If many Afrcans dream of setting foot on the US soil, for me, however, it has never been part of my concerns. I thought my life and destiny were just in Senegal. Yet in mid-2006, I remember, my professor in the English dpt at Universite Gaston Berger de Saint Louis calling me and I can still hear his voice asking: "hey, Ousmane, est-ce que tu as vu la note a propos de la bourse Fulbright?" [hey Ousmane, have you seen the post about the Fulbright Grant?]. As I was working on a paper for my Applied Linguistic Class, I replied "No...". He insisted telling me "tu sais, tu as des chances, hein. Il faut faire le concours"[you know, you sure have a chance. You should take part in the contest]. It was a Wednesday and the deadline was Monday; so I had basically two business days to gather all the documents I needed and to send them to the US Embassy in Dakar, 167 miles away. I called my younger brother, Ibou who came to campus and took my application with him in the week-end. On Monday, the last day for applying, my mom went to turn in my application at the US Embassy. This is to mean that my professors (letters of recomendations, transcripts...) and my family chipped in to allow me to take part in the Fulbright International Contest.
A few days later, I went back to Dakar for the Pre-selection (Oral test). I was in a room with two Americans who, at the end congratulated me on the qualiy of my English. For some reason I had no doubt that I passed that test as I am/was comfortable talking and my jury were very friendly.
Later on after a few months, I was scheduled to take the IBT/Toefl Test. I did not feel quite confident of my typing skills and taking a test with a machine got me thinking and stressing. Yet all went fine even though I had to retake the Toefl to boost my previous score.
After almost a year, in January 2007 I received a call from the US Embassy that I was selected to be a Fulbright Grantee and to go to the USA.
My flight was scheduled for March 22, 2007 at 2.30AM (GMT). In an email to the Dean of UGB (my college at home), I wrote about my journey and my impressions:
To PR KANE
"I arrived safe at uncle Sam's, last Friday 23rd. SouthAfrican Airways is a comfortable flight. We left at the time scheduled 2.30 GMT and arrived at JFK Airport at around 7:00AM. There I separated from my Fellow Fulbrighter, Koffi who had to take another flight to California whereas I spent much time waiting for mine, Delta Airline. It was supposed to take off at 12.55. But it only was at the ready at 1.10PM. You imagine the whole time I waited for it and as a person who has never been abroad... Apart from that there was not any problem. The journey to Columbus lasted 1:44 mns and there was a contact waiting for me.
I am now in OHIO University, especially in a Hotel allocated to student untill Monday 26th when I am to meet one of my Representatives, Mrs Rena Peters in order to adjust things.
You have the true warm-heartedly expressed regards from all the Senegalese Fellow Fulbrighters in the US.
Thank you very much for all you have done for me. Indeed, you have been very instrumental in my formation"
The day I was to live Senegal, I couldn't sleep. My family couldn't either...When the cab came to pick me up, I saw my mom about to cry or even crying. Those were emotional moments but I realized life was like a book. You have to flip pages to the last to get the meaning of the story. It's also like driving a car, looking at the scenery, the trees we leave behind us. It's the sacrifice to go through in order to set oneself moving forward. So I had to open that new chapter about Uncle Sam, about America, a country's history I know like my pocket but also a country I have no clue about.
