Okay, so I have been living in Botou, Tambacounda for 6 months.
That’s right, half of a year I have been living in a hut, struggling with a language,
and honestly, I am still adjusting every day. It hasn’t been easy and it hasn’t
been the picturesque type of experience that I built up in my head. I am
growing and constantly learning, which makes this one of the most rewarding
(and exhausting) experiences of my life.
Since arriving at site I have tried to stay busy by joining
organizations through Peace Corps, work on site projects, give demonstrations, travel around a bit, and still learn about this culture. It is difficult to not have the same amenities
that I had in the States. With constant available service to call my family and
friends or even to Google questions that pop up in day to day life it makes you
realize that you need to rely on yourself. I have had to rely on my community
to make projects go smoother and to remain resilient even when projects go
south. Failure has been another word that I have been having to deal with since
arriving and it isn’t a good feeling. Yes, I have had ideas and projects fail.
BUT, I have seen successes in my community and successes in my day to day life
that outweigh the failures that pull me down.
I have made friends and I have found out who I would rather
not work with/see. I am still constantly learning about my community. I have
come to love and respect my host mother and father and equally love and respect
my host siblings. They make me feel like I belong and I feel comfortable being
there. Even though there were two
Senegal is changing me. Is it for the better? I think so. I
am becoming more curious about the world, learning how I can maintain my mental
health myself (so important!), and molding myself into the person I want to be.
I have even started looking in some next steps (grad school maybe?) in my career but as always focusing on constantly being present!
Peace Corps Senegal said it best at staging; “This is the toughest
job that you’ll ever love.” Luckily for me, I love it still.
*Even though these are all ramblings, thank you for
reading!*
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