Eve of the Trip

Tomorrow, at 4:40 in the morning, my three-week long trip to Senegal will finally begin. It's a trip that is sure to be daunting, one that will be sometimes scary, sometimes frightening, but always exciting, and always new. Hopefully, I'll make new friends, friends who are completely different from me. Hopefully, this trip will broaden my worldview, shape me politically and intellectually. Already, this trip has introduced me to new music, such as the music of Orchestra Baobab, a Cuban-Senegalese fusion band from the 70s. I have discovered a group that I now find to be very good, and I am sure that I'll only discover more amazing things. I said this before, but I really hope that this experience will shape me politically. As a leftist, it'll be an intellectually incredible experience to see this country, a victim of slavery and colonialism. I hope to talk with Senegalese people about politics, and I'm sure that this experience will broaden my worldview, pushing back this outdated Eurocentric way of thinking. I will see Dakar, one of the biggest and most influential cities in Africa, and I'll experience what an African metropolis feels like. After living in the Washington suburbs, I'll see real poverty, and try to understand how these people live, and how these people think. I feel the differences between American and Italian culture wherever I go, and I have no doubt in my mind that Senegal will feel like a completely different world. However, the really interesting thing will be finding the similarities. I'll get my first introduction to a completely Muslim society, and I'll have to say I'm Christian to avoid conflict. I'll try to understand the culture and familiarize myself with the way things work over there. I expect it'll be an incredibly enriching, eye-opening, one-of-a-kind experience, on that I won't soon forget.

And yet, on the flip side, I'm terrified. Three weeks in Africa, two of those completely alone? I'll be stranded in a third world country, barely speaking the language, with family hundreds of miles away. I'll have to come home on my own, stopping at one of the busiest airports in the world. I'll definitely get diarrhea, the only question is how bad. Every meal will be a danger. And that's ignoring the fact that I'll be lonely, out of place, and sticking out like a sore thumb. It'll be a long trip, a scary trip. I wonder how I'll come back home.

But I'm excited. I can't wait to arrive in Dakar. It'll be an incredible trip.