“Behind the Mask” is a WNYO podcast now also becoming a column on The Oswegonian that locates international students on campus and alumni living abroad and reports on what their experiences have been like overseas coping with COVID-19. Host and columnist Tomas Rodriguez can be reached with tips at 772-333-5501 and on Twitter @TomasFRoBeltran.
At first, residents of Senegal were hesitant to wear their masks until the government threatened to penalize those who failed to wear their face covering.
Throughout the pandemic, the nation has never been on lockdown, although they did have a curfew in place. Those restrictions forced SUNY Oswego student Baye Massene Diallo to defer his arrival here on campus in January of this year.
“Since people didn’t believe in COVID, we had a true problem getting them to wear their mask,” Diallo said.
At first, the country had around 10 COVID-19 cases per day, Diallo said.
As cases began to grow exponentially, the government put a fine in place for those who refused to follow the law.
That amount equaled a $20 fine in U.S. dollars, although proportionally it compares to a $100 fine here in the U.S., he added.
“I remember in March 2020 we stopped [going to] school for about two months,” Diallo said.
At that time, schools, restaurants and others were forced to close down to stymie the spread of the virus nationwide. Citizens were not allowed to leave their homes between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., he said.
A large portion of the population in Senegal is unemployed, so when they closed everything, it resulted in economic struggles for the country.
During the early stages of the pandemic, public transportation experienced a shortage, resulting in less buses being able to drive less people into the city due to the newly-imposed social-distancing guidelines, Diallo said. That caused delays for many heading to work or school.
In terms of education, public institutions were forced to bring their lectures to a hiatus during that time as they could not afford switching to remote learning, he said. An average of 500 students are enrolled in the same class in a public institution.
As a result, many were unable to enroll in classes for the fall. That complicated their enrollment for the following semester as these are interdependent in Senegal, Diallo explained.
“So many people couldn’t be there on time, some people just didn’t have the job because they got fired since so many companies couldn’t really afford employment,” Diallo said. “That was really a disaster.”
When Diallo was accepted at Oswego in September 2020, the borders were closed. Then, they suddenly opened up the borders only for the students.
“It was quite weird to leave my family and come here,” Diallo said.
In order to leave the country, Diallo needed a negative COVID-19 test. Only one facility nationwide was able to carry out COVID-19 testing for those exiting the country, he said. That test cost Diallo $100.
Diallo said getting an appointment to obtain his visa in order to arrive in the U.S. was also complicated.
Once he was able to board his flight to the U.S. Diallo said the airplane was nearly empty, but students were not allowed to travel with family.
