Dakar, Senegal

Why I chose to go to Senegal: I have always had a desire to see Africa — maybe it would be even better to say I wanted to feel it. Senegal was the perfect choice for me, because here I can also continue to study a language I love — French.

What I identified as the greatest challenges facing me as I began my study abroad program: Getting to know myself. I think Americans often avoid themselves by keeping busy doing things. I know that in Senegal there will be less “stuff” to occupy my time, and more time in which I’ll be forced to know and deal with myself.

My ICRP: Teaching English at the Lycée Lamine Gueye in Dakar, Helping the English Clubs in Dakar organize an English Festival.

I work with professor Haby Ly, teaching English for levels seconde, première, and terminale, the last three years of secondary school in the Senegalese/French system; the students range in age from 16-20 years. My students already have a broad base in the English language and now are fine-tuning their communication skills. I am involved in the lesson planning for the students’ reading materials; I teach several two-hour conversation classes each week. I am also very much involved in the school's English club, which is run by students, under the faculty sponsorship of Haby Ly. Once or twice each week, students meet to practice poems, sketches, and songs--some of which they have written--about world issues, their personal feelings (things like sex, AIDS, poverty). I am helping to direct and guide the sketches that they will present for an English festival held at our high school.

I feel really privileged to be a part of it. I have so much respect and admiration for my students--who fight to learn. The conditions of the school that I am working in are sometimes really awful, much like some urban high schools in the US. There are no books, there are broken windows and graffiti; but my English students have such a strong desire to learn, and such big aspirations. My first question to every class has been, "Why do you want to learn English?" And some of my students’ answers are surprising—many want to come to the US, many want to have a better job, many just love language. But watching them work humbles me. I never realized how incredibly blessed I was to have the schooling and resources that I had. My students have so little, and yet they persevere. Its incredible!

See contact page to arrange a speaking engagement.

Read excerpts from my letters home.