The Continental - Hamilton College

travelanunexpectedlifeliving in senegal,junior eric thomas reflectson the transformativeexperience of studyingabroadIhad no idea. Nobody on this trip did, and I asked. The fact is, notone person out of a group of 22 really knew what they were gettinginto when they came to Senegal, West Africa to study abroad with theSchool for International Training.Oh sure, we’d all read the handbooks and leafed through the glossybrochures in our respective study abroad offices. Some of us, bored athome with a long break before the February start date, had even gone toSIT’s website and looked at pictures from past years.But those smiling faces in front of natural wonders and with cuteAfrican children don’t really do justice to the experience. Three days ago,I was singing “Shout” by Otis Day with my classmates in a tiny villagewest of Thiès because the people there wanted to hear American music.Two weeks ago, I was working in a bronze forge with fourteen membersof the same extended family. Six weeks ago, I was in the mountains nearKedougou, on the borders of Mali and Guinea learning a language spokenin only a handful of villages.And two months ago, I was getting off a plane from Paris, alonestaring into a sea of faces behind a barricade; hustlers and mothers withtheir children, cabbies and businessmen, musicians and imams, all pushinginto the sweltering night. When I think back, two and a half monthsfeels like two and a half years, and even doing laundry on the roof besidethe sheep pen has become routine.I have a friend who told me that going to the “developing world” withSIT would totally change my life. She was in Nicaragua last year, doingthe same thing, and came back dying to tell me what Senegal would belike. I am sure we all know people like this (in fact, I fear I am becomingone). The people that come back from abroad and can’t wait to tell youall about it, and how they grew as a person and learned so much about allthese other “beautiful people.” They are our friends and classmates, buthearing (or reading) about their experiences can get tedious.But they are right: it is impossible to study abroad anywhere andnot have the experience change you. You can study almost any discipline,and you can travel to every continent, but you will come backthinking differently.continued on page 83the continental | spring 2008 79