Hi folks! I’m writing to you today no longer as a Peace Corps Trainee, but as an officially sworn in Peace Corps Volunteer! I’ve passed all my tests and completed my training, so I’ll be moving out to my permanent site in a few days. While training was informative and useful, I won’t bore you with the details. Instead, I want to write about some of the cultural aspects of Senegal in the hopes that I can give you a better idea of the country I’m calling home for the next two years.

In training, we learned about international cultures on a spectrum from individualism to collectivism. While the United States falls heavily to the left (individualistic) of this spectrum, Senegal is on the righthand side (more collectivist). People share everything here, but I think the collectivist culture comes across most clearly around food. We eat all of our meals from communal bowls. If you visit someone near a meal time, they will insist that you stay to eat with their family – even if you’re a total stranger. On more than one occasion, children have come to our house with a tray during dinner to ask for food. Every family they visit gives a little bit, until the tray is full of different meals, essentially creating a crowd-sourced potluck for families who are unable to cook. People feel responsible not just for themselves and their kin, but for the community as a whole.

Another staple of Senegalese culture is greeting people. Each language in Senegal has different greetings. Pulaar greetings usually follow a script along these lines:

1: Peace be upon you

2: And upon you

1: Good morning/afternoon/evening

2: Yes, peaceful morning/afternoon/evening

1: How are you doing?

2: Peace only

1: Are you healthy?

2: I’m good

1: How is your family?

2: They are in peace

1: Did you eat breakfast/lunch/dinner?

2: Yes, I ate

1: Thanks be to God

2: Thanks be to God

While the “script” may seem contrived, it’s important to Senegalese people. If you don’t greet someone, you’ll be considered extremely rude-and you may get called out for it later.  In some villages, you’re expected to greet every person you pass on the street, which means a ten minute walk to a friends house can end up taking an hour. Close friends can greet for minutes before getting to any substantive conversation, or before one person finally admits that they have to continue going wherever they are heading. At first, I found the greetings cumbersome but with practice I’ve been able to greet people more quickly and confidently. On occasion, I now feel personally offended if someone doesn’t greet me when they’re supposed to.

Families and names are also hugely important in Senegal. When you’re meeting someone for the first time, they’ll ask you for your parents names to identify what household you belong to. Family names are also significant because they are associated with different language groups, castes, and regions of Senegal. To show respect, people sometimes greet close friends by saying their friend’s last name repeatedly. Family names are important starting from birth. Everyone is named after someone, and your namesake can be anyone – a family member, friend, infant, or parent. After a baby is born, parents wait about two weeks to tell people the child’s name, and when they announce it there is a huge ceremony to welcome the baby and give your blessings to the family. Because everyone is named after someone, it’s easy to learn Senegalese names!

The final thing you need to know about Senegalese culture is that their concept of time is completely elastic. If something is scheduled for 10:00 AM, it might not happen until 11:00 or 1:00 or 3:00. It might not happen until the next day. When this happens, it’s not a rude thing. Sometimes, other obligations get in the way, or unexpected events come up. Maybe you would have been on time, but you had to greet your neighbors on the way and someone invited you in for a glass of water, and you got to talking, and suddenly it was afternoon. Maybe your horse cart guy didn’t show up. Maybe you had to stay home and cook lunch because an extended family member stopped by unexpectedly. Punctuality isn’t valued as highly as human connection in Senegal. People spend a lot of time sitting around talking (usually about how hot it is outside), and drinking tea called Ataaya. A full serving of Ataaya comes in three rounds and can take two hours to make from start to finish. I hear that “Senegalese time” can get annoying when Volunteers are trying to schedule health work, but for now I’m just embracing my inner procrastinator and integrating as fully as possible.

That’s all I have time for in this post. For another Volunteer’s view on Senegalese culture, watch a beautiful (and award winning!) video HERE.  Please feel free to reach out with questions! I’ll be working on the five week challenge for my first month at site, so any human contact in English would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading!!