Photo de la Semaine: Week 4

This photo was taken at the Lac Rose (literally: the Pink Lake) just north of Dakar. The algae in the water attracted to the salt makes the water look strawberry pink in the sunshine. The water is so salinated that if you scrape the bottom of the lake, you’ll come up with a handful of pure salt! My friends and I took this pirogue across and back to have lunch at the little restaurant on the other side for 1500CFA.

Looking forward to hearing from y’all!

Ba altine, Insh’allah! (See you Monday, God willing!)

-Rheanna 

Kai, lekkal!

Helpin out in the kitchen!

Asalaa Maalekum, everyone! 
Hope your week has been a good one! From your previous questions and comments, it’s been easy to gather that food has been on everyone’s minds. And rightfully so! I loooooove the food in Senegal, I’m going to miss it dearly when I leave. ‘Kai, lekkal!’ means come, eat!! in Wolof. ‘Lekkal’ was the first Wolof word I learned, as my family is very keen on me eating my fill at dinner.

Breakfast: 

Breakfast at my home is the same every single day, between 7-10am. The maid sets up the breakfast table every night before going to sleep (Side Note: no matter how much money a family makes, if they have

Breakfast at a hostel in Tamba.

enough, they hire a live-in maid. This is completely normal and expected, and often is one of the better jobs a woman can get in Senegal depending on her situation). In the morning we have white baguettes, fetched early in the morning from the neighborhood boulangerie (bakery). With the bread there is a choice of either ChocoPain, a kind of knock-off Nutella, and margerine. The bread and ChocoPain is usually accompanied by a nice, steaming-hot cup of Nescafe instant coffee with sugar cubes (I use one or two, but I’ve seen Senegalese folks use up to six!) and powdered milk.

 

On days when I don’t eat breakfast at home, I get it on the way to school. Women set up shop on the side of the road with tables surrounded by sheets, making a sort of breakfast tent. They have huge covered bowls filled with beans, peas, hard-boiled eggs, beef, and other goodies to put into breakfast sandwiches. Sometimes they have my favorite kind of bread, a softer-and-fluffy loaf eaten in smaller towns called tapalapa!

Lunch and Dinner:

Lunch is my favorite meal of the day, and the most important meal in Senegalese culture. We usually eat pretty late, between 1:30 and 4pm, but it’s almost always worth the wait.

Ceebu jën, how I will miss you.

The most famous Senegalese dish is called ceebu jën (or thieboudienne), pronounced ‘cheb-ooh-jen’.Ceebu jën literally translates to ‘fish and rice’ in Wolof, and that’s exactly what the dish is – a giant steaming pile of spiced rice typically topped with fish, carrot, casava, bitter tomato, yam, and cabbage. Most dishes for lunch are some variety of ceebu jën with different meats, sauces, and vegetables. Let me tell you – it is delicious.

 

Last week I spent my Friday learning how to make ceebu ñebbe, or ‘rice and beans’ with my maid. We made the rice and beans, but in addition added sea urchin, sea snail, dried fish, salted fish, smoked fish, and all of the vegetables mentioned above!

Dinner is typically something similar, but there are a million different delicious Senegalese dishes I’ve eaten here that I can’t even begin to describe in full! My favorites are soupe kandia (rice with sticky, spicy okra sauce), yassa poulet (white rice, carmelized onion sauce, and roast chicken), and mafe (white rice with beef cooked in a thick, peanut butter stew). Dinner is usually around 8:30pm, but can be as late as 11pm!

Ceebu ñebbe. I made this!

Another ceeb dish with a thick tomato-y peanut sauce. Mmmm.

Cultural norms and expectations:

Something important to remember is that for most cultures, eating isn’t just about the food. In Senegal, as with any culture, there are specific cultural ‘rituals’ that accompany meal times. For meals, as you can see pictured above, the family eats around one giant plate. My family is a bit more modern, so we each get a spoon to eat with, but at most households the whole family eats with their right hand. Eating with your left hand is considered very disrespectful and unsanitary, as it is the hand you use when going to the

Ruth modeling excellent table manners

bathroom (eeeew). Talking during meals is okay, but not encouraged, and when you are done you simply get up and leave. It is not expected to wait around and chat – chatting is for later, when we drink ataya (a kind of sweet tea).

 

Another thing extremely important to Senegalese food culture – sharing! The rule goes: If you are eating something in the presence of someone else, no matter how much you have or how many people there are, you always offer to the other people. Bottle of peanuts? Pass it around. Eating an apple? You better offer a bite to your neighbor. Not everyone will say yes, but it’s the principal that’s important. If there’s anything about Senegalese culture that I hope to take back with me to the states, it’s this.

 

 

Snacks:

Meals are often huge in Senegal, so there’s not a lot of reason to snack. That doesn’t stop

Natalie and Lena are VERY excited about their yoghurt baggies.

me, though! Fruit stands can be found on any street corner selling all sorts of sweet treats. I usually have a kilo or two of apples and bananas at school to share with friends. On top of that, you can always find a woman selling re-purposed liquor bottles filled with roasted peanuts to satisfy a pre-lunch craving. Something that struck me as funny when I arrived is that you can buy all sorts of liquids and snacks in baggies – water, juice, milk, even yoghurt!

My favorite snacks include peanut brittle, freshly fried beignets, fresh coconut (they’ll bag the coconut water for you to drink, too!) and these sweet little peeled oranges that you can eat like apples on the walk home from school.

Mmmm beignets.

I want one right now!

What do you most want to try? What do you think are your cultural norms and expectations around eating in your household? Can’t wait to hear from you all!

Mango munchin’ down in Kegougou for Spring Break!

A la prochaine, insh’allah!

– Rheanna

 

Photo de la Semaine: Week 3

As I promised, this is what the inside of a boutik looks like! This is my neighborhood boutiquier, who was too kind to pose for a photo in exchange for me buying a few coconut-covered beignets. As you can see, one can buy all sorts of things at a boutik – snacks, juice, canned goods, flip flops, super glue, spicy Café Touba (a local sweet drink, essentially instant coffee with spices), cleaning supplies.. anything!

What do you think of the boutik? Do we have any equivalents in the US?

I know you’ve had a busy week, and I asked some big questions on Monday. Whenever you have the chance to answer them, I’ll add them on to this post or just wait until next week!

A lundi, insh’allah! (See you Monday, God willing!)

–Rheanna

Yow, foo jòge? – City vs. Village

Asalaa Maalekum, everyone! I heard the weather in Portland this weekend was almost the same as in Dakar – I hope everyone got to soak up that vitamin D on your three-day trip!

Yow, foo jòge (pronounced ‘yahw, fo jo-gay’) means where are you from? in Wolof; a common question to hear within the first five minutes of meeting someone. This week I want to talk about the differences between what it’s like to live in the big city, Dakar, in comparison to a small rural village. One of you asked me during the Skype date, “I mean.. what does it even look like, over there?” I can’t wait to show you!

Hometowns, Names, and Ethnicities: 

In Senegal, there are over 20 different ethnic groups that each have their own specific language. The average person in Senegal speaks around three different languages! In Dakar, almost everyone speaks Wolof, but Wolof is actually specific to the Wolof people. The most populous ethnic groups are Wolof, Serer, Pulaar (including the Peul, the Toucouleurs, and the Pula Futa), Jola, Mandinka, and Soninke. Asking about where you come from and what your last name is is important to people here, because it can generally determine which ethnic group you are from. Senegalese folks tend to be very proud of their ethnic group, and like to talk about the stereotypes associated with their people. My family’s last name is Sarr, and we are Serer – when people ask my name I give them my Senegalese name, Awa Sarr, and am immediately recognized as being Serer. Serer are known for being friends with everyone, for being extremely loyal, and for eating too much couscous!

In the big city: MERMOZ, DAKAR

Though a lot of things are different about Dakar, a lot of things are fairly similar to any other big city. Dakar is very diverse, with every type of ethnic group represented (though Wolof is majority) as well as a large population of foreigners, like me. What do you notice about the way things look? What is similar or different from Portland?

My little sister, Ayou, accompanying me back from a trip to the boutik.

‘Dibiteries’ are little shops that sell meat. This one, right down the street from me, has deliciously greasy chicken sandwiches.

Bar Mermoz, a local hotspot for a plate of Yassa Poulet and a cold beer.

Dakar is littered with little ‘Salon de Coiffeurs’, or barber shops.

 

Goin’ deep down South: TEYEL, KOLDA

In February, I spent a week in the far South of Senegal with a volunteer for the Peace Corps in her village of Teyel. In Teyel there is no running water, no electricity, and it is VERY very hot. Though a few people spoke Wolof, the ethnic group in this part of Senegal is Pulaar, and they speak a branch of Pulaar called Fulakunda. For those of you who remember my last post well, I had to take two sept places, a minibus, and then hitch-hike in a car to get to Teyel with my Peace Corps volunteer!  What do you immediately notice as being different from your pictures and expectations of Dakar?

A typical hut, loungin’ in the shade of a giant mango tre

Me and the big mama baobab!!

Having ataya (tea) and giggling fits at the neighbor’s hut.

This tiny bottomless pit, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call a wanag – or ‘the toilet’.

In Dakar, I spend my days taking taxis and busses to the nearest cafe with wifi to do homework, lounging on the beach with friends, and hanging out with my family at home. In the Teyel, it was so hot that most people spend hours simply sitting in the shade, doing nothing but enjoying each other’s company. Though they are such different places, I had an amazing time during my stay in Teyel.

Questions for this week’s post:

• Which do you think is a more accurate representation of the majority of Senegal: Dakar, or Teyel?
• How much money do you think the average Dakar citizen makes per day? How much do you think for Teyel?
• When you close your eyes and think of ‘Africa’, which set of photos is closest to what you imagine? Why do you think that is?
• How does the way that Senegalese people talk about and identify with ethnic groups compare to how you talk about different races and cultures at home in Portland?

Whew, those are some pretty big questions! I can’t wait to hear what your thoughts are. Feel free to add any comment or question you think is relevant!

Ba ci kanam, insh’allah! 

– Rheanna

 

Photo de la Semaine: Week 2

Gotta hand it to Coca Cola for their international advertising. This was taken at my local grocery store! Can you pronounce any of these Senegalese names?

Great questions this week, everyone!

• Givonne: What kind of transportation have you been on? Do you like the colors of the buses? How old do you have to be to ride a motorcycle? I’ve been on every kind of transportation mentioned in the post except for a moto! They scare me a little bit, since people often don’t have helmets and traffic can get pretty hectic. I’m pretty sure the only rule about riding a moto is that you have to be big enough to ride it properly (even then, when I was in Tambakounda I saw kids of all sizes on motos). And yes, I love the colors of the buses! Dakar can get pretty dang dusty with sand, so everything everywhere seems to be covered in a light beige. The bright colors are a nice change. 🙂
• Ayan: Why do children get to ride on motorcycles? Motorcycles are just not seen as particularly worrisome or dangerous here. Our school director told us a story about her brother-in-law coming to her house one day, bringing with him a brand new moto. “But you don’t even know how to drive a car!”, she said. “So what?” said her brother, “it’s only a moto”.
• Kalab: Do they have vending machines? Do you have horses?You know what? There might be one at a fancy hotel or something, but no, I’ve never seen a vending machine. Instead, on almost every single street corner there are little corner stores called ’boutiks’ that sell everything you’d find in a vending machine and more. Anything you can think of – bread, tea, soda, toothpicks, spices, toilet paper, teapots, batteries, literally anything can usually be found at a boutik. I go to one at least once a day for something or other. I’ll try to take a good picture of one! I’m good friends with my local boutik man. And YES, there are horses everywhere! One transportation thing I didn’t talk about were the Charettes – horse-drawn carriages are found all over.
• Grace: Where do you keep the cold food at the grocery store? In many small villages all over Senegal there is no electricity at all, so there are no grocery stores and no cold food. However, in Dakar and every other city (and any small town!), food is kept in refrigerators just like back at home!

For the questions about welfare, food stamps, and homelessness – I am going to answer those questions in another big Monday post a different week. There are just too many things to talk about! Homelessness and begging are a huge problem in Senegal, though, and I’d love to talk to you all about that.

Next week I wanted to introduce my neighborhood and everything that can be found in it, to show you a bit of what Dakar really truly looks like. Is there anything in particular you would like to see or hear about? Let me know!

Jërëjëf! Léegi léegi, Insh’allah. (Thank you! See you soon, God willing).

– Rheanna

 

 

Nungi dem!

Asalaa Maalekum, everyone! ‘Nungi dem’ means ‘We’re going’ in Wolof, but can be used like ‘Here we go!’

Based on the questions from last week, I wanted to focus this Monday post on transportation in Senegal.

How do people get around in Dakar?

There are so many ways to get your booty across this chaotic city! I thought maybe in order to explore all the kinds of transportation, I would walk you all through what a normal day in Senegal could look like if you took every kind of transport here. Choose-your-own-transportation adventure, Senegal-style!

Setting: 8am, Ouakam, Dakar

Meet ‘Aisha’. Aisha is leaving Dakar today with her friend Mamadou to visit her family in the Petite Côte of Senegal, in the town of Fadiouth.

Aisha needs to get to the station Beaux Maraîchers in order to leave Dakar for Fadiouth. First, she hops on a Car Rapide for 50CFA (8 cents) from her house to a local landmark, YumYum pizza. Car Rapides are brightly colored mini-buses that have no set destinations but go along the biggest roads in Dakar. The ‘apprenti’ is a person who rides holding on to the back of the vehicle and yells out the direction their travelling, as well as collects money. You can hop on and off whenever for a very small price.

“Ouakam! Ouakam!!”

Aisha meets her friend, Mamadou, at YumYum. Mamadou arrived at YumYum via Ndiaga Ndiaye, a mini-bus similar to a Car Rapide but bigger and painted white. Between friends, we also call Ndiaga Ndiaye’s “Alhamdoulilahs” because that phrase, alhamdoulilah, is usually painted across the front in huge letters. Alhamdoulilah is Arabic for ‘praise be to God’

Ndiaga Ndiaye – Alhamdoulilah!

From YumYum Pizza, Aisha and Mamadou take a Taxi to the Beaux Maraîchers. Taxis are EVERYWHERE in Dakar! I take at least one taxi per day, depending on where I go. Taxis here are not like in the states – there is no fixed price. You have to bargain! Bargaining can take thirty seconds to ten minutes, depending on how stubborn you or your taximan is. I often bargain with two or three taximen before finding a price I agree with. Aisha and Mamadou end up bargaining their taxi down to 2500CFA ($4.16).

“3000CFA, c’est bon?”

Once they get to the garage, Aisha and Mamadou pay their taximan and walk into the fray of Sept Places and Quatorze Places (pronounced set-plahce and cat-orz plahce, meaning seven-seat and fourteen-seat in French). Sept Places are station-wagons that have a set price and destination and only leave when they are full of passengers. You could be waiting for ten minutes, or you could be waiting for three hours to leave. Quatorze Places are cheaper, but take longer to fill up before leaving because they cram as many people as possible in the 14 spots. Aisha and Mamadou get in a Sept Place to Mbour for 1500CFA ($2.50) each.

SIDE NOTE: Gris-Gris! Gris-Gris (pronounced ‘gree-greez’) are small good-luck charms that take all sorts of forms in Senegal. Most vehicles have a few of them attached. These can take the form of horse tails hanging off the back of a taxi, a baby shoe hanging from a rear-view mirror, or piles of stuffed animals squished into the space between the steering wheel and windshield of a Ndiaga Ndiaye. When my driver is particularly wild, I feel grateful to have some sort of protection charm!

Sept and Quatorze Places

 

The Sept Place takes about 2 hours to get to Mbour, a large city south of Dakar known for it’s huge pink mosque and vibrant fishing port. Aisha and Mamadou hop in a taxi to check out the fishing port, where they see humongous, brightly-colored Pirogues. Each Pirogue has a name written on the side, named aptly after the owner’s mother, their marabout (Islamic religious leader), or their favorite Senegalese wrestler.

Pirogues at Mbour

I like to call the Mbour mosque ‘Barbie Dream Mosque TM’ for it’s baby blue and pink

Aisha and Mamadou go back to the station in Mbour to wait for another Sept Place to Joal. While they wait, they eat mandarins and peanuts sold through the window of their Sept Place by local women.

“Madame! Madame! Oranges? Cashews?? 200CFA only!”

On the road, Aisha and Mamadou see giant trucks piled high with cargo also heading to Joal-Fadiouth! Senegalese people know how to utilize the maximum amount of space, for certain.

I’m always scared they’re gonna tip over, honestly.

Once in Joal, Aisha and Mamadou take a Clando, short for ‘clandestine taxi’, to the bridge to Fadiouth. Clandos just look like normal cars, but will pick you up and take you anywhere along their route for 100-250CFA (18-40 cents).

Once at Fadiouth, Aisha and Mamadou decide to take a Pirogue ride around the Mangroves! Their guide is happy to take them by pirogue to the Fadiouth cemetery, the only cemetery in Senegal where Christians and Muslims are buried side-by-side in peace.

Mangroves!

The crosses are Christian, metal plaques are Muslim. And more Baobabs!!

The island of Fadiouth is made entirely out of shells.

Aisha and Mamadou spend the day at Fadiouth with Aisha’s family, celebrating the birthday of her cousin. Her cousin, let’s call him Cheikh, takes Mamadou on a Moto ride around Joal. Motos, short for motorcycle, are very popular all over Senegal, but are very dangerous. It’s not required to have a drivers license nor helmet to ride a motorcycle, which means there are a lot of accidents.

My host brother Lamine with his daughters, Khadija and Sally on their moto to school.

At the end of the day, Aisha and Mamadou take a Sept Place all the way back to Dakar for 1800CFA ($3.00). When they arrive back at the garage Beaux Maraîchers, they decide they don’t want to pay for a taxi. Aisha takes a TATA, a type of bus, back to her home in Ouakam. Mamadou takes a Dakar Dem Dikk (meaning Dakar Go-Return in Wolof), another kind of bus, to his home in Mermoz. They each pay 200CFA (18 cents).

TATA

We call them ‘DDDs’

Aisha and Mamadou arrive at home just in time for dinner, around 9pm! Dinner is pretty late in Senegal.

WHEW. What a day. Transportation can be completely exhausting in Senegal, as things often break down or take a long time to finally leave. I choose to take every step like a new adventure, and try to find the fun in the bumps in the road (literally and metaphorically)!

Okay, that was a pretty long post for today. 

How do you all get around Portland? What kind of transport in Senegal would you most like to try?

Also, to follow up from last week, I still really want to hear your opinions about welfare in Portland and how that would be different from in Dakar. 🙂

Looking forward to hearing from you all!

Ba ci kanam, Insh’allah! (Till later, God willing).

– Rheanna

 

 

 

Photo de la Semaine: Week 1

This photo was taken during my week-long stay in the rural village of Teyel, in the region of Kolda in Senegal. The ladies there were preparing big batches of rice and meat for the naming ceremony  of a newborn baby. The tree in the background is called a baobab. Baobabs play an important role in Senegalese life and culture. They are absolutely everywhere, and their fruit makes a delicious white juice called buy (boowee). I can’t wait to talk more about baobabs in the future!

Thank you so much for all your wonderful questions!

• Grace: Do you have a cat? – No, I do not have a cat. Cats are mostly feral (wild) here in Dakar, they roam the streets like rats or mice. People generally do not own them like pets in the same way we do in the U.S.
• Ayan: Is it fun there? – It is SO fun here! Sometimes I get overwhelmed with homework and such because of school, but even riding the bus here feels like an adventure. I can talk about the brightly colored buses called Car Rapides in another post 🙂
• Emma: Are there any fast food restaurants like McDonald’s or Burger King there? – So far, I haven’t seen any McDonald’s or Burger Kings here. However, there are a LOT of fast food restaurants that sell burgers, fries, fataaya (fried dough stuffed with spiced fish), nems (fried, Asian-inspired spring rolls), and shawarma (grilled meat and veggies wrapped up in a pita-type bread).
• Jacky: Are there any carnival fairs there? – No, there are no travelling carnival fairs here as far as I know, but there is one big run-down carnival called Magic Land near me that I can go take pictures of to show you sometime.
• Grace: Is there TV? – Yes. Almost every family has a TV here. In fact, watching TV is my family’s favorite thing to do! My dad, Pa Sarr, loves to watch the soccer games and the whole family sits together after dinner to watch soap operas in Wolof (one of the local languages).
• Emma: Do you have chess or checkers challenges? – Hmm. I don’t know about chess or checkers challenges – do you mean like competitions? I have seen some old Senegalese men playing checkers on the street. Next time I see anyone playing, I’ll ask them.
• Kalab: Do you like the food? – Yes, I LOVE the food! For the first few weeks here, I got pretty sick because my body was adjusting to the diet, but now I feel a lot better and I love all the meals my family makes. Mostly, it’s a lot of rice or couscous with fish and vegetables. Yum!
• Emma: Do you have a Rubiks Cube there? – No, I have never seen a Rubiks Cube here. Most kids that I see don’t have that many toys (my little sisters have just a few, pretty worn dolls even though my family could afford more), but play outside together a lot instead! There are kids outside my house playing marbles every single day.
• Ayan: Have you ever seen a lion in the wild? – No, I have never seen a lion in the wild. Have you? There are some lions in Senegal but they all live in enclosed reservations, for their safety.
• Grace: What is your favorite kind of pie? – My favorite kind of pie is definitely rhubarb.

The ideas you all came up with about Dakar and Portland were great. I was very interested to hear you say that you think the welfare systems would be different here. How do you think they would be different?

With the schools and animals, I think you are mostly correct – they are very similar to at home. Schools can be pretty different, though, which I’d be happy to talk about sometime. Transportation, however, is VERY different from in Portland! I’ll try to take pictures of all the different kinds of transportation here to show you next week.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask away!

Ba beneen yoon, insh’allah! (Until next time, God willing!)

– Rheanna

 

Asalaa Maalekum!

Welcome to Senegal, Ms. Blackwell’s class! My name is Rheanna, and I’ve been living in the Dakar, the capital of Senegal, for the past ten weeks.

Me and Medo, holding baby goats ‘Dainty Deuxième’ and ‘Buschemi’ in Teyel, Senegal

A little background on me:

I’m in my third year at Portland State University, studying African Studies, French, and Gender Studies! I spent my

Blues dancing!

fall semester in Paris, France working on my French skills before flying directly over to Senegal in January.

Things I love include blues dancing, playing the accordion, hiking in the Columbia Gorge, and reading books about awesome women. It’s been a looooong time since I’ve been back in Portland, so I’m thrilled to connect with you here before returning in June!

So, what am I doing here, exactly? Where even is Senegal? 

Great questions! I’m here studying abroad with the CIEE Study Center, focusing on Senegalese culture, Wolof (one of the local languages), and development studies. Basically, I am learning about Senegal as a whole, as well as what kind of projects the government and other organizations are doing to improve the lives of the people who live here.

View from the roof of the CIEE Study Center.

All the ladies of CIEE Dakar Spring 2016!

Eating lunch on the rooftop terrace.

Senegal is on the most western tip of West Africa. Dakar, the capital, is on the most western tip of Senegal. I am as close to the East Coast of the U.S. as you could possibly be from the continent of Africa.

I live with a host family in the neighborhood of Mermoz with nine people spanning three generations. The heads of my household are my parents, Pa Sarr and Yaay Booy (meaning ‘Mother Dearest’). They are kind of like the grandparents – in Senegal, it is normal for families to live with their parents forever! Pa Sarr and Yaay Booy have three children who live in the house, all of whom are much older than me. Two of them have families of their own that also live in the house, meaning that I have three younger sisters who are 6, 6, and 9. My family speaks to me in French, but for the most part, they speak in Wolof. I live about 5 minutes from school, and walk to the study center almost every morning for class!

My daily walk to school.

Just a friendly neighborhood cow!

My home is a 10 minute walk from the ocean, 5 minutes from the local bakery, and 30 seconds in any direction from the nearest Nescafé or fruit stand. It smells like a mix of hearty incense, fresh beignets (small, sugary fried dough balls), salt water, and instant coffee. It sounds like tiny birds gossiping in the mango tree out front, the low grumble of my brother’s motorcycle, and harsh-yet-inviting calls of ‘Nanga def? Ca va? Ana waa kër gi?’. Pop music from Nigeria trickles out of windows from living room television sets on almost every street. Mermoz is warm and colorful and I love it.

Mmmm. Beignets.

Enjoying the Mermoz beach!

What will this blog be about?

My goal with this blog is to use my personal experiences studying abroad in Senegal to introduce Senegalese life, culture, and history as best as I can from my perspective as a white American student. I will be focusing each post around a theme (Food, Language, Music, etc.), but I want this to be a project that we build together. Your input, opinions, and desires are important! I have resources over here to answer any and all questions your hearts desire about Senegal, about Africa in general, and about living as an American in a foreign country.

For the next post, I’d like you to think about these questions:

• What are the first three things that pop into your mind when you think of Africa?
• Before this blog project, did you know that Senegal existed? Could you have pointed it out on a map?
• Between Dakar and Portland, what are three things you think could be completely different and three things you think would be the same?
• What do you want to hear about? This can be a subject you’re interested in (birds, religion, sports) or a question (What are 5th grade classrooms like here? Are bathrooms the same or different?).

Don’t be shy! I can’t wait to explore Senegal through your eyes.

A bientôt, Insh’allah! (Talk to you soon, God willing)

– Rheanna