Settling In

Saturday morning everyone went to their respective locations, with only two Fulbrighters staying in Dakar, myself and Anthony (with his wife Alyson). They hadn’t found housing yet, so they stayed at the hotel while I was driven by an embassy van to my host family’s house in Mermoz.

The yellow place on the left is where I live.

That small structure on top in the back

is my room

When I arrived I met my host mom, Mama Soda, my host dad, Tonton Lamine, and their live-in help, Arame. They actually have another American living with them right now, an exchange student from New Orleans, but she’s out of town with her group until next Saturday. They showed me the house: Walking in the front door, there is a hallway straight ahead, with nothing to the right, and a sitting room with a bedroom to the left. The hallway itself holds a small fridge, some shelves for dining ware, and a low coffee table where smaller meals are eaten (which, being a hallway, makes things a bit cramped).

Continuing down the hallway, it opens up to an outdoor hallway and a staircase to an upper part. Off the outdoor hallway on the left there is another bedroom and a very small kitchen (big enough for one person). On the right, the toilet and a separate shower room (both just big enough for one person to stand). Up the outdoor stairs is my room on the left and the dining terrace on the right. Usually breakfast and lunch are eaten in the hallway and the dinner is outside on the terrace, although I prefer to have my breakfast outside on the terrace because it’s usually pretty nice out there. I would be remiss in providing a good description if I didn’t mention that the house in under the direct path for airplanes landing at Dakar International Airport… very often (maybe once every 10-20 minutes) there is a plane that flies over the house, so low I can practically see how clean the landing gear is! I’m already used to the noise… ;)

My room is about 8 feet by 10 feet with a twin bed, a small desk (think school classroom single desk size), a closet, and a fan. I arrived about 11:30, and we ate lunch around 1:15 before I left again. There was an embassy Oktoberfest/Softball tournament going on that Eran had invited us to, so just after lunch I walked over to Ebbet’s Field, which, luckily for me, is only about a 10 minute walk from the house. Ebbet’s Field is a sports field and playground owned by the US Embassy and for exclusive use of embassy staff & their family (except on special occasions such as this). It’s right on the waterfront (but no beach… that part of the coast is rocks/cliffs), so it has a great view and a nice breeze.

I watched some of the softball games, finally got a hard cider (!!!) and met a lot of the embassy staff and other Americans working in Dakar. I stayed until about 5pm, then headed home. Dinner is usually at 8pm, so I had some time to unpack a little before that time. It felt great after living out of a suitcase for the last 6 weeks to be able to actually unpack!

Ebbet's Field

Sunday morning Tonton helped me get a taxi out to Parcelles Assanies, which is another neighborhood in Dakar quite a distance away. I went out there to check out a church that was planted last year by a missionary that my church in Delaware supports. The pastor here, Brett, and pastor Dan at Skypointe in Wilmington went to school together, so he Pastor Dan put me in touch with Brett before I left Delaware. I wanted to check out their church, so they met me at an easier to find location and took me to the small church they planted. Because the church is composed of Senegalese, Nigerian and Togolese members, the service is done in both English and French. After church, Brett, his wife Elise, and their 4 adorable children took me out to lunch, which was very nice! Then they drove around a bit showing me downtown Dakar (stopping at a great coffee place to grab drinks on the go) before dropping me back in Mermoz. I really enjoyed being at their church, and I wish it was closer to where I lived, but I think the distance is going to make it hard for me to go there on a regular basis. There is an international church that meets within walking distance to where I live, so I’m going to check that out and see how I like it.

I was feeling very run down at that point, almost to the point of being sick, and realized that I had had too many full days in a row without being able to recover from traveling so far and the jetlag that comes with, so I spent the rest of the afternoon/evening resting. Monday I was feeling mostly better after having slept really well, but it was also mostly just resting and preparing my presentation for the conference (presentation subject: Service Learning, Active Citizenship, and Leadership Training).

FASTEF

Tuesday morning I went to the university where I will be teaching to meet the head of the ELT department. My counterpart, Mr. Boye wasn’t there of course because he’s at the conference I would be leaving for the next morning. Dr. Coly simply welcomed me and introduced me to two other English teachers who were there. I won’t start until next week because I’m at the conference for the rest of the week, but technically, classes started this week… and I say technically, because while I was there one instructor went to her first class of the semester, but came back about 20 minutes later because only one student had shown up… “I guess we’ll start next week” she nonchalantly says. Welcome to Africa J

Tomorrow morning I leave for Saly, which is the subject of my next blog post J 

Orientation

Hello again!

We spent our first three days in Senegal doing an in-country orientation with the RELO (Regional English Language Officer), Eran and his assistant Safi, at the US Embassy. We were 10 people total to partake in this orientation. 8 ETAs and 2 ELFs (English Language Fellows), one of which is actually going to Guinea Bissau, but since the US Government has no representatives there (no embassy or even Peace Corps), he is doing his orientation here with us before he goes down there. Eran (the RELO) met us at the hotel as we were having breakfast and took us all to the embassy in a van. Once we got there, he explained to the guards what we were doing there and we had to check any electronics at the gate, not to get them back until our departure. They even confiscate USB keys! One of the ETAs took a picture of the Embassy sign on the outside of the building as we were walking up, but they made her delete it.

Ambassador Zumwalt welcomes us to Senegal

Day 1 included being welcomed by Ambassador Zumwalt, being given an overview of the Senegalese education system, and having the Access program explained to us. We needed that explanation right away because the afternoon was spent in the field teaching a 2-hour access session at a local high school. The English Access Microscholarship Program is a program that funds 2 years of intensive after-school English classes for underprivileged youth. Students apply for the program and are in it for 2 years, at the end of which they are given a special certificate by the US Embassy. We spent the lunch hours preparing what we were going to do with the 16 students in the program at Yoff High School.

We had fun with them, having them do ice breakers, talking about the different parts of the US we were all from and having them choose where they’d want to go if they could go to the US with some of us. I’m sure it was a bit overwhelming for them because there were 10 of us, plus Eran, Safi, and their teacher, so there were almost as many teachers as students, and it was their first day back from summer holidays! They did fairly well though!

The school is right at the beach, so we stopped there for a few minutes before we headed back to the hotel at the end of the day. On our way back to the hotel we stopped quickly to have our picture taken on/hanging off of a Kar Rapide, which are fairly decrepit, albeit colorfully decorated, little vans with no safety features (such as brakes, for example) that are usually brimming with locals and which can get you from one place to another (the embassy advises us not to use them…) at a very cheap price.

Day 2 was all day at the US Embassy, learning about Senegalese culture from various presenters. For lunch we had a traditional Senegalese dish, which we ate in the traditional style, meaning that we were all seated on the floor around a large dish that we all ate out of together, and with our hands (but not the left hand, sorry lefties!). The rice and fish dish, called thiéboudienne, is the most well-known traditional Senegalese dish. It was very good, but it was hard to get used to eating with your hands without spilling all over the place! The afternoon we had representatives from the teacher training college where I’ll be teaching (FASTEF) and the ministry of education, so they could give us a more in depth understanding of what it takes to become a teacher in Senegal. We finished the day with security and health briefings from embassy staff.

That evening we decided to go fancy for dinner and went to the King Fahd Palace Hotel next to the embassy. It wasn’t as expensive as we were thinking it would be and my maffé (another traditional Senegalese dish) was amazing! We had ended up there because another of the ETAs had a friend who was going there for the live music their night club had going that night, so we went there afterwards to enjoy, especially the drummer who is apparently really well known. We had to be back at the embassy at 9am the next morning, so we didn’t make it too late of a night.

Day 3 was a Friday, so a half day for the Embassy employees (therefore for us as well). The morning was dedicated to learning about public diplomacy at the embassy, so we heard from the Public Affairs Officer (PAO), the Cultural Affairs Officer(CAO), the Information Resources Officer (IRO) and a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). They spoke to us about the different US-funded programs and exchanges here in Senegal such as the YALI program (which I worked with in Delaware), Fulbright, and American Spaces. I was very interested in all of this because I will probably be working closely with all of these programs during my time in Dakar. We had lunch at the embassy restaurant and then the van dropped us off at Orange, the cell phone carrier where we would get our phones. It was a bit crowded, so I decided to wait until the next day to get my phone. Those who would be leaving Dakar the next morning had priority.

PAO Reception

The few of us who decided to wait walked the short distance back to the hotel to hang out until the van picked us up again at 4:30 for an evening reception at Bob Post’s house (he’s the PAO). The reception was for us to meet people from the English teaching community in Senegal. My counterpart from FASTEF (the teacher with whom I coordinate), Mr. Boye, was there along with other English teachers and facilitators. We had a nice evening chatting and meeting everyone. Most of the people there I will be working with again, so it was nice to get introductions in an informal setting.

And that was the end of orientation. Tomorrow morning everyone goes to their respective cities and I will move to my host family’s place. Eran (the RELO) let me know that there is a conference starting on Wednesday for Access program teachers (remember the class we taught on day 1, that’s an Access class) in another city and he’d like me to be there to help, so I’m apparently going out of town on Wednesday to Saly, a nice seaside town about an hour south of Dakar. Mr. Boye later told me that I am actually supposed to give a presentation on Thursday and that they’d let me know the topic soon.

… And we’re off!!!

Getting there

Hello from Senegal!

My trip out here was a very long one. Before leaving I had calculated that, from door to door, I would be traveling about 28 hours, and that’s if everything was exactly on time. This was my original itinerary:

9:30 departure from Alimar to catch my 11:15am bus from Bakersfield to Los Angeles.

2pm shuttle from  Greyhound Station to LAX

6:35pm flight from LAX to Paris (arrive in Paris around 2pm local time)

4pm flight from Paris to Dakar (arrive in Dakar at 8pm local time)

Embassy van transport from Dakar Airport to our hotel (there were 7 of us flying together).

Most of this actually went as planned, which was nice. The bus ride was made more pleasant by having made friends with a nice older woman, Marsha, who sat across the aisle from me. She had asked when she got on the bus if anyone else was going to LAX and would like to share a taxi with her. I told her I had booked a shuttle and I could call to see if they had room for one more. They did, which she appreciated because it was a lot cheaper than a taxi. That also meant I had someone to wait with at the Greyhound station in LA. We had about 40 minutes, so we took turns watching each other’s things so we could use the bathroom and order something for lunch. The ride to the airport was also nice because there was a couple on there heading to Europe for the first time. They were going to Paris and Rome to celebrate their 25^th wedding anniversary, so I was able to give them some pointers for both of those places. 

Oops... ;)

LAX went fairly well, although I had made the mistake of accidentally leaving a wine bottle opener in my carry on. I need to remember to completely empty a bag before I pack it for a flight! But at least I had a nice conversation with the guy searching the bag. I felt bad because it took him forever to find it and I couldn’t help him because I didn’t even remember it being in there! He was a French guy from Pau, where one of the other students with me at UD was from, so we chatted in French until he found it… Other than that, it went smoothly. The woman at the check-in counter didn’t quite believe that I didn’t need a VISA, but the letter the US Embassy sent me for that purpose seemed to work and they let me on. I had some time before my flight, so I went in search of what I thought would probably be my last hard cider for a while. I stopped at pretty much every place that served alcohol, with no luck. What kind of American West Coast bar and/or restaurant doesn’t carry at least one cider!?!? I finally gave up, ordered a glass of wine and some sushi, which I ate while making some final phone calls before calling and canceling my Verizon number. Our flight boarded and took off on time, so no worries there. I was on AirFrance, which has pretty much the best little video for the security information.

The meals weren’t bad as airplane food goes, and AirFrance offers champagne, wine or liquors with their food service, which I noticed many people taking advantage of at dinner. I have never been able to sleep on flights, so I spent the 11 hour flight watching movies, playing Sudoku and pretending to try to sleep.

The layover in Paris was pretty short, only about 2 hours, and some of the other ETAs I had met were there as well, waiting for our flight to Dakar. Our flight boarded on time, but then we sat on the runway for an extra hour due to a medical emergency on board. They called for a doctor on board, and then the passenger, with his family, had to be taken off the plane. They also took the time to unload their luggage, so we left about an hour late. We were able to make up about half of that time and arrived in Dakar only 25 minutes after our scheduled time.

Customs were a breeze, but getting the bags, not so much. Unfortunately, one of my suitcases didn’t make it to Dakar with me, which meant that we all waited until the very last bag was unloaded and the carousel was turned off. I was grateful that the other ETAs waited for me as I reported it to the AirFrance office.

Turns out that my bag didn’t get back on the flight after they emptied the luggage for the medical emergency, so they had it going on the next day’s flight. They said they’d deliver it to the hotel when it came in, so off we went to find our ride. We had to go through security to get OUT of the airport (still don’t understand that…) and our driver was waiting right there for us. We arrived at the hotel around 10:30pm local time (which is 3:30pm California time/6:30pm Delaware time), making my actual travel time almost exactly 30 hours. All in all, everything went fairly well, but I was definitely looking forward to a shower and bed!

Next blog: Orientation at the US Embassy!

Pre-Departure

Hello to everyone coming along with me to Senegal! Here is my first blog with all the basic information:

 Where am I going?

Senegal is in West Africa, which is also part of Sub-Saharan Africa because it is below the Sahara Desert (as compared to North Africa). Dakar is the capital and largest city, which is on the coast and contains within it the western most point of the African continent. I will be staying with a host family in Mermoz, which is the name of a neighborhood in Dakar.

Why am I going?

I am going to Senegal on a Fulbright Scholarship. This program, named after the US Senator who proposed creating an exchange program to promote international goodwill in 1946, awards around 2,800 grants for Americans to go abroad each year. Those can be teaching or research grants that can be in more than 140 countries all over the world. They also bring students, teachers and researchers to the US, usually about 5,200 per year, for a total of 8,000 exchange grants per year. There are three different types of grants; the ‘student-scholar’ for those who have just finished their undergraduate degree, or graduate students doing research, the ‘scholars’ who are University faculty members with a PhD doing advanced research or guest lecturing at universities, and English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) who teach English. Many of the ETAs are just finishing their undergraduate career and are doing this kind of as a gap year, and a few are like myself in having just finished a graduate degree in the field of language teaching. Though most of the other Fulbright scholarships are for a shorter amount of time (say, 3 months or so) the ETA contract is for 9-months.

How did I get here?

The application process to get a Fulbright is pretty long. I started my application in early August of 2015, but the University of Delaware usually requires starting in July if you want to have an advisor to help you with your essays. Because I was just after their deadline, they allowed me to have one anyway, which was an invaluable asset as I wrote the two, one-page essays (for ETAs… the application is a bit different for scholars who have to propose a research project). They have applicants write a Personal Statement and a Statement of Grant Purpose. The advisor helps you to make sure you are using each word wisely, as you only have one-page, single-spaced, to convey why you should receive a grant to the specific country you are applying for. The UD deadline for the completed application, including three recommendations and a language evaluation, was September 15^th. A huge shout out goes to those who helped me with recommendations, language evaluations and essay writing: Colin, Donna, Dr. Steinberger, Katharine Kerrane, and, of course, Anna, who probably put almost as many hours into my application as I did!

Couldn't have done it without Anna! <3

 After that was done, the Fulbright committee at UD reviews the application and conducts an interview. During the interview, they asked for more information about why I chose Senegal and not another country, and they gave me suggestions for final touches on my application. They also use the interview to decide whether or not to recommend me to the Fulbright Committee once I turned my final application in on October 15^th. Then the waiting game starts. I didn’t hear anything else until January when I was told that I was a semi-finalist. Whether or not I’d actually been granted the Fulbright I didn’t know until around the 15^th of April. After that, we had orientation at a hotel in Washington DC in mid –June where we were with all the other Fulbrighters (of all kinds) going to Sub-Saharan Africa. They hadn’t confirmed our assignments yet, so we had to wait until July to know where in Senegal we were actually going to be. There are 8 of us ETAs going to Senegal, so 2 in each major city (Dakar, Thies, Saint Louis, and Ziganchor).

What am I doing there?

Because I have a graduate degree in the field, I will actually be teaching at the local teachers college (FASTEF), helping to train those students who want to become English teachers here in Senegal. I will also be working with the RELO (Regional English Language Officer) of the US Embassy to help promote English teaching in the region. What all this actually entails, I’ll find out when I get there!

This blog is for everyone who said they’d like to keep in touch, keep up with what I’m doing, follow my adventures, and live vicariously through me. I hope you’ll all join me on my newest adventure!

A journey can become a sacred thing:
make sure, before you go,
to take the time
to bless your going forth,
to free your heart of ballast
so that the compass of your soul
might direct you toward
the territories of spirit
where you will discover
more of your hidden life,
and the urgencies
that deserve to claim you.

May you travel
in an awakened way,
gathered wisely
into your inner ground;
that you may not waste
the invitations which
wait along the way
to transform you.
May you travel safely,
arrive refreshed,
and live your time away
to its fullest;
return home more enriched,
and free to balance
the gift of days
which call you.

An excerpt from "For the Traveler" ~ John O'Donohue
From: To Bless the Space Between Us