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Africa, when a person hears about traveling to Africa for the first time it is amazing what the mind can conjure up. I remember trying to think about what I might see and experience while there. You know how they say that expectations never match reality, well in this case it was very true. Senegal turns out to be a major city with skyscrapers and traffic jams. But at the same time you still see people using yaks to haul their materials to market. It is a city of opposites. There are those that have and those that have not but the differences are incredible. I went on this trip with a group of 50 or so people and I was the only white person there. I was with my husband and another very good friend who had travelled to Senegal many times. We were very lucky because the 3 of us had our own travel guide who was a friend of our friend. It worked out well. We stayed at this fabulous hotel that was gated and right on the ocean. When we went into the city where the common person would shop. I was told it would be good to bring hard candies to give to the kids which I did. At one point I must of had a line of 25 kids who were homeless. After I ran out of candy I started giving away my change. The line got longer. I felt like a pied piper with this line of kids following me around the market area. We went back to that market a couple days later and once a child or 2 recongnized me from handing out candy the lines started all over. It was really an interesting experience. Most of these kids didn't have anything more than the clothes on their backs. I think it touched me in a way that is very hard to explain. In fact I never went back into the markets because the plight of the children really got to me. This is a country where the government has no programs to help these kids. They don't go to school because they need to spend all of their time begging to survive. I also got out of the city to see how villagers live. It was an amazing experience as the people were so willing to share what little they had. One last thing that I have noticed in all of my travels abroad is how happy people are even when they don't have much.