partir pour mieux revenir

"partir pour mieux revenir". I got this proverb from the sweet French Canadian dude I met while I was in Mali, and am desperately trying to keep it as my motto as the countdown is officially on with a little over 3 weeks left until I must return to the States. Seeing as how the internet has not worked on campus for the past week and I am now actually having to write final papers for my classes, this will be one of the last blogs I post before entering into American life again.

A recap of an interesting thing that happened in my life since the last post: I went to Bambey with my friend Babs to visit his village for a long weekend. He is from an area in the interior of Senegal and his village is in conjunction with 2 others making up the Bambey region. This past experience reminded me of why I am so grateful to have such a diverse range of friends here. While many similarities can be made from one village in Senegal to another, I have had the opportunity to see the cultural divergences between ethnic groups. Babs is from Bambey Sereer (pronounced sare-rare); meaning that everyone in the village was from the Sereer ethnic group and participated in their ethnic practices.

I was once again placed in the family setting where most of the women did not speak French, however luckily for me they did speak Wolof (as compared to only Pulaar in Hore Fonde). Everyone's first language was Sereer, and pleasantly enough for me the few phrases/words I learned in Sereer were only greeted with utter pleasure that I cared enough to learn their language. Comme d'habitude the family was all acceptance and hospitality. I had a great time bonding with one of the women in the housing compound learning to make mafe (yummy peanut sauce with rice) and ceeb bu weex. Despite my love for cooking however, I became a little disenchanted after seeing Mageat (my friend) spend every moment of each day centered around cooking process. It was interesting for me to participate in it and realize how much I could never do what she was doing, and yet this is how 97% of the female population in Senegal spends their lives.

My second eye opening experience was seeing the relationships between family members in Babs' polygamous family. Polygamy is a huge part of the culture here and is frequently discussed, but to see it in action is always different. Especially coming from a Western point of view, I was mildly surprised at how cohesively the two wives and kids interacted. Babs told me that there have never really been any problems between the two families and that he has always considered the second wife and kids just as much his family as anyone else. This coming from someone who wants to only have one wife. Having personal experience seeing a polygamous marriage in harmony was a good thing in helping me to keep an open perspective when thinking about the personal lives of a huge percentage of people in the world. So this was just a brief part of my new experience. It has been so rewarding seeing and meeting the lives of my campus friends. It is surprising how much I learn in just a short visit.

All I have to say is that I hope I can come back again to see all those who were so welcoming to me. I'm crossing my fingers and praying to God.