It’s already been three months since I’ve been here and it feels like time is passing by both fast and slow. During these three months, I’ve been both homesick and truly happy to be here. It’s hard to explain my experience, and what’s it’s like being here. So I decided to do a photo blog to be able to show and portray the Senegal that I have been experiencing. These photos only illustrate a very small part of what it’s like here, and they are very much a single outlook and view of what Senegal is like.
Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport (3 September 2017)
We arrived in Senegal on the 3rd of September, ready to start our new adventure. Little did we know how much Senegal would change us and how much we would grow. Three months in and we can communicate in a language most of us hadn’t heard about before coming here, we have survived the terrifying chaotically organized traffic in Senegal and we have created a family out of the people who were complete strangers to us three months ago.
Tostan Centre, Thies ( 3 September 2017)
This is the center we stayed at for the first week.
It was a slow introduction to Senegal; it’s people and the food.
Garage Touba Toule, Thies (15 September 2017)
This is the “Garage” in Touba Toule, which is the town that I’m currently living in.
This is where we go when we want to leave the town to go to another town or other cities and regions. The best part of it is that it's well organized and cheap.
Khombole, Thies (4 October 2017)
This is the classroom where we have Wolof Class. “Wolof” is the language that I am currently learning and it’s been both a hard and satisfying experience. This classroom is a place where our language barrier seems to disappear. We don’t only learn the language, but we also get a deeper insight into the culture and community that we currently live in.
Touba Toule, Thies (8 October 2017)
This is a piece of land, owned by my host-grandfather, in the forest. Most families in the town that I live in own a piece of land where they grow Beans, Hibiscus and Peanuts. Both the men and women go to the fields to work on a weekly base.
Keur Thiaff, Touba Toule (2 October 2017)
“Attaaya,” which translates to tea is usually made and drunk after a meal or in the afternoon.
Khombole, Thies (6 November 2017)
This photo was taken during the week of “Magal Touba,” which is an annual religious pilgrimage of the Murid Brotherhood here in Senegal. During this week the road leading to the city of Touba was filled with cars and busses. There were people on the side of the road constantly making the famous “Café Touba,” which they would often give out for free. This man is in the act of making the Coffee in large amounts, whereby he would pour the boiling water over the strainer containing the Coffee.
Sunrise, Saint-Louis (20 November 2017)
For our first “Training Seminar,” we went to a different region in Senegal, named “Saint Louis.” We were staying on the Island of Saint Louis (Ndar, which is the Wolof name) where we were surrounded by water. And one morning we decided to wake up early to witness this beautiful sunrise.
Saint-Louis (19 November 2017)
This photo was taken during a tour we were on in the city. The architecture in Saint Louis has a big colonial influence seeing as it was the Capital of the French colony of Senegal until independence.
