We're Not So Different After All

Spending a month long cultural immersion trip in West Africa would be a trip expected to full of new experiences, peoples and rituals that one could only attempt to fathom. In my experience in the beautiful country of Senegal, I would have to say I didn't necessary find this misleading. To a small amount of sincere surprise, in my trip to Senegal, I gained comfort in the 'new' world my fellow Dragons explorers were submerged in.

In my time with my host family on the third week of the trip, I got the opportunity to connect more personally with the the way of life that the people in the island of Niodior thrived in. There I was welcomed to spend time with the family of Souleman, a boy who reminded me of myself when I was his age. Souleman is an attentive, sincere and fearless kid that pretty much had my back the entire time I stayed at his home. When I would socialize and chill with the older men of Souleman's family I felt as I was hanging around my cousins and uncles back home in Mexico. The conversations were relaxed and the night carried our conversation as we venture to talk about romance, future and religion. These kind of connections gave me the impression that the culture I so intrinsically wondered about was not so different than mine. The traditions, foods and tongues were different, but the people who lived this way are just human, as am I.

Learning what I did in the manner I did sprawled a sense of global citizenship in my identity. A gift that gives me the duty to travel more and more. I believe its a gift which I still carry to this day, engraved in the passport God has given me.