When Jennifer Newton departed for Senegal two years ago, the hardest part was leaving family and friends behind.

After serving 26 months in the Peace Corps in the small nation, the 2003 Shenango High School graduate felt those emotions again when she bade her West African family and friends farewell before returning home in November.

“They were so friendly and I learned so much from them,” said Newton, 24. “It was really hard to leave, one of worst days I’ve ever had. The people were so good to me. They made me part of their family.

“Don’t get me wrong, I love New Castle and I’m happy to be home,” said Jennifer, who looked forward to spending Christmas with her parents for the first time since 2006.

“I’m enjoying the cold weather, trees and lights,” said Jennifer, who is making good use of scarves and coats. She had no need for such clothing in Senegal, where temperatures regularly soar into triple digits.

Upon returning home, her first desire was to have a cup of coffee.

“We only had instant there.”

Next she plans to indulge in her mother’s cooking over the holidays. Jennifer signed up for the Peace Corps during her senior year at Indiana University of Pennsylvania without a destination in mind.

“They (Peace Corps) ask where you want to go, but I didn’t have a preference,” Jennifer said. “I just wanted to experience another culture.”

That turned out to be Senegal, a black nation that is more than 90 percent Muslim.

Her parents, Richard and Michele Newton, had trepidations when they learned of her decision. But Richard said they knew better than to try and talk their youngest daughter out of anything once her mind is made up.

“She’s pretty independent and always has a plan,” Richard said.

Michele said she knew they could only encourage and support Jennifer’s decision.



LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE

Jennifer learned to speak the Seereer language after training for six to eight hours per day for two months. She has had some background in French, having taken the subject in high school and college.

She said the host family with which she stayed in a village called Sirmang was a godsend. They had a compound that included several huts, including one for women, one for men and a 10-by-10 facility for cooking, but Jennifer was provided her own 12-by-12 hut. It had a cement floor, block walls and a thatched roof. She said there was room in her hut for a bed, dresser, desk, bookshelves and chairs. Everyone shared a faucet her bathroom, which was “basically a hole in the ground.”

The compound had electricity and a faucet for all to share.

Jennifer said many people have cell phones, but the nearest Internet connection was about two hours away. She said the post office was closer so she wrote letters more than sending e-mail.

“Jennifer was very fortunate to have host family that she did. They really looked out for her,” Michele said.

Jennifer said people of Sirmang work more for food and other daily necessities than money.



THINKING DIFFERENTLY

“Their way of thinking is very different,” she said. “They live in the moment, thinking of the now. Sometimes they buy half a carrot for lunch because that’s all they need to eat for that moment.

“They would ask about America and they thought that everybody has money here and life is easy. They couldn’t understand that we have homeless people because people would not let that happen to family members there.”

Jennifer was among 150 Peace Corps volunteers, including four others from Pennsylvania, serving in Senegal. The village in which she served was entirely Muslim and had about 1,000 people. Jennifer was the only white person in the village. She said there was no schooling for kids in the village, where virtually nobody knew how to read or write.

She would get up at sunrise and have breakfast before going to work in the fields with the farmers.

She would do grading in the dry season and farm during the rainy season.

She had no previous farming experience. Her resume included a job at Weingartner Florist greenhouse, which Peace Corps personnel said qualified her for the task.

“I did lose a little weight there,” Jennifer said. “They eat the same things all the time.”

She said lunch would consist of rice and fish, sometimes with peanut or onion sauces, while dinner would be millett and fish.



SENDING PACKAGES

The Newtons sent packages each month to their daughter and talked with her twice a month via cell phones.

Richard admitted to having a couple of sleepless nights soonafter Jennifer departed the country.

“As a parent you always worry about your child whether she’s in Pittsburgh or Senegal,” Richard said. “Once I went there, I found out she was probably safer there than she would be in Pittsburgh.”

The Newtons traveled to Senegal — a nine-hour plane ride to Dakar followed by a seven-hour trip by car — to visit their daughter in November 2008.

She was visited last spring by her older sister, Courtney, and her husband, Steven, who live in Morgantown, W.Va.



FOREVER CHANGED

Changed forever by her Senegal experience, Jennifer is ready for the next opportunity.

She moved to Pittsburgh this month in hopes to land a job as a research assistant. She shares an apartment with friend Stephanie Plant, also a 2003 graduate of Shenango High.

Jennifer has no desire to stop volunteering, which she’s done in high school and college. During breaks at IUP, where she graduated magna cum laude with degrees in psychology and criminology, she worked at Yosemite National Park and at an animal ranch in Texas.

“I thought it was a fantastic experience for Jennifer,” Michele said. “And it turned out to be a wonderful experience for Richard and me, too.”

Although a half world away, the people of Sirmang will never be far from Jennifer’s thoughts.

“They had nothing, but they were willing to share whatever they had.”