Hola chicos,
Today we went to the US Embassy and some of the members of the group learned a very important lesson. You are NOT ALLOWED to take pictures of the Embassy or you will get in big trouble. Now I will have to say, this is not clearly marked on any signs nor were we told about this rule. But man, some of the group learned this the hard way! As we were walking
up to the Embassy today, 3 group members took out their phones to take a picture. As they were doing so, armed guards rapidly approached them and shuffled them toward the guard tower. From there, the guards looked through all of their photos and deleted the Embassy pictures. They then had to fill out a police report and have their passports scanned. Who knows if this is going on their record? Gah! THEN, they had to go across the street for 2 minutes (almost exactly) to be "deported" before they were able to walk back onto American soil. Isn't that crazy? Apparently, you can't take a picture of any US Embassy anywhere in the world. This was a good learning lesson and I will definitely remember this experience during my next Embassy visit.
During the US Embassy visit, we learned about some of the programs the USA and Senegal are working on together. Senegal is one of the most stable democracy's in Africa. In addition, the country's many ethnic groups all get along peacefully. Most people speak multiple local languages, the ethnic groups inter-marry, Muslims and Christians get along extremely well (in fact, they even share a cemetery and on religious holidays such as Easter the Christians make special food and hand it out to their Muslim friends and family and same thing goes vice versa for Muslim religious holidays!) The USA could learn a lot about peaceful living in spite of ethnic/religious differences from Senegal!
In addition, we learned about the USA's role in helping support Senegalese education. Some of the current goals are to improve reading, improve the workforce, and to improve access to education. Some of the challenges include: large class sizes (100+ students), limited resources (some villages do not have power and teachers have to walk miles to load up their cell phones with internet to be able to access something online for their students), and exposing students to English outside of the classroom (sometimes I struggle with this same thing with Spanish in CT)
Special note for my High School kids- Have any of you considered studying International Business or Relations? Or International Policy? Political Science? If so, have you ever considered being a Foreign Service Officer? I had a privilege of meeting a few FSOs today and oh my goodness... they are some of the coolest people I have ever met. These people have traveled the world as diplomats of the USA. Their work can range from working to promoting peace and training teachers, to fighting human trafficking and negotiating country relations... they really do it all! They serve 1-4 year terms at different US Embassies around the world. Some of the FSOs I met today have served in Afghanistan, Rwanda, South Africa, Benin, the Philippines, among many others. If you are interested, check out the 7 Steps to Becoming a Foreign Service Officer. In addition, the new FSO friends I made today said they would be more than happy to connect with any of my students who are interested in learning more so email me if you would like to get in contact!
Enjoy the day and don't take pictures of any Embassies!
Senora Traub
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