2016-05-07
Everyone is talking about how Malia Obama is taking a bridge year and whether or not bridge years are beneficial or not. I, as a student who recently returned from a bridge year can attest to how meaningful and important bridge years are. I read a book recently called The Road to Character by David...
Read More2016-04-21
About 8 months ago, my parents dropped me off at the airport in San Francisco to begin this journey. Saying goodbye my parents obviously wasn’t easy, but knowing that I would be seeing them in 8 months again helped make it less sad. I knew that I was saying “see you later” rather than “goodbye”...
Read More2016-04-19
The last video and blog post in my Women of Senegal series is about my mom or “Nene”. The video focuses on the small community garden we made with the money that I got from Global Citizen Year for my final community project and the bigger community garden that we want to make in the...
Read More2016-04-18
This is the second blog in my series of high lighting Senegalese women that have inspired me. I created this video to highlight Aminata, a women who works in the GCY Dakar office and has inspired and all of my fellow fellows throughout the year. Thank you Aminata for all that you have done for...
Read More2016-04-07
Upon coming to Senegal I decided I wanted to highlight women that inspired me and my fellow fellows because many people in the states believe that women in Muslim countries are oppressed, forced to serve their husbands and not allowed to get an education. While there is definitely some of that in the world I...
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2016-03-19
One of the first things that I learned about my village of Mako was that the Gambie river flows right through the middle of it. I grew up in Richmond, Virginia where we call ourselves “The River City”, so I was beyond excited to have a river in my new home because it would feel...
Read More2016-02-09
Throughout my time here in Senegal I have had a lot of time to think. Think about everything, from my perception of god to why I use so much water when I am taking a shower when here I use only a single bucket and I have even been thinking of my opinions of culture...
Read More2016-01-09
Sometimes I like to think back to what I was doing this time a year ago. This time last year I was starting my second semester of my senior year and gearing up for a rocky college process, that would leave me hopeless with dwindling confidence. After I got told I wasn’t good enough to...
Read More2015-11-23
Over the past few weeks I have become very familiar with the health system here in Senegal. I work in a health post and I also have gotten sick three separate times so I have been able to observe the health system pretty well. Nothing describes the health system better than my last visit to...
Read More2015-10-31
Everyone says that during this year I will experience “my highest highs and my lowest lows” and I don’t really know yet if my highs are that high and my lows are that low, but I do know that I experience them on a daily basis. A lot of my highs are small, like my...
Read More2015-10-31
Today I was baptized, I am now Rammatou Laye Ba. I was given this name by my host family in Mako and our team leaders decided to do a naming ceremony (something like a baptism) for each of us. Aminatta washed our head with a little water and pretended to shave our heads like they...
Read More2015-09-19
To my family and friends I am sorry if I am not able to describe my experience here in Senegal so far. It’s been crazy, fun, absurd, difficult, and amazing all wrapped up into three incredibly short weeks. Just know that we are were we are supposed to be and we may not know the...
Read More2015-09-07
Following the advice of a very wise alum I decided to read John Perkin’s book “Confessions of An Economic Hit Man” where he explains his life as an Economic Hit Man, cheating developing countries out of trillions of dollars. It’s an eye opening book that I suggest that everyone reads, but a specific part stood...
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2015-08-31
In my Dakar host family there is a one year old boy named Mohamed. Mohamed is adorable, funny, energetic and is still trying to figure out this world he lives in just like I am. When he speaks he is just kind of making guttural noises and my host mom says that nobody can understand...
Read More2015-08-25
In wolof the word ndank ndank means “little by little”. This saying is going to be my motto for the year. I have a tendency to want to skip steps, not put in the hard work, but still want to get the desired out come. This year I plan on taking every thing in and...
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