Senegal Teranga

Greetings from dusty, vibrant, ever-lively Dakar, Senegal. I am here on a 4-month semester abroad as a third year student from Soka University of America, under the Development Studies program offered by CIEE. Currently, I am sitting with DEET on my ankles and my 5 year old host sister leaning on my left arm. The dining room space is occupied by my host father and two other siblings, and the never-absent background noise of the television set. My sweat trickles down my temples and evaporates at the slope of my newly-tanned shoulders, beads pooling at the little crevices of my joints. As I type silently on my laptop under the harsh glare of the fluorescent ceiling light, I am reminded of any other day of the week I have experienced so far.

Before I jumped right into this turn-table journey, I made a few promises and objectives to myself. Of course I see this experience to be more than a timeline of achievements and "realizations" set in stone, but to deny that I chose this path without a sense of eventual "achievements" would be a denial of the self. With that said, I wish to document my stay here in Senegal at least once per week. Plainly aesthetically speaking, it would be a personal (and if you my readers find it somewhat useful, then otherwise) photo journal of the places I visited, the people I came to know, memories I've made, and the things I've come to love. I acknowledge that I speak from a fresh slate, not knowing the place and time and changes and wide history of the African continent, not more than that diaspora literature piece I read in class. Hence, I would like to express any apologies for any ignorance my posts may display, as far as interpretation goes. Please bring to light any insinuating instances, and I will do my best to achieve the woke-ness I should possess, the humility I should come to learn. As a work in progress, walking into a brick wall head on is only a natural phenomenon.

Until then, toodles as I continue to shift through my photos!