I have met a lot of really interesting people along the way and I thought I would describe a few of them to answer some of the question of “who does this sort of thing anyway”.
Sally: Sally has been a real chum of mine. Sally is 40ish and British. She’s sporty and smokes and likes beer, so pretty much other than the smoking she’s my kind of cat. Sally is an RN who, back home, works in a clinic that caters to the homeless population of London. The clinic she works in treats some very difficult cases on a daily basis for a section of the population that is usually ignored when they go to hospital. Her story begins sometime last year when a few of her close friends died way too young, two died of cancer. For Sally, it was a wakeup call to have lost three close friends in such rapid succession so she decided to take advantage of the time she has on this earth and get out there and do something that would help others. Here in St Louis she has been working some with the Red Cross, some with the Talibe center and some at the hospital on the island.
Alex: Alex came to St Louis two weeks ago. She is 22 and Australian. She is a history geek and plays soccer at her university and has crazy big curly hair. She looks like she should be on classic Saturday Night Live with her big blue eyes and no word of a lie she is way more sarcastic than I could ever be. Back home Alex is working on creating a master’s thesis that has something to do with how France allowed Senegalese people to vote in their elections back before independence. That is what brought her here but more specifically the soccer program is what brought her to St Louis. She felt it was a good fit to come here, check out the library and historical resources and also do some volunteering and cultural exchange along the way.
Tamara: Tamara came last Friday. She is 27 and Australian but lives in Switzerland. Back home Tam works as a bartender because it’s really great money and her employers pay for her housing and food and she can go snowboarding every day in the winter. She is also tall and looks like Angelina Jolie somewhat but that is neither here nor there. Tamara had to leave the country for a spell because of employment insurance and typically she says she travels whenever she has enough money anyway. She was thinking of going to Morocco but changed her mind and came here instead when she realized that she could take French lessons and bum around in 35C weather for a month. She’s been pretty cool to hang out with over this last week.
Martin: Martin was here for 2 months and left last week for travel. He is 30ish and Irish but is moving the London for work. Back home Martin works as a lawyer in some giant firm but also takes on pro bono cases every year for his firm. He came to Senegal because he was transitioning to another job in London and decided to check out something different that has to do with development issues. Whilst in Senegal Martin’s project was to visit villages and talk to women who work to raise awareness and help the cause of domestic violence against women.
Otherwise there are scads of 17-20 year olds who have come for a gap year, and several other professionals who either quit their jobs to get out and try something different, or have taken a sabbatical like my new roommate Soleine who is on sabbatical for 1 month from her job as a psychologist. For myself, this has been one of the best parts of the experience. I’ve had some really interesting conversations with people about their thoughts on development issues and I have really learned a lot from their placements and experiences here.
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