Host into: This year marks the 20th anniversary of WNYC's youth media program: Radio Rookies, and today we hear from 19 year old Mame Diop. Mame never wanted to leave Senegal, even though her parents lived in the United States. She reunited with them in 2017, when she moved to New York, but since arriving-- Mame misses home. While many in the U.S. assume it's the better life with more opportunities, Mame looks into whether that's true for her.
Mame: I never dreamed about coming to the U.S. Never in my life. And when I first got here-- it was very hard. I didn't have a phone or any friends.
[Watching tv show Designated Survivor]
Mame: I spent the whole day watching tv shows, that I didn’t understand, because everything is in english.
Mame: Testing. Testing. Its fine. Ok. What is your relationship to me?
Cheikh: You are my friend. I mean my first friend.
Mame: That’s Cheikh he’s from Burkina Faso in west Africa… he was also my first friend.
Cheikh: I mean for me I was almost to go back home. I only live with my brother. And he always comes late from work. So I'm always alone at home. It's just boring. Because you know in Africa you can't, you can't it's it can never be boring.
Mame: You can't lock yourself in an apartment.
Mame: In Senegal, I was living with, Yaboye, my grandma. I loved my life back home. Always being around my grandma, my friends, my aunts, and my uncles-- playing around, joking, AND making fun of each other all the time. In my mind, leaving, especially my grandma-- was not an option.
[Phone ringing]
Mame: But I didn’t have a choice. My parents already decided.
Mame: Hello. Yabaye
Grandma: (Responds)
Mame: When I first got here, I called Yabaye everyday-- just so I wouldn’t be alone. We would laugh about the latest gossip.
[Laughing with Yabaye]
Mame: And I’d hear about how she’s doing, and how much she misses me too.
GRANDMA (in wolof): It was painful. One hand I did not want you to go, because you were my companion and everything, and the other hand I wanted you go because there you can build you future and study.
Mame: When I started high school in Senegal, my grandma would tell me, “one day you will join your dad in the U.S. to get a better education.” He came here for work, before I was even born. And then my mom joined him-- a few months before we came. But I didn’t understand what was wrong with the education I was already getting. I was planning to go to college in Dakar or Saint Louis, to attend medical school. but apparently my parents had different plans. I don’t usually question my parents about things they already made a decision about.
Mame: Today I want to interview my mom. Ok, let’s just go and ask her a couple of questions.
Mame: It was not easy, but I really wanted to understand. So with a smile, I’m always smiling. I talked to my mom.
Meme: Hello Ya Khady
Mom: Hello Mame Diarra
MAME: Why couldn’t we stay in Senegal?
Mame: She told me she felt lonely.
Mom (in French): Vue que je suis ici je ne voudrais plus quelqu’un d’autre continue d’éduquer mes enfants et former une famille. (English translation: Because I am here. And I didn’t want anyone else raising my children. I wanted us to be a family.)
Mame: But I didn’t feel bad about living a part. Or happy. I was indifferent.
[Walking into building]
Mame: And now that I’m here, we still don’t see each other that much. Most of the time it's just me and my brother Modou at home...
Mame: Hey Modou.
Mame: ...watching movies or cartoons.
[Watching anime]
Mame: Did you read something?
Modou: (Responses in Wolof)
Mame: Or I’m cleaning the bathroom.
[Cleaning bathroom]
Mame: And my parents are at work. My mom has two jobs.
[Hair salon sounds]
Mame: She’s a hair braider and she helps take care of elderly people in their homes. So we only see each other on Mondays when she’s off.
[Leaving work]
Mame: And my dad drives a taxi everyday, so I only get to see him when he picks me up, when I get off from my job at midnight.
MAME: Diop
Dad: Diop (speaking in wolof)
Mame: My life in Senegal was simple. I just had to go to school and go home. That’s it. And everything I needed, I would get it right away.
Here I struggle to balance everything. My senior year I had school, work, trigonometry, science club, and Radio Rookies. So, I was always busy. And Sometimes I do have a headache or because I work at a supermarket and I’m on my feet, I really feel pain in my body. But in the morning I wake up early and Start my day all over again.
Being mediocre is not an option for me.
[Hanging out with friends]
Mame: But it's not all work, I spent a lot of time with my school friends. Last year, about eleven of us created our own family. We are all West African. And they help me forget all the stressful, lonely, and tired days I have had.
[Laughing with friends]
Mame: For someone like me--- the opportunity America has offered is independence and options. Learning a new language, how the subway works, buying my own clothes. But also, when I graduate I’ll go to medical school, get a residency at a hospital, make a lot of money and start a new business in Senegal. If I had stayed there, these are all things I could only dream about.
The only thing is, now don’t have time to call my family back home. Some of my aunts and friends even tell me, “I’m really bad”-- “that I’ve changed.” And I tell them that they do not understand my life right now. That I truly don’t have time to keep in touch with everyone like I used to.
Now I have even gone two weeks without calling without calling my grandma-- but she’s always on mind though. And I tell myself I will call tomorrow.
[On the phone with Yaboye]
Mame: For WNYC, I’m Radio Rookie Mame Diop.
