In high school, I participated in a co-operative trip with the community of Gandiaye and my school in Senegal. I've always wanted to praticipate in a trip similar to these and when I had the opportunity to, I jumped for it. Helping others has always been my strong suit and this seemed like the perfect life changing experience I wanted to experience.
Like many of my classmates, I started getting ready for this trip a year in advance. From raising money to gathering my gear, I was overwhelmed by the simple idea of being IN Africa ! I was ready to meet new people, emerge myself in their culture and give them all the possible help I could bring them. The goal of the trip was to help improve their learning environment as well as to discover this communitie's culture.
While in Gandiaye, each pair was assigned a host-family to stay with. Our family happened to be the principle's family for the elementary school. The principle's daughter took care of us, cooked us food, brought us to school every morning and prepared the bucket of water for our shower every night.
After spending time in the village of Gandiaye, we headed out to the coast for a day at the beach and we visited the Lompoul Desert. Sleeping in the desert was definitely not the same experience as sleeping in the homes of our host families. It felt much more touristique than the rest of the trip was.