Eye Witness

By Lisa Akhmetova

“Africa? You’re going to get malaria. And AIDS.”

“You’re going to Senegal? ”

“Didn’t some Catalans working with a NGO get kidnapped near Senegal?”

Fueled by common misconceptions we’d heard from friends and family, we set off to Dakar, Senegal.

Contrary to common belief, Senegal has one of the most stable governments in all of Africa and we were treated with great interest and respect by all of the people we met there. Apart from a few typical cases of traveler’s stomach, none of us became sick during our stay. We, and all of the people who heard about our trip, seemed to have worried enough about all the harm that might come to us in Senegal. What we had not anticipated, however, was just how much our perspective would shift during the trip, not only of Africa, but of ourselves and the world we live in.

What did we do, exactly? We (fourteen students, a photographer, a filmmaker and two teachers) worked with Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit global organization that builds houses for families in need. We also joined with five students from the International School of Dakar and some of their staff, who helped us build houses in the area of Keur Mbaye Fall. We helped build six houses, collectively (with three or four people per house).

We shoveled; we mixed cement; we built and plastered walls. Though our arms and backs ached because of it, we had very little time to notice. The people from the community of Keur Mbaye Fall seemed to find us even more interesting than we found them, if that is even possible. Many of the children had never seen white people before. They would surround you, touch you, take hold of your hand. We would play with them at the end of every workday. The next day, we’d find that people we’d never seen before knew our names.

Apart from the houses, we also visited (and donated money to) two schools and one hospital. There was a minimum of fifty children per classroom in the elementary school, and all of the students were sharing desks. The middle school had no running water. As for the hospital we visited, their medicine supply fit into one cupboard – most of us have more in our own homes.

Its maternity centre was comprised of three rooms, which often got overcrowded, so women would have to give birth on the floor. It was difficult to see the scarcity – scarcity we’d only heard of – with our own eyes, but we left with different eyes because of it. It seemed there was a shortage of something everywhere we went.

Despite this, the people in the schools and the hospital weren’t any less friendly – which provided all of us, who have so much, with an important lesson. In fact, the people of Keur Mbaye Fall welcomed us with open arms in a way that people in the western world never would.

We had come to Senegal to help – but in the end, Senegal helped us. We came to Dakar with a mixture of excitement and apprehension, not knowing which we felt more. We left with new appreciation for what we have, and also new appreciation for what we can give, for this journey was far more gratifying than anything we could have bought for ourselves. Few trips could have taught us that much about a country and its people, and have us come away with such a different view of the world.