Observations from the +224

This week was one full of many observations. We saw beautiful sights and others that made me wonder. One of my favorite sights was the one picture I took in the Radisson Blu where the infinity pool seamlessly led into the ocean. We also were able to visit the Renaissance museum and peer look at some historic artifacts and paintings inside the massive monument built by former President Wade of Senegal. We also went to Sea Plaza on Tuesday which I knick named “muscle beach” because all you could see on the ocean strip is a bunch of Senegalese people working out, whether it be running, doing calisthenics or lifting weights, Senegalese people place high importance on fitness. We also drove into what seemed like downtown to eat dinner Thursday night, where I sweated droplets after challenging myself to eat the lamb with the pepper offered. Before going to the restaurant we went to a grocery store and when we were done shopping and started waiting outside, we saw a small child that asked us for money and this kid reminded me of the talibes I read about when I was in America. In essence, a talibe is a child that is sent off by a parent to a teacher to learn about Islam, from what I understand, and often times there are corrupt teachers make the students go out and fetch money for them to make money. So it was sad to consider that such things actually exist.

My experience in Senegal so war has been good. It is more or less completely what I expected. It was another West African country but instead of being colonized by the British, like Nigeria, they were colonized by the French. This simple fact is annoying because communication often times becomes a hassle. On a more positive note, I am glad I have the opportunity to really apply the French I learned in high school that I though I would never use in life. The language barrier gives me an excuse to use French as much as possible. We are slowly learning more and more French as the days go on, however, learning Wolof, is a lot more difficult. So far I only know how to say hello in Wolof, but don’t ask me to spell it because I couldn’t tell you even if I wanted to. One of our professors says that for our final presentation we should present in French and we simply responded we shall see how it goes.

The University is pretty cool. They have cool people and pretty top notch amenities. In some cases, better than the Howard Plaza towers. We went to a place that looked comparable to Blackburn and we saw people that were there for an exhibition who stopped us to teach us how to make paper bags. He explained that it was a way to make people fill empowered about doing something with their hands and it gave a new skill to people who had businesses that could use that trick when they were selling things. In conclusion our week was pretty cool and I look forward to learning more things, and eating more Senegalese food which so far isn’t as common as all the American food they sell here.

P.S. 500 words is too much.