When I agreed to join the Peace Corps, I knew my life would be changing pretty drastically. I was ready to give up many of the things that made my life easy in America: air conditioning, running water, constant access to fast food, 4G and internet access everywhere I went. Leaving those comforts behind honestly wasn’t too hard. After 6 months in country, I’ve come to appreciate a good bucket shower. I don’t miss toilet paper. And while I eat the same thing almost every day here, it’s delicious food.

The things that were harder to give up were the relationships and communities that I loved back home. Having to say goodbye to friends and family, visiting my favorite restaurants for the last time, and counting down the days until I left was simultaneously  exciting and heartbreaking. One of the places closest to my heart back in Georgia is called Extra Special People. ESP is a nonprofit organization that provides programs and opportunities for individuals with developmental disabilities. I volunteered and worked with ESP for about 3 years, and found a passion for the population we served there. I could write this entire post about the people I met there – both staff and participants – and how they shaped me into the person I am today, but for the sake of keeping this blog about Senegal I’ll leave it at this: ESP is always a place that I will call home, because it houses a community that I consider my family. When I got to Senegal, I figured my time working with people with disabilities was over for a while. We’re trained to focus our work on the most pressing community health issues here (malaria, child and maternal health, access to clean water, etc.), and unfortunately there isn’t a lot of precedent for volunteers working with people with disabilities.

Happily, I was wrong! A friend of mine recently organized a three day program for youth with disabilities here in Senegal. As soon as I found out about it, I volunteered to travel across the country and help him out in any way I could. I’ll admit, I was not an ideal volunteer. I don’t speak the language spoken in that region of Senegal, and I don’t even have the french skills to converse with the educated adults helping to run the activities. My experience with other youth programs (mainly summer camps) was useful, but easily overshadowed by other volunteers who had worked at other Senegalese and Peace Corps programs. And, as a brand new volunteer, I was the only counselor who didn’t lead a session.

But I like to think that what I lacked in practical skills, I made up for in energy and smiles. It was nearly impossible not to be happy around such excited kids. The participants represented four different organizations for individuals with different handicaps, including a group of children and young adults who were deaf. They came with an interpreter to sign for them, and I learned that in Senegal people use American Sign Language! This not only allowed me a little more communication than I was expecting, it was an incredible story. Apparently, an African American missionary who was deaf came to Western Africa and went country to country teaching people ASL. I have not been able to confirm this story, so if you feel so inclined, look into this and let me know what you find!

The program was three days long. The first day was focused on health activities. We taught the participants about healthy eating and nutrition, played a game about malaria transmission and bed net usage, did yoga, and had a field day. The next day, we did arts and crafts, including coloring, making a tiny village, tye dye, and beading. We also had a discussion about gender and the benefits of staying in school. On the last day, we learned about the environment. We went on a field trip to clean up trash on the beach, and we learned about vegetable gardening and planted trees. Like every good camp, there were also daily, sporadic dance parties.

The three days I spent with those participants were amazing. Not only was it great to work with children with disabilities again, but I got to talk to some of the older volunteers about their experiences and their work (some of whom are pictured at the top of this post). Even though it wouldn’t fall into our “primary sector” work (the work we’re trained to do here), they all encouraged me to continue to work with youth with disabilities here in Senegal. Many volunteers have projects that they are passionate about that don’t fit neatly into the goals Peace Corps Senegal assigns to us. As I’m heading back to site today, I’m already thinking about future activities I can implement with children with disabilities here. My heart is full of joy.