Senegalese out of Senegal

One of my favorite conversations to have with Senegalese people is about my life in America; what my English name is, what the climate and food is like, what our favorite sports are, etc. It gives me a chance to reminisce while holding a captive audience, and every Senegalese person I've ever met wants to go to America. I always end the conversation with something along the lines of "but if you went there, you'd hate it. There's no attaya (Senegalese tea they drink out of shot glasses with tons of sugar), it's really cold, and you wouldn't get to eat rice out of a single bowl with your hand ever single day. Also, Americans are addicted to work, much as we don't think we are. Most of us can't sit still for long periods of time without any real goal. Instead, we're always working at some sort of chore or following some sort of plan, even if that plan involves things like going to the gym or going out to meet someone for coffee- there's still a plan. Many people I talk to agree with me; they think they're better off here and might as well stay. Many people don't care and decide that all American have tons of money and live happy careless lives. Some really just want to go to see it for themselves as a vacation then come back to tell about it, which is okay with me.

Lately, though, I've really started wondering what Senegalese who do make it to America actually think of it once they see it for what it is rather than just through a TV screen translated into French. I've now been here long enough to have made enough contacts that I've gathered various opinions on the matter. Surprisingly, these opinions really run the gamut from hating it to illegally staying there because they can't stand to come back to their own country. For instance, the other day I was visiting my host dad Ousman in Saloum Diane for a meeting, and met one of his collegues who had gone to America and lived in New York for a couple of years a while back. I asked him if he hated it because of the cold, and he said no, that wasn't really an issue. The problem is that there's no real rest. If you're accustomed to spending every afternoon resting and drinking attaya, then you go drive a taxi through Manhattan for two years where you don't quite speak the language, I can understand that. When I was talking to my host mother Arame last week, I wondered out loud what Seneglase think of America, and she said that whenever she's had friends that went there they always return saying "Senegal am na jamm. Men nga toog fi." (Senegal is in peace, you can stay here.) Another person I met yesterday who I am collaborating with had a younger sister who managed to go through an exchange program for the better part of a year, and she came back to Senegal saying "Amerik nexul," or rather, America isn't very nice. Her experience there was focused more around the American education system, which varies drastically to the Senegalized-version of the French system here. I'm guessing it was more rigorous and she was held to higher expectations than she was used to, but I can't say for sure.

Some people think that they will love America and are not disappointed when they get there. Pape told me the other day that he knew a man when he was a kid in our neighboring village of Keur Theirno, and he left two wives and all of his kids to go to America and work at a hotel there. He's been there now for 30 years and as far as anyone knows, he has no plans to ever come back. One of the boutique owners in Kaolack across the street from a restaurant we like used to work in a boutique in New York for a few years also, and he enjoyed his time there greatly. He makes a special effort to import some of the same boutique-type products we value there such as orbitz gum and other brand names I can't quite remember.

I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to write in this blog entry as a conclusion, until I realized that just as people from America differ drastically, so do Seneglaese. Every experience is an individual one. Some PCVs come to Senegal and fall in love with the culture here, and others simply can never get the taste for it, and it is really no different the other way around. Another way of explaining my point: when I was talking to my work partner yesterday about his little sister, I later thought to ask what state she had lived in. He responded that she had lived in Kansas. Being my loyal Bostonian self, I joked, "Well that's why she didn't like it." If I went to Kansas, the culture there alone differs so drastically from my own American experience that I probably would have been saying the same thing. (Sorry to anyone from Kansas reading this, I promise it's not personal.)

All in all, this just motivates me to find a bunch of Wolof-speaking Senegalese whenever I go back to America and throw out a couple of "Asalam alekum"s. Could make for an interesting international social study.

~E