On the Eve of Departure

My father cooked all my favorite foods for dinner tonight. Mom reacts violently against the suggestion I leave any object out of my bags, even though they are crammed to the bursting point. She is convinced I will pine after anything I leave behind. My brother Peter is being bizarrely affectionate, even offering me the loan of his treasured hat. My brother Richard told me to stop ignoring the people around me and get off the computer. I put the laptop down and squealed as obnoxiously as possible, "Looks like someone needs a hug!" and advanced towards him with arms outstretched. His response to this was to effortlessly put me in a headlock and start shouting in my ear. In short, everyone is acting odd. Well, my family is pretty odd anyway, but they're a different kind of odd from usual.

I think they feel strange about me leaving for the "Wilds of Africa," even though Dakar is hardly a jungle. Packing for a semester studying abroad in EcoYoff (a suburb of Dakar) is scarcely different from packing for any other long trip. Atypical items include malaria tablets, water-purifying gidgets, an electrical adaptor for my laptop, and a gift of art supplies for my host family. I also have to keep the clothes I pack appropriate for a Muslim country (since the Senegalese are pretty laid-back, this mostly means not showing knees or cleavage. No burkas necessary!) Also my nifty little newly purchased netbook (squeal) with a built-in webcam. I can scarcely believe that I'm leaving TOMORROW, I've been planning for and anticipating this event for so long.

I picked Senegal for my semester abroad because I wanted to study abroad in an Ecovillage. I'm convinced a global lifestyle shift to ecovillages and other types of intentional communities is the way to save the world. Much is wrong with mainstream industrial culture. We are obsessed with producing and consuming, and leave too little time for what is truly important. I think we need to realign our priorities. Our energies should go into building social relationships, expressing ourselves, creating things, and finding things out. But the way American society is currently structured makes living a healthy, creative, community-centered lifestyle very difficult. This needs to change. We've got to jump off the consumer culture bandwagon and rediscover the art of living. Forgive the little political philosophy rant (I know some people roll their eyes when they hear this.)

Living Routes (the UMass organization I'm signed up with) has programs in ecovillages all over the world. I simply signed up for the Senegal one because I wanted a chance to practice my French. The French department requires a semester abroad from all its majors anyway. I'm excited, and yes a little nervous. I find myself freaking out over the oddest things, and figure its just supressed emotional pressure bubbling up. I'll be writing my next post when I've had time to gather some impressions of the country, so be prepared for exciting stories (I hope!)