As Integrated as I get!!!!!!!

Almost a year in-country, and about 10 months as a volunteer and at site, and I’m quite comfortable in my community. I feel well integrated, as integrated as I can ever be. My language is flourishing; I can have full-lengths conversations now about serious issues. Well as serious as conversations get in Senegal, there are not much intellectual conversations going on.

I now get comments like “you are a Senegalese now,” “you can really speak the language,” I am included in family conversations and decisions. Quite awesome!! I really feel like I can do as chez moi. This is not to say I’m 100% integrated, but I’m as integrated as I can get, granted I’m only here for two years, I have a whole n’other life and world waiting for me. I have come to realize I will never be a true Senegalese no matter how much integration I do and the faster I’ve come to realize that the better my service is going.

Some things I’ve learned to tolerate and live with it for the moment; such as I’ll always have living creatures in my room no matter how hard I try to get rid of them. I’ll have to use the left hand for the moment, I can’t take showers, or sit on a real toilet, or that I’ll be eating rice daily. Other things I just refuse to accept, like being treated a as second class citizen been treated as the rich America (which I’m not). Not agreeing with teachers and students relations, men having more than one girlfriend at a time. Overall just not subsuming to the ideas, (which is due to lack of education of the people), which I know if I get use to, it will be hard to break when I return. Writing this I’ve come to realize WOW I’m really getting comfy here and I’ve come to accept quite a few things and just learning to adapt and rolling with the punches. When I’m away from my family I really do miss them, I miss my routine and the many friends I’ve made along the way.

Work is coming along slowly but surely. I’ve also come to terms with myself that there are three goals of PC, each equally important. It’s not just about the development work but also the sharing and exchanging of cultures and ideas, which is as important if not more. Because if we do truly understand each other (the various cultures) there will be less tension, which increases peace.

With all that said I’ve been doing quite a lot, working mostly with school, I have a few clubs going at the school, computer classed, giving (trying) to give the various women’s groups the basic business skills. Working on scholarships, staying in school programs early teen pregnancy, some environmental and health issues.

No “grand” projects so far, just working daily one person at a time, which is were the real change lies. Laying the foundation!!