A summer in Saint Louis - This summer was without a doubt one of the hardest I’ve experienced. It was filled with many ups and downs, revelations, personal growth and reflection on why I want to go into public health and medicine. The first week was ridden with doubts and hesitancies about how I could spend nine weeks without air conditioning, and with a language barrier and so much trying emotional interaction with the talibés. However, spending any small time at Maison de la Gare will quickly turn your perspective on its head.

Volunteering abroad is not something that should ever be taken lightly. Sometimes, for students like me on a pre-med track, volunteering is used as a resume builder. However, when venturing into a less economically developed country than the United States, you must realize what kind of situation you are placing yourself into and the impacts your actions have on the lives of others. I want to think that I came into the Global Scholars program at Florida State University for the right reasons, but I don’t really think I understood the magnitude of need in Saint Louis until I got here.

During one of my meetings with Issa (Issa Kouyaté, president of Maison de la Gare), when discussing my upcoming departure back home to the United States, he said something that really resonated with me. I wasn’t sure how take it, as it made me really question how beneficial short time volunteering can be on the minds of these young kids who are ignored and neglected much of their lives. Issa said, “It will be very hard after you leave because I will have kids who will come up to me and ask where the girl is who helped bandage them up and when she is coming back. After a while they will stop asking, but they will always remember you and how you helped them when they needed it.” Even though many of the talibés only speak local languages, I hope that I have had a positive impact for them by working with compassion and regard for their well-being.

From a personal growth standpoint, I have learned a lot about the value of patience, understanding and being open minded about many cultural differences. At first, due to the language barrier, I was very uncomfortable about the idea of going an entire two months without really being able to have a long conversation with my host family and other locals walking on the streets. However, having so very few people speaking English really forced me to embrace being uncomfortable and to try to learn as many Wolof words as I could in the short time I was there. It isn’t often that we are able to be exposed to an African language and it is something that I believe I will treasure and keep with me for many years to come.

This summer, being without the internet for a bit of the time allowed me to catch up on reading many books I had wanted to read during the school year that I hadn’t been able to make time for because of how busy my class schedule was. Even before college, I’ve always been drawn towards books that have a science/health related focus, so I chose to read many public health focused stories that were like the work that I was doing in the Maison de la Gare clinic. One book that I read had to do with a man who traveled to India to try to eradicate smallpox in many areas of poverty. Although I was by no means aiming to eradicate smallpox from an entire country, I still dealt with the same emotional baggage that goes hand in hand with working every day with many sick or injured children. Reading this book made me realize how many countries often focus on healthcare remedies and rarely take prevention measures. This is definitely the case for the situation with the talibés; repercussions are only seen after the fact for the marabouts who make the talibés’ lives a living hell. The talibé situation is much harsher than it needs to be due to the Senegalese government’s lack of involvement and preventative measures.

Coming out of my volunteer experience at Maison de la Gare, I feel much more mature and capable of helping others in the future. Public health has always been something I’ve been passionate about and this summer has only made me realize just how much need is out there. As much good as I feel I did here working with the talibés, I am also cognizant of just how small of a role I played in the big picture of the problem. Turning around the situation for the talibés will never be in the hands of just one person. This is a mountain that’s going to take many, many hands to move.