A Full-Circle, Invaluable Experience Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Honestly, the academic rigor was quite below the bar I'm normally used to. There is very little homework and/or outside reading and only a few (easy) papers throughout the semester. For my elective courses I ended up taking Gender & Development in Sub-Saharan Africa and Education & Culture in Senegal, both in English. Even though both professors had studied and lived in English-speaking countries for several years and were for all intents and purposes "fluent" speakers, there was still a language and/or translation barrier that greatly hindered the quality of course readings and class discussion. All this said, it would have been completely impossible to have the same level of academics of home there while trying to experience and process everything in the new culture. For that reason alone it was nice to not have to worry so much about academics.

On-site administration of your program

Love the administrators! Serigne and Victoria are so, so great, and are absolutely supportive of every student and whatever needs they have or that come up.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

Everyone lives in homestays in this program. CIEE places every student in a pretty wealthy (by Senegalese standards), comfortable home, for the most part. I'd say that that part of the experience was potentially the biggest challenge, but also absolutely necessary as a part of such a community- and family-based culture.

The food...well, that was another great challenge. Some of it is delicious, by all means-- ceebujen and yassa poulet are both great, and I loved all of the millet/yogurt dishes (i.e. thiakry, fondée, and lox). However, it does take some getting used to the rest of their diet. The staples are white baguette, white rice, lots of meat (lamb!) and fish, and lots and lots of oil. I was a vegetarian before going, but chose to eat meat while I was there because it is such a big part of the food culture there, and I highly recommend doing this. Even though my host-family knew that I liked lots of vegetables, the most frequent vegetable we ever got in my house was frozen french fries.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

It's hard to pin down an "integration rating" because there are so many different facets of cultural integration. On the one hand, I felt very integrated and comfortable by the end, but on the other you're still a very obvious and visible outsider and are, thus, treated like one at all times, so it can be difficult to truly meld into the culture and society.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I didn't have any severe illness matters, but those who did received great help from the program.

Any city has it's unsafe and safe parts or times of day, Dakar is just another city in that sense. However, because of the peaceful quality of their culture and societal shame on physical harassment, I actually felt safer there than in many American cities.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

Very easily! It's possible to eat every meal at home with the host-family, so you don't have to spend much on food. Plus, the program gives a supplemental food stipend every 2 weeks that is at the minimum 15,000 fCFA ($30), depending upon where you live, which also helps a lot.

0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language

You had to use French anywhere and everywhere, and any Wolof you did manage to learn/use helped a lot with locals.

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• Host Family

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• Host Family

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• Americans

• Sharing and reflecting with the other students
• Semester calendar was super well-layed-out
• Very supportive administration

• Academic quality
• Length of time in-class (too long!)
• Explanation of expectations and communication between the program and the host-families

The Avid Adventurer