By CJ DuNomes

It was day 3 of our Senegal trip and I was the leader of the day with Ryan. Most of the day was spent traveling from the Hakuna Lodge on the Mangrove delta, driving 8 ish hours to get to the traditional village of Niognane. As soon as we arrived we were greeted by 40 little children who ran up to our van eager to meet and play with us for the rest of our stay. Even though the drive was long, as we got up very early, seeing the little kids gave us a burst of energy as their excitement brought smiles to all of our faces. For the time following we would then go on to play uno, soccer, Senegalese wrestling, tickle fights, having kids hang and climb up on us until they ultimately ran us to the ground with how tired they made us.

Throughout this, I also observed the kids and overall grew to be fascinated with how they acted. There were similarities to us being how they played games and pranks. It reminded me a lot of how I acted at their ages. They also seemed they had an endless source of energy as from dawn to dusk they never once felt tired. Having to entertain them for so long made me finally feel the same tiredness my parents felt having to keep up with me. They were also surprisingly mature for as young as they were as they outplayed us multiple times while we were competing in soccer and other activities. And above all, the two things that stuck out the most to me was how disciplined and how much freedom they appeared to have although they were so young.

On the ride down there alone I saw 6 different cow herds and all of which only had one child that appeared to be from the age of early elementary taking care of it. It’s very common for kids to take on bigger responsibilities at such a young age due to their culture. Furthermore, as the kids go to and fro school, they walk to school soon as they can start going. Some kids looked to be as early as 5 years old walking by themselves however so far they needed to go. I find this so interesting as no parent would even really think to give children similar responsibilities and freedoms back home as they would here. It shows a key difference in culture as even young kids have a cultural responsibility to uptake.

The special trust between adults and their children for these things to happen is a pivotal factor that I feel makes Senegal’s culture so unique. I wonder if eventually we were to possibly implement greater responsibilities to children earlier on would that lead us to building enough trust to possibly grant children in the US similar freedoms. Seeing the success here goes to show that it is possible.