A Day In Guinaw Rails: Waranka GR and The Guinaw Rails English Family

Going back a few days to January 4th, on this day we had a lot of things going on. We spent the entirety of the day in Guinaw Rails. Part of the day was spent at the Waranka playing with the kids, but we also were given a tour of the community. Guinaw Rails is typically looked down on because it is a community that has its problems as all communities do, but after spending some time in Dakar it is clear how a majority of people in the city feel about the suburban areas. Unlike like the US, the suburban areas like Thiaroye, where Guniaw Rails is located, are typically less well off communities which leads to the stereotypes of these communities being violent or having drug problems. This made it very important to the directors of the school that we saw all of the developments they had in the community. Among these developments we saw the radio station, the new larger market, as well as the older more traditional market and the health center.

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As well as visiting Waranka GR, we also spent a majority of our day with the Guinaw Rails English Family, the English Club we has first met on Gorée Island. When we first arrived we were greeted with music and dancing.

Once everything was settled each one of the St. Mike’s students were invited to go to the house of one of the members of the English Club for lunch. As we have learned on the trip meals are a very social thing for a lot of the people in Senegal and so it was quite the honor for us to be invited into their homes and to share a meal with them and their families. Many of us were introduced to a large number of their family members including a vast majority of their extended family. Myself, I was paired up with a guy named Michel and a girl named Khadija. We went to Michel’s house where I was able to meet his parents and older sister. Unlike a lot of people we didn’t end up sharing a meal with the family, but instead the three of us ate together.

The thing that really stuck out to me about the lunch that I had besides the fact that I was so openly welcomed into Michel’s home, but that Khadija was from Gambia. She had come to Guinaw Rails in a similar way that our group did and now she is a member for life. Although a seemingly small thing, this really proved to me everything that we had been told by the English club. We had only met them twice and now we as a group are life time members of such a special group. They welcomed us into their home with open arms and we were able to create this wonderful friendship after such a short time spent together that is something I find truly amazing and I consider myself to be incredibly lucky to have met this group of people and now I can remain in contact with the and know that I have a family in Senegal for the rest of my life.