After a busy couple of days, I planned to rest all day on Sunday, June 29th. This was a quiet, important day for Senegal as the local political elections converged with the beginning of Ramadan. Leading up to the elections, caravans full of political volunteers marched through the neighborhoods every day from dawn to 2 A.M., blasting music and chanting slogans. On Sunday, all that noise finally ended with a day of peaceful voting to elect the new mayor and district legislators. The commencement of Ramadan, the annual month of fasting for Muslims, also marked an important change in daily routine. Since 95% of the country’s population practices Islam, the holiday slows down everything in the country. During a typical day, one wakes up at dawn to pray and then fasts until dusk while living his or her normal life. Someone I recently met choreographs modern dance routines for a living and he will be doing his usual 6 hours of rehearsal per day in 90 degree weather without any water. In addition to fasting, adherents pray 5 times a day and do some sort of charity work. The more I read up on Islam and talk to the people who practice it, I realize just how little the average American knows about the fastest growing religion in the world. When one takes the time to learn its fundamental values, he or she would realize that it shares plenty of similarities with Christianity and Judaism including beliefs in a higher being, prophets and angels, as well as values of love, generosity and steadfast devotion. There’s still a lot more for me to learn and I feel disappointed in my public school’s failure to instill in me the basics of a religion to which over 1 billion people in this world devote their lives.
I have been blessed with tremendous people, resources, and immersion opportunities on this trip but not everything has been rosy. In addition to the research-specific challenges I described in an earlier post, walking 50 minutes everyday to commute to and from the research center in 90 degrees, sunny weather has not been pleasant. What makes the heat here different from the US is the notoriously unhealthy amount of pollution and dust in Dakar as well as the consistently 80%+ humidity due to the rainy season. Also, power outages are very common in Dakar and the electricity shuts off in my home at least once or twice a day. Yet, all of these are inconveniences at best.
On Sunday, I encountered my first real challenge. In the middle of the day, I suddenly fell sick with food poisoning and traveler’s diarrhea. Staying home all day, I had to go to the bathroom handfuls of times and it was tough to walk around. I am still not sure exactly what I have but I believe it is likely the vegetables or eggs in my home-stay meal since I heard almost everyone traveling here is bound to get food poisoning at least once. After taking antibacterial medicine for three days, I feel better but my stomach and intestines area still hurts. Apart from physical sickness, I sometimes find myself homesick for my friends, family, and communities in Chicago and Northwestern. With Wi-Fi readily available from my room, it is easy to get distracted and feel that I am missing out from a simpler, more enjoyable summer. Then, I remind myself that I am living through the ups and downs of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Kenny