Wind of Change

Commonly, in this country, I catch myself thinking “I never thought I would be doing this as a peace corps volunteer”.  I came into my service having read as many blog, books and article  as possible, so I was by no means naive.  I knew gone are the “glory days”, where you live in a remote village and have little contact with the western world.  That being said I am consistently surprised by how much of my service has been working in western constructs.  This is partly due to my location and sector.  I knew I would be living in the interesting middle ground where the western world and Senegal collide, yet I am still surprised by how infused the two world are here.   

PCs Hard at work

I say all of this because I just spent the last week and a half living in Dakar and working at the office.  The annual tourism convention, TICCA,  for Senegal (and most of west Africa) took place this past weekend. As an Eco-T volunteer I was required to attend and manage the peace corps booth.  We were also lucky enough to be included in a conference for American organizations interested in tourism in Africa, ATA.  Another volunteer and I, were actually asked to give a presentation on community based tourism for the Young Professional group that came.  This presentation was  then repeated, IN FRENCH, at the convention.   Before you get too impressed by me, I have to admit that Zach, the other volunteer, was a super star and did the whole presentation in french.  He even did it without our powerpoint, since the projector broke just before we were supposed to present. What can I say it’s still Senegal.    

After working this past week at the office, attending the conference and then the convention, it really hit me how interesting my experience is here.  No matter where you serve, or what you do, your service will have its own challenges, and be remarkable in its own way. Therefore I can  only speak to my experience when I say  I literally work with my hand in to different worlds.   I go from hanging out with my women’s group speaking only wolof to a convention where I’m talking to western professionals in french.  It’s such a contrast in work, yet it doesn’t seem so abnormal.  When I was for given my site I was very excite, if you couldn’t tell, however I was also a little disappointed I would be somewhere that wasn’t as “sexy” as Kedougou, where I would have to bike to site, live without electricity and have a “real” pc experience. I’m not going to pretend I don’t sometimes wish that were the case, but I also am so lucky to be here and witness the merging of the western and Senegalese cultures. 

The western world is a constant presence in Popenguine, whether it be in the form of tourist or the many NGOs that my reserve/campement work with.  I see on a constant basis how the western world is starting to influence the culture here.  Even more interesting is the conversations locals have about these merging cultures.  Everyone seems to realize that Africa is at the forefront of many global conversations.  I realized a lot of this is due to my current surroundings, but it’s such an exciting time to be here, especially as a Eco-T volunteer.  More and more organizations or focusing on Sustainable tourism, NGOs are restructuring the way they give aid, and the world as a whole seems to be making the move towards sustainable business practices.   Of course these initiatives can be seen in the US too, but being here and working in the development realm makes this shift that much more apparent.   Who knows what will come in the next 20 years but, I do know being here now, being apart of the conversation (even at the small level), has to be one of the most interesting parts of my service.  I’ve already learned so much and met so many interesting people, I can only imagine how much more I’ll learn in the year I have left.