Hi, this is Matt Ulmer. Some of you may know me as my superhero alter-ego, fellow blogger Mullows. Emma is currently incommudicado in the African plains, so she asked me to post something in her absence. That something is rather long (twelve pages) so I'm going to post it in segments.

It is an interview with a reporter for the Cambridge Chronicle, a newspaper in her hometown of Cambridge, Massachussets, and is about her experience in Senegal thus far and why she decided to study abroad there. The interview goes a little something like this:

You said you are deferring a year at Brown, yet you are studying in Senegal for the spring semester. What are you studying and where in Senegal?

This is a bit of a tricky subject. I am indeed deferring admission from Brown, but part of the agreement was that I not enroll in another school or in other words, obtain any credit. Though the other three girls in my program are getting credits for this semester, I’m just here for the experience and will not receive any credit; I really have no need to. I’m looking forward to spending a full four years at college fulfilling all of my credits there or, possibly, in some unknown local during a junior year abroad.

I’m studying with a program called Living Routes based out of Amherst, Mass that runs Umass-accredited programs in “ecovillages” throughout the world. This is their first semester-long course in Senegal, though they have been running five-week January term (J term) courses in Senegal for five or so years (I think). This particular program is run through a local NGO, CRESP (Center for Religion, Ethics, and Social Policy) that contains a living and learning center where our classes are held. CRESP is at the forefront of the “ecovillage” movement, so to speak, in Senegal. Our program is unique in that we are learning alongside Senegalese students; every American’s tuition provides for one American and two Senegalese. On the American side, we have three girls in their third year of their studies at universities in North Carolina (two from Appalachian State and one from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill) and a social studies teacher from NYC, and then there’s me. Then on the Senegalese side, only three of the ten students are female and the average age is about twenty-seven years old. Needless to say, the cultural exchanges have been invaluable and I would say, on the whole, I have learned more from the Senegalese partners than from my profs.

I’m taking Sustainable Development, Ecotourism, French, West African Literature, and Service Learning, most of which are taught in French.

Our first six or so weeks are spent in Yoff, a suburb of Dakar, Senegal’s capital. (Dakar and its suburbs all fall within the Cape Vert Peninsula which, I believe, is Africa’s Western most point.) Despite its proximity to Dakar—a city many claim is one of the most developed in Africa—Yoff is a fairly traditional village, a fishing village in fact. In about two weeks, we are taking off to spend four weeks in a few rural villages, ecovillages (at which point I have nooo idea how I am going to keep up my blog as the villages are sans electricity). The villages we are visiting are in the northern part of Senegal in the Lac de Guiers region centered around what I believe to be Senegal’s primary water source, the Lac de Guier (Guier Lake). Most of our work will be based out of the ancient village of Nder where will be helping the village both join the global ecovillage network and develop an ecotourism circuit.

We also have a weeklong spring break during which we will travel to some of the ecovillages in Senegal’s southern region, the Casamance. I’m looking forward to this brief tour in particular as the Casamance and Bassari Country are famed to be spectacularly beautiful.

Why did you choose Senegal? Do you live with a host family? How many
other American students are studying with you, if any?

Trite as this may sound, I’ve always dreamt of going to Africa. I blame Shady Hill for my wanderlust –such an awful hackneyed word but I have to find a suitable alternative. Between the ages of four and fourteen, I was inundated with literature, music, dance, and artwork coming from other cultures via both the school’s visiting artists program and super progressive teachers. And I loved it. Though I think the school aims to foster an openness towards and appreciation for other cultures, I decided at a very young age that my learning would not be complete unless I actually visited these faraway places. Of course my visions were the romanticized fantasies of an overly imaginative little girl, but I’ve managed to hold onto that little girl even into my late teens.

I am living with a host family and the time I have spent with them has been one of the most rewarding parts of my experience thus far.


When did you arrive and when will you leave?

I arrived on January 23rd and will most likely leave on May 10th, though I may have some trouble pulling myself away….

What do you plan to study at Brown?

This is a very good question. Part of the impetus, in fact, for my year off. Most likely English. Maybe History, Environmental Studies, Sociology. Brown has an incredible International Relations department through the Watson Institute that I hope to make full use of. One of the interns at the NGO here just graduated from Brown and she majored in Development Studies, another viable option.

What are some of the biggest culture shocks you've experienced since
being in Africa? Some might say this is not the safest time for Americans to
be traveling abroad. Have you experienced anything that would lend truth to
this?

Where to begin. I’m presently having some difficulty quantifying my experience and have lost my ability to play the role of commentator….it’s a hard little existential rut to articulate…..

The culture shocks were numerous, initially. Funny that you ask about peoples’ receptions to an American and culture shocks in the same question as the two go hand in hand for me. I’ve been continually amazed by my ability, any human being’s ability really, to adapt. I have a whole new faith in our innate resilience. So many of our supposed likes and dislikes are constructs of our immediate and familiar surroundings. In many instances, I’ve not so much learned to cope, as completely changed my expectations. Yet in some cases, I don’t think I’ll ever make the adjustment. I’ve come to accept that I will never be fully capable of disregarding the way I am treated as a young, white, American female. I’m used to a certain level of anonymity. An avid people watcher, I enjoy being just one of many, having my presence go unnoted, sitting back and watching life go by. But here, I am constantly on display. I walk the streets of my small village and kids point and cry out, “toubab!” (meaning white person/tourist), both men and women stare, vendors try to sell me everything from okra to perfume, men approach me and demand my name, my place of origin and my marital status. I am no great beauty. Just white, western, and therefore easy and rich, or so is the assumption. All of this is perfectly normal and I have never felt threatened as a result of all of this extra attention. I’ve learned to mask my face with a menacing glare and tune out most calls for my attention (all but one: this awful hissing noise men make that is a combination between pssttt and tsssttt). I just miss my anonymity and struggle with the idea that my defining characteristics are presently my skin color and my supposed wealth. I resent this perception that Americans have it all figured out, and that we are just oozing money from every pore. Yes, on average the quality of life and standard of living is vastly superior, but our country’s resources are not exactly well distributed.

And as much as I long for the day I walk the streets without eliciting even the smallest wayward glance, I know that day will never come. I could become fluent in Wolof, Pular, Sereer and French, dress in traditional clothes, eat and cook traditional food, live in the most modest of households/hovels, but I would still be at a perceptible distance from the culture’s inner sanctum. And because of this jarring realization that some cultural differences are truly impassable, my beliefs, my whole sense of reality and what is possible have undergone some serious but necessary transformations.

By the same token, the people here are wonderful. The whole mentality is so very different from that which I am used to; people are genuinely warm, genial, inclusive, and open. “Personal space” is an unknown and I’ve come to appreciate the greater implications of this truth. In the face of such collective selflessness, I find myself feeling quite selfish at times. People are always inquiring about the health and well being of others with genuine concern. Even right down to communal eating (I eat around a big communal bowl with my entire family and anyone else who may be present for mealtime), one must be aware of who has consumed what—has everyone had some of the fish, the manioc, the carrots, the cabbage, etc. An only child, I am perpetually fascinated by these huge, extended families. Everyone is related in one way or another, everyone is “frere,” “soeur,” “mama,” “papa,” “tante,” “oncle” etc. etc. It’s a whole attitude of inclusion and community care that is very different from “every man for himself” that I find so prevalent in The States. My Senegalese classmates find it unfathomable that we put our elderly in nursing homes and assisted living facilities as the elderly here are greatly revered and cared for by their entire families.


What other travel experiences have you had? Is this your first time in
Africa?

This is my first time in Africa, but I certainly hope it won’t be my last! I’ve started to think of Africa as this big delicious, well….mixed salad of sorts (I’m really craving fresh veggies these days)…and I’ve just nibbled at one edge and am definitely (given my current veggie deficiency) hungry for more.
Last summer, I did the Euro “brat-packing” thing with one of my best friends from high school; though, we were hardly peripatetic and spent most of our time in Barcelona and Paris. I’ve been to Europe several times now, and to Russia once.


How is it communicating with people? Are you fluent in French?

I want so very badly to be fluent in French that I literally ache sometimes when searching for the right words to express myself. My French is improving. Rapidly. But though I understand a fair amount, I am far from fluent. Communication is difficult and my charades skills are improving by leaps and bounds. Among the educated (and therefore French-speaking) Senegalese, I get by. But with each one of Senegal’s myriad ethnic groups (Serer, Fula, Fulani, Fulbe, Peul, Malinké, Lebu, Diola…to name a few), you are faced with a different language. Wolof is the dominant group and thus the dominant tongue especially in and around Dakar and I’ve picked up a few key phrases. My family is always trying to further my Wolof vocabulary and I am truly thankful for their efforts.

More of the interview is still to come, with some interesting insights into studying abroad in Africa, so please bare with me