Senegal Semester, Sample Itinerary
The following is a sample itinerary based on past courses; actual itineraries may vary.
-
Week 1
Arriving early in the morning in Senegal we check into our guesthouse and rest in the neighborhood of Yoff, a vibrant seaside neighborhood in the bustling capital city of Dakar. On our first day in-country, we spend some time getting to know one another, exploring the neighborhood, and beginning to learn about Senegalese language, culture, and more. In Yoff, we explore local markets and begin to explore Senegalese culture, religion, and history. We also practice new Wolof greetings, and to learn how to take care of our bodies and minds as we travel through this new and exciting country. -
Week 2
Leaving Dakar, we travel to the city of Thies which offers us our first glimpse into Senegalese homestays. These short urban homestays offer us the opportunity to connect with our first Senegalese family, embracing a new cuisine, a new language, and a new pace of life. While in Thies, we learn more about Senegalese history and politics, gender roles, educational systems, and more from local guest speakers and youth activists, helping us develop the context and framework through which to understand the rest of our experiences across the country. In Thies, we also do some individual work for our Independent Study Project. -
Week 3
We then travel to Kedougou, a bustling town at the borderlands of Guinea and Mali and site of a modern-day gold rush. In Kedougou, we learn about how an explosion of gold mining has impacted the environment, economy, and public health of the region. Through conversations with migrant gold miners and others who have flocked to Kedougou in search of work, we begin to better understand what drives people out of their rural communities, and the challenges they face upon arriving in the city. -
We then head southeast, where we trek from village to village among the lush hills and golden plains of this region. We practice our basic Pulaar phrases along the way with Pulaar, Bédik, and Bassari people. Along the way, we visit a traditional Bedick village and learn about animist belief systems as we immerse ourselves in southern Senegal’s varied landscape. We visit local waterfalls, and may even have the chance to visit the Jane Goodall Institute in Dindefelo, our final destination, to learn more about the conflicts between changing agricultural practices and chimpanzee conservation projects.
-
Week 4 & 5
Traveling west from Kedougou, we enter the flat green plains of Kolda, home to vibrant Pulaar communities of rice, peanut, and dairy farmers. Here, we settle into our 10-day rural homestay in the village of Temanto Samba. Here, the pace of life slows down as we live alongside our host families in a small farming village. We learn about a way of life that is in touch with the land as we stay in huts built from natural materials, help our families harvest and process their own food, and spend the evenings practicing our Pulaar language skills with our new friends. -
Village life brings with it the opportunities to experience village markets, visit a local fortuneteller, observe activities such as fishing and beekeeping, bake local bread, and learn more about the challenges of rural development. As we learn about life without electricity or running water, we see how people can prosper with non-monetary wealth and resources. As we move into the final weeks of our travels together, students begin to plan the lessons and activities that we participate in as a group.
-
We conclude our travels together on the fabulous cliff-side beaches of Toubab Dialaw. During this Transference Phase of our course, we reflect on our experiences together and process what we have learned in Senegal, from new languages to new insights into the beautiful and complex world around us and into ourselves. We come together as a community to celebrate our final days together, and prepare to take home our new passions, new skills, new friends, and a love of this unique, vibrant, and dynamic place. From Toubab Dialaw, we each go our separate ways, embarking home with fascinating stories about our adventures to tell and new friends to keep in contact with until the next time we take a giant leap outside our comfort zones to become familiar with the unknown.
-
*Note
This semester course itinerary may include travel outside of Senegal to locations in nearby countries such as The Gambia and/or Guinea, depending on the term and learning objectives. Each course is different and some semesters spend time only in Senegal while others have chance to travel to nearby locations. Accepted students should keep an eye out for the Tentative Itinerary which will be posted on the Yak Board prior to the start of the term. This specific itinerary would detail any planned travel outside of Senegal for a particular term.
