By Elisabeth Gobush

At the beginning we were warned that many of the places we were going to stay would not have running water or AC, which included Kecouta’s village. At first the idea of spending several days in the village did not seem all that appealing to me. I knew I would want to shower, especially having to spend countless hours outside in the hot African weather. 

Arriving at Kecouta’s village we were swarmed by a lot of tiny children, at least 40 of them who were all excited to see and spend time with us. They immediately began grabbing our hands and leading us to the place we would be sleeping for the next few days. We were also greeted with a home cooked meal which included rice, onion and lamb which was put in a large bowl for groups of five people to share. 

This soon became the new normal, with almost no complaints about the heat or getting sick of having rice every day. When we might have felt uncomfortable, Kecouta and his family constantly made sure we were comfortable by providing us cold water and frozen bissap juice (one of the traditional Senegalese drinks). One day they even made us chicken with fries which is not their typical dish for them, but they still made it to make us feel comfortable and at home. Making the meals took them hours of hard work and preparation, usually beginning to make the next meal during the previous (lunch during breakfast, dinner during lunch) 

Spending those few days in the village it made me realize that we often fail to realize how lucky we are for having the simple luxuries. We don’t even notice them. From simply being able to take a shower without worrying the water runs out to being able to control the temperature of our rooms. Coming to the beach here in Toubab Dialaw, the place we’re staying felt more familiar to my own house. Still, it felt different because there is limited water here and we have to think about the environment around us. And while we had some familiar conveniences, the family of people who had kept us comfortable in Kecouta’s village was gone. This really revealed that comfort isn’t always about nicer things or modern conveniences. It can be about the way you’re treated.

When we put ourselves into unfamiliar conditions we are able to discover that we don’t need the fancy daily amenities that we are so used to, and that we can simply forget about them for a little while to relive the world and learn that its beauty is so much bigger then ourselves.