly.

Learning not to make hasty judgments: The Senegalese pride themselves on being the country of hospitality: Teranga in Wolof. In many ways, this pride is rightfully placed. However, at the same time, their idea of hospitality added to their perceptions of white foreigners can sometimes result in behavior that I no longer consider hospitable. For example, the first week that we were here, we were provided cultural guides who happened to be women of our same age. Throughout our first week of orientation, these women were a tremendous help to us, never mind the fact that they were getting paid for it. By the end of the week, we had spent so much time with them that many of us already considered them to be friends. They had invited us out to go dancing and had offered to braid some of the girls hair. Little did we know that along with these invitations also came the expectation that we, the Americans, were going to pay for them to get into the club, get drinks, and braid our hair. Hmmmm…I thought, that is not quite what I expected from those invitations. For me, I saw that first little difference in cultural definitions of hospitality as a big bright yellow warning sign. From that point on, I used that experience to remind myself how much there is for me to learn about this culture before I go throwing myself into anything too deeply. I have to consciously remind myself, time and time again, that I need to give myself more time to get to know the culture before I go diving into it head on without knowing how deep the water is.

SENEGAL SEASCAPE. PHOTO BY KIRSTEN ROSENKRANDS.

The importance of having time alone: Not until just recently did I fully understand how vital my tiny bit of personal space, that usually being my room, is to my everyday existence here. Last weekend, I got this chance, when the key to my room got accidentally locked in the building where we have our classes. At first, I thought that this would not be a problem because I could just go back and get the door unlocked and get the keys. However, getting my keys became much more difficult than I had imagined and I ended up having to live outside of my room for almost the whole weekend. So, what was supposed to be my down time turned into a stressful experience that showed me, among many other things, how much I truly value the little bit of personal space and individual freedom that my room offers in this very communal society. While writing in my journal, I realized a few concrete reasons why having this bit of space is so important that included it being the one place where I do not have to worry about the effects of my actions on others, I do not have to speak French or Wolof, I can wear my boxer shorts without disapproval, I can feel free to cry, be frustrated or sad, I can be quiet, I can be all Kirsten and nothing else. Overall, thus far, I have discovered that although it is important to integrate oneself into the host culture, this process should not be sacrificial. Therefore, it is important to find a happy medium between integrating oneself into the culture without losing oneself at the same time.