Aly Counsell

Aly is passionate about experiencing new cultures and engaging in global service, both of which were further developed when she first traveled to Senegal with a group from her high school. She is involved in taking care of children in her church's nursery, rowing on her school's crew team, and volunteering at a center for homeless youth in Seattle. Her goals for the year are to improve her language skills, strengthen her leadership, and learn as much as possible from the people that she meets.

Becoming a Part of the Family—Highlights continued

Aly Counsell

2013-12-30

December 11, 2013 Here are more highlights of my time in Ndande so far. This afternoon, I was walking through one of the main streets in my neighborhood, which is lined with small boutiques and tents where men weld iron. In front of one of the boutiques, there were several women selling food, and I knew one of...

Finding a Home in Ndande—Highlights of the Past Eight Weeks

Aly Counsell

2013-12-30

December 6, 2013 So much has happened in the past eight weeks and there are so many things that I want to write about! I’m currently volunteering at the health post, preschool, and high school in Ndande, which has given me a wide variety of experiences in the community, and I’m continuing to improve my Wolof (the local...

Learning to Walk

Aly Counsell

2013-12-30

November 5, 2013 It was a typical evening in Ndande, the village where I have been living since the beginning of October. I had just eaten a dinner of cere, which is a coarse couscous-like dish made from millet flour, and I was sitting on a straw mat watching TV with my family, when suddenly my aunt walked...

My Mother Away from Home

Aly Counsell

2013-12-30

October 7, 2013 My host mom in Dakar, Soda Diop Diallo, is an incredibly nurturing woman. Though she and my host dad never had any children of their own, they have been hosting foreign students (most, if not all, Americans) for the past ten years. By the way she plays with and loves her nieces and nephews, it’s clear...

A Single Road

Aly Counsell

2013-12-30

September 19, 2013 In the US, my commute to school consisted of one mile of driving through neighborhoods and seventeen miles of driving on the freeway. In those seventeen miles, I would whiz through three different cities, passing countless numbers of houses, people, and businesses, all of diverse backgrounds. Yet of those seventeen miles, all I ever saw were...

To Senegal and Back Again

Aly Counsell

2013-07-17

“I just knew. The moment I stepped on campus, I knew it was the school for me.” This is what I heard time and time again from graduates of my high school when they talked about choosing a college, and those were the words that comforted me as I plunged into the unnerving labyrinth of...