Bienvenue au Sénégal!

Bienvenue au Sénégal!

At the time of writing this we landed a month ago in Senegal. After a long flight from Chicago to Brussels to Dakar we were exhausted, but excited to begin our new journey. Upon being greeted by Pastor Kristin Engstrom and Yacinthe we were taken to where we would spend the next three weeks for orientation, the Center of Administration for SLDS; “Services Luthériens pour le Développement du Sénégal”. From there we spent the following days learning the basics of life in Senegal while meeting all sorts of new friends. We attended church at the Dakar Parish of the Lutheran Church in Senegal (Église Luthérienne du Sénégal) where we met some amazing individuals.

Once the first week began, we participated in a cultural education seminar at a very special training building called the “Baobab Center” and initiated language classes to learn a local language. The Baobab center was started by a Peace Corps volunteer from the 1960’s that decided to remain in Senegal after his years of service. The purpose of the center is to train French & English speakers how to navigate life in Senegal. Whether non-government organizations (NGOs), students, government workers, or volunteers, the Baobab center is the go-to place to begin integrating into Senegalese life. There is a variety of traditional languages spoken in Senegal with the two largest being Wolof, and Serer. Four of us were designated to learn Wolof (Caitlyn, Charlie, Collins, and I) and one Serer (Sarah). The Wolof language professor I had the pleasure of getting to know; Abdou Sarr, is a very interesting and funny guy. He would crack jokes left and right during our language lessons and keep things very light. He is from an Island south of Dakar, which he described as lush with mangroves, and fish abound. I discovered he had been working with the center’s founder; Greg, and the peace corps, since the 1970’s. Abdou has had a long winding path of serving in important delegate positions with the Peace Corps and going to school in the United States. A “small world” moment dawned on me when he revealed attended the same college as my grandfather; the college of Wooster, Ohio!

The ensuing weeks were a combination of language classes, and different activities that Pastor Kristin designed to further orient our group. We took a tour to the Museum of Black Civilizations, located in downtown Dakar which was an enriching experience. The primary purpose of the museum is to teach how the world is all related to Africa through the initial migration of the first humans, and the contributions that differing African cultures have on life as we know it. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the variety of artifacts of diverse cultural significance, and their associated representations.  

Another great experience was attending the Lutheran Church of Senegal’s young adult retreat in Ngaparou, on the ocean to the south of Dakar. There we saw some familiar faces from church as well as plenty of new ones. The focus of the retreat was how young adults can face extremism, and violence from groups that may wish to do harm. In West Africa, Senegal is well known as an accepting country due to a deep seceded cultural respect of differing religions, however there are groups in neighboring regions which do not have that same desire to retain peace. Thusly it has been a big topic of conversation between Muslim’s, and Christians alike as how to retain peace. Everyone was extremely kind, and there were some good times had with music and swimming in the ocean!

As mentioned with inter religious respect, one of the more humbling experiences we had was visiting an Imam (Muslim religious leader) at one of the larger Mosques in Dakar. We were accompanied by the director of Muslim-Christian dialogue of the Lutheran Church of Senegal; Pastor Joseph Diouf. The Imam welcomed us warmly and exclaimed that in Senegal people move in peace with one another regardless of religion. It was great to see the obvious friendship that Pastor Diouf and the Imam have developed in the years they have known each other. I left that day with fresh perspectives on how bridging and embracing differences between people is what will ensure peace.

We recently moved in with our host families, and I am excited to share all the new adventures to come. Thank you for all your support!