I went to Senegal with Project Trust in 2021. I’d like to share my experiences living, working
and socialising in a remote village.
Travelling to your project for the first time is a unique experience, I remember driving
through an unfamiliar dusty landscape, with a few hardy trees and even hardier goats. I was
full of excitement, anticipation and nerves as this is going to be my home for the next
chapter in my life. Myself and my partner (Seona) were in Thilmakha, Senegal. A rural village
in the centre of the country, acclimatising was a bit tricky at first, with a whole new culture,
language, and an average of around 38 degrees Celsius. However, in no time it became our
home.
We were living in a room in a shared house, there were four separate houses with a
communal, and very lively, courtyard space in the centre. Our house was inhabited by men
working in the village, however in the other three houses were busy families who all took us
under their wing. We didn’t have a host family exactly, but we ate, cooked, babysat and
hung out with our neighbours daily. we had the option to either live at the school with other
teachers, or in our room in the heart of the village and we are very glad we chose the
village. This allowed us to be exposed to both worlds, school and village life.
Living with the community was incredibly enriching and meant we learned the local
language (Wolof) at speed. It is so rewarding to feel involved and accepted in the
community however it can be a balancing act, and in my experience, sometimes
overwhelming. The difference in culture is what makes the year so enriching and
interesting, however your expectations are constantly challenged. For example, our cultural
expectations of gender equality and animal rights. Over time we built up layers of
understanding which helped us process these things.
An example in our community, was a girl who lived next door. She was about 13 years old
and we assumed she was one of the family’s daughters. However, we soon noticed she
wasn’t going to school, and realised she was a live-in maid. The scenario of a child working
as a maid and being denied education is awful, and should never happen. However
culturally it is the norm in parts of Senegal. In fact, they were surprised that we were
surprised. The girl had come from a poor background and not done well in school, so the
family saw taking her in for work as a charitable act. Of course, this is still a child being
denied of their rights but It is important to listen to perspectives when staying in a
community, even if you don’t agree.
Being immersed in a community is a wonderful thing. We were in a village which meant
everyone got to know us, and we had a close relationship with our neighbours, shop
keepers and students. One cultural difference which I found inspiring but also tricky was
how privacy is viewed. In Thilmakha every door is open, everyone shares meals, kids run
freely between houses and parenting is done by everyone. This in incredibly welcoming and
facilities a warm and friendly atmosphere. However, sometimes it can be hard to find time
for yourself. I definitely got a little frustrated when kids would bang on my door asking “why
did you lock it?!” after a long day at school. I suppose the photos on our wall and fairly lights
were enticing. Kids would find where we lived and bring back flocks of others. You could say
we were novelties. However, this did all simmer down the longer we stayed. It’s worth
noting we were the first volunteer teachers to go there with Project Trust, and the first
white people since the early nineties with the Peace Corps.
At first, I think we were making such an effort to get involved and learn the language, that
we ignored our “social batteries”. We found explaining that we wanted the occasional meal
to ourselves and the odd evening on our rooms beneficial for our energy levels and mental
health. I also think it was good or our “host families” to have some space. Nevertheless, we
have made friendships that will last a lifetime.
Onto My favourite topic, the food. We often helped cook, and paid a about £13 a month for
lunch and dinner from the neighbours whom we are close with. I can now say I’ve chopped
more onions than kids in the lycée. I love cooking with people. Its one of those things that
fills people with pride, and encourages generosity and togetherness. Food is defiantly their
love language which was especially apparent at Tabaski (the Wolof name for Eid) which is a
Muslim festival, involving the killing and eating of sheep. We ate Thiebougenne pretty much
daily, which is a very popular dish in Senegal consisting of rice, fish and veggies.
Our neighbours Ngorne and Awa taught how to cook, hand wash clothes, and helped us get
good prices in the market. In turn we babysat, showed them songs, games and helped them
with school and house work. All in all, strong friendships were formed. One of the most
important ways they helped us was explaining things we didn’t understand, such as
Senegalese Islam, family dynamics and djinns (Islamic spirits who are believed to be very
much real).
Over time we definitely gained an understanding of wider Senegalese culture and Islam (the
main religion) which helped us make sense of our time there and appreciate it. We saw
some beautiful things, such as great Magals, which are religious festivals dedicated to
certain serignes (saints). But then again, also some more difficult things such as the Talibe
who are child beggars who work on the streets to learn life’s hardships and who learn the
Quran in the evening. I do think it’s important to realise that we can’t help everyone, and
are there to teach English and for a cultural exchange and not to change the world, and it’s
important to have mutual respect.
My nine months in Senegal hasn’t been the easiest period of my life, but I am so happy I
went, and will go back. The support we had from our community and friends made the
harder parts of our stay much easier. I know I will be reflecting and learning from the
experiences for many years to come.

I am currently on a 10-month teaching placement in Senegal. As I am 22 years old, my Project Trust journey has been slightly different to the typical volunteer as I am one of the first to embark on the extended age range group. Doing a year overseas after university has suited me perfectly. A gap year was always something that appealed to me, however, in school I fell in love with my subject so I decided to go straight into university to study it. This was something I always reflected on and I couldn’t help but be envious when seeing the fantastic work that the Project Trust volunteers were doing on their placements. As I was approaching the end of my undergraduate degree, I was left with the often feared question of what was next for me. Although I was confident in my future career choice, the prospect of going straight into the workplace was something that didn’t sit quite right with me. I had a strong desire to see a new, vastly different part of the world and to experience another culture. As the working world is increasingly demanding, with employers looking for more experience now more than ever, I knew I wanted my gap year to be structured and well-established. When I saw that Project Trust had extended to university graduates, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity for me to meet all the criteria that I was seeking.

My Project Trust experience has been unforgettable. I have learnt more about the importance of culture, religion and languages in these past few months than I have throughout my whole lifetime. Connecting with people in Senegal has been simple in some ways yet challenging in others. We speak different languages, share different religions, eat different food and wear different clothes. However, we all have one belief in common, that a good education is a very powerful tool. Therefore, this has made it easy for me to implement this passion of mine onto committed and hardworking individuals. In my placement, I am teaching English in a community centre. However, my project doesn’t stop there as I have started an enterprise which makes reusable sanitary products for females in the community. As this is still a taboo subject within the area, often forcing girls to miss days off school each month, I quickly realised the importance of implementing a subtle and sustainable solution for the girls.

Approaching a year abroad at an older age has been really rewarding for me as I came into this year with more experience. Unlike younger volunteers who, for example, may be experiencing living away from home for the first time, I was already comfortable with this feeling therefore it has been less intimidating for me in this regard. That isn’t to say you won’t learn anything during your year overseas. The possibility for personal growth is unmeasurable. I have learnt how resilient I can be, proving to myself that I can bounce back when things are challenging. I have enjoyed taking a year overseas after graduating university as I have viewed this year with a more focused outlook on what I want to do in my future career. This has meant I am continually thinking about the skills and knowledge that I am learning at my project and how this can be transferred and integrated into my job back home.

My year overseas was also very different to the usual year as I had to fundraise during a pandemic. This was an immense challenge as a lot of the typical fundraising opportunities were taken away from us. However, it was a chance for me to get creative. During your time at university, you meet many people and make countless connections. Therefore, I think fundraising during university only increases your chances as you have more networks. Although there are some clear obstacles with raising money at this age, such as your university peers being less likely to offer large donations, preparation and organisation is key here and if you can implement these factors then it is an achievable goal.

I would strongly encourage any graduates to embark on a year-long journey overseas with Project Trust as it can allow you to truly make a difference within the community and allows you to submerge yourself in a new culture. You will learn skills such as resilience, compassion, leadership, adaptability and interpersonal communication. I am very grateful for this opportunity as it has made me confident in my future career choice and has granted me the chance to fulfil my desire to live in a new and unique country while also enhancing my CV. The connections you make during your year abroad are simply not possible back home and I am confident that the knowledge I have learnt from the people I have met here will remain with me throughout both my working and personal life.

Current Senegal Volunteer Stephanie Wells kindly shares with us her experience of her PT placement thus far;

“The opportunity to teach English locally and work alongside a rural community in Senegal has been valuable beyond belief. I’ve learnt about myself, developed huge independence, refined my spoken French and discovered what it really means to serve others. Below I’d love to share a few highlights from my journey. All, I realise, have come from a realisation and cultivation of progress. You can find more on my blog senegaladventure.wordpress.com 

The first memorable moment, predictably, was my very first class. I walked in with advice from the week of training PT provided, a short TEFL course of theory, a detailed lesson plan, two cylinders of chalk in hand, and a heap of anticipation. I felt relatively well prepared. Nothing fully equipped me for that new feeling of leading a class though. My eyes darted around the room full of pupils, voice wavered while explaining, and my hands were so shaky writing the first exercise on the board a student couldn’t read it. ‘Madame Sali, I not understand.’ Salimata is the Muslim name I have been given here. Although nerve-wracking, I look back on this class – set on introductions and hobbies, I think – with such pride, because now – four months on – I’m leading the same group with confidence and self-belief, alongside several others too. So much rests on the students’ attitude to learning, but, as the PT staff assured me back during training, a smile and some ideas to make the subject seem fun can go a long way. The students even stood up clapping at the end of a class they particularly enjoyed last week – we had made a dance together to act out the different prepositions.

Speaking of dance, each returned volunteer I’d heard from before departure told of making the project their own by bringing skills and talents to share with the establishment they were assigned to. I’m a keen performer, so another joy I’ve found in the school has been launching and leading a dance club. Twice a week, a group of about ten of us assemble together on the school basketball court, often tired and dreary after a day of lessons. I blast some tunes through a little speaker and we get moving. It’s the best feeling, seeing the energy and positivity that’s created, and occasionally we even get the basketball club members joining in. As the group’s improved I’ve given the reigns to them more and more with choreography. Often, when split into groups, they make some lovely pieces which they perform for one another at the end of the class. Alongside commitments at the Lycée (high school) site, I’ve also helped out in a few P.E. classes, held on a spacious, sandy patch outside the village’s small stadium, usually first thing in the morning. Although tiring, this has had similar morale-boosting effects for both parties involved.

A particularly rewarding aspect of teaching has been running 1-1 tutoring sessions, with students around school that find English particularly difficult. They fall behind for a number of reasons; often because of missed classes due to school strikes or a complicated home life, or sometimes it’s a lack of self-esteem and confidence to speak up in class. Through the intense nature of these sessions – a stark contrast to teaching a room full of seventy students – I have been able to give them sessions tailored to exactly what they need to work on, as well as provide lots of verbal practice of the language – sometimes neglected in big class settings. One example is Fatou, a fifteen year old I’ve been working with since early January. Her written English was strong, but speaking was a challenge, and she was slow and tentative to form full sentences. We’ve been covering vocab and topics such as school, routines and interests, all in a verbal format. Last Wednesday she performed her full daily routine for me, announcing each part in complete, detailed sentences as she acted it out, using items around us in the library as props.

As I’ve got to know members of the local community, a few individuals have expressed a desire to learn some spoken English too. So much so that my repertoire of weekly students now extends to a clothes vendor I once bought a shirt from, and a young mum of seven down the street from our family home. The latter of these, named Awa, rarely gets the opportunity to leave her home except for food shopping. We’ve befriended each other and exchange lessons. I’ve loved getting to know her, through a combination of broken French and Wolof, the mother tongue, and she teaches me this with a fierce attention to pronunciation – I couldn’t be more grateful. Hearing the slow but steady progress she makes each week in English gives me such a boost, and it’s amazing to hear it does the same for her. After a brief session on a Sunday afternoon, where we covered a bit of Geography and vocabulary describing distance, she once said to me in French, ‘You’re bringing the world to me, Sali.’

As well as building public speaking and improvisation skills, teaching has also given me a profound appreciation, in retrospect, for the teachers I’ve been taught by in the past. Ironically, I think the students I see on a weekly basis have unknowingly taught me far more than I’ve taught them, but that’s the beauty of spending a year in a profoundly different environment. The challenges crop up in unexpected places but learning to navigate them has also been a form of schooling in and of itself. I’ve grown to understand the intricacies of the roles of Teacher and Student; the border between them is not clear cut, and lessons extend far beyond the realms of a concrete classroom. I have no doubt this unique experience with Project will encourage all of us volunteers to throw ourselves in to any educational opportunities in the future – whether they lie within or beyond the boundary of our comfort zone.”