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Art and Nostalgia

Art is everywhere in Dakar, from art vendors selling wooden sculptures on the side of the road to the ubiquitous graffiti/street art found randomly adorning city structures. I’m planning on doing my Capstone Project on street art in Dakar and will paint a mural at SABS for my final product. I want my subject matter to be representative of me and my experience in Senegal, but I haven’t decided the actual subject yet. Through the universal language of art (unlike math that I have found to be not so universal) I will be able to connect with my host community.

Living in Senegal has offered me so many experiences, some less wonderful than others, and opportunities to connect with people and discover things I otherwise never would be able to. The needy children you see on TV commercials, I’ve met them here on the streets of Dakar. At times I’ve given them bags of peanuts, bottles of water, and sometimes even leftover crepes from home. However, I still miss home more and more with every passing day. I have conflicting feelings of wanting to go home but also never wanting to leave. I love my life in Dakar but can’t wait to be back in Maryland. It’s hard because I want to maximize my time here and if I’m not careful I could waste away my last few months wishing I was home.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m hopelessly nostalgic. Right now I’m thinking about how much I miss home but I know once I return all I’ll want to do is go back to Dakar. Recently I’ve been trying to draw places back home and remember as many details as I possibly can. I really surprised myself with how many details I actually remember. I’ve drawn several places in the Columbia Mall, my house, my friend’s apartment complex where I used to hang out a lot, but the one I’m most impressed with was the one of my Grandparents backyard. They moved out of their old home almost five years ago but I can still remember so many details like how the deck wrapped around the house, the shape of the pool, and where and what all of the plants were.


I almost started crying on the bus to school the other morning because I was listening to one of my spotify playlists (your tax dollars go to my spotify premium account - thanks State Department) when Weezer’s cover of Toto’s “Africa” came on. This song may be a meme for most but to me it has a lot of sentimental value. It came out about a month after I got accepted to YES Abroad Senegal. One of my last memories of the U.S. was listening to that song in my room with my family. Devin and I played it as the plane touched down on the runway. Call me crazy but I like the cover more than the original.


Equally crazy, today is the exact halfway point of the Program and tomorrow I turn 17 (Today is January 23rd and my birthday is the 24th). I often make a joke saying that I feel like I’m freshly 13 and I think I’m cool because now I’m a teenager and I can go to the movies by myself, but the truth is that tomorrow I’ll be 17, and scarily, I’m beginning to feel it. I’m at that age where I’m still technically a kid but I’m mentally preparing to be an adult in a year. This year has taught me a lot about adulthood, being proactive, and essentially how to live on my own. Of course I am with a host family that takes care of me but this is the first time I’m living without my real parents. And when I go home I have to go back to regular high school life and live with my parents again. The whole time I’ll also be preparing for and taking the SATs and filling out college applications in preparation for the next stage of my life. The end of my childhood is in sight and it’s the scariest and yet most exciting time of my life. Today, marking the exact halfway point of the program, means that now the end of the Program is in sight. I don’t think I’m ready to say goodbye to Dakar because that means I’ll be saying goodbye to my childhood as well.

This photo was taken on our second day in Dakar. Today is the 145th day.

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