Something I’ve noticed, without fail, is that consistently throughout all places and peoples in Senegal there is a general, wonderful sense of hospitality, welcoming, and concern for others. They call this “Teranga,” a sense of friendliness, hospitality, and respect conveyed by the Senegalese to all people. It’s most apparent in the traditional long greetings given whenever you see someone. In Senegal when making a greeting there is not simply a “Hey what’s up, or how are you doing?” When you greet someone you ask them how they are, how they slept, how their day has been going, how their family…

…When you travel to a foreign country, you can’t expect to know what’s coming. You learn to go with the flow and see what happens. But what I definitely was not expecting, living in my village of Ross Bethio, was to see my 6 year old little sister Ndeye-Marie, cantering nonchalantly across the compound, wielding a whopping 5 inch chef’s knife in her hand. Of course my first reaction upon seeing this was to jump up off the matt and exclaim to my grandmother my concern. But to my dumbfounded surprise she motioned for me to sit back down waving off my

“Communication has been cut off at the knees. Coherent sentences left hanging in confusion, and words reduced to indistinguishable sounds. I’ve found myself clinging with grateful desperation to the few French and Wolof words I know, and my knowledge is meager. It is one thing to be in a foreign country staying in a hostel with friends and English speaking adults. And quite another to be suddenly thrown into the home of people you don’t know at all, whose culture you are newly familiar with, and whose language you barely speak.”
…This was my initial reaction from weeks ago when

…  In all honestly life here in Dakar is not full of immersion. Initially it felt a little shocking, but that passed quickly. In my home, my host brother and his friends  speak some English, so I get a language break now and then. And everyday all of us fellows are together for a good amount of time so we are hardly living without  English, or even the comforts of home.
In fact life here in Dakar it is very modern and American in many ways. First of all, in my Senegalese home, the TV is always on.  Always. That’s about