Fellow Stories

My Nineteenth Birthday

Emma Peterson

2020-03-04

This past month I celebrated my nineteenth birthday in a very different way than usual. This time last year, I could never have imagined what this birthday would entail.  My host family was very excited to have me spend my birthday with them. For weeks leading up to my birthday, my siblings were busy anticipating the...

Armchair Psychology

Erin Pugh

2020-03-02

Hello! I have seriously neglected this blog for the past several months. Mea culpa. But today is my birthday, so I think I deserve some absolution for that. Now that I’m nineteen, the secrets of the universe have finally laid themselves before my eyes. I know exactly who I am and why I’m on this...

Blog 3: A City Well-Lived

Silvia Craig

2020-02-28

Welcome to Tivaouane! This map shows the memories I have made over the past six months. Things to know: Tivaouane- I can only imagine how you are saying it in your head, let my help you out, it is pronounced Tee-wah-wuan. Tiva has a population of about 40,000. This is the second most urban site...

Tomorrow’s Dust

Ruby Levin

2020-02-27

HEY THERE! Coming at ya from Toubatoul Senegal! I'm currently sitting on my teal woven plastic mat on my bedroom floor, finishing a nice little late night snack of a red apple and some chunky peanut butter. Quirky snacks like this remind me of home. I occasionally get whiffs of certain perfumes of people passing...

Walking to School

Katie Mastriano

2020-02-24

Walking to School The Sun! – Super bright always hot The “young” mosque  – Lots of men and boys gather here on Fridays  – Call to prayer The children – The “bonjours” and the “Toubabs”  My construction guy friend!          – Blind in one eye         – Calls me...

Why I Want to Stay

Eleanor Ross

2020-02-10

Even though I’ve been in Senegal for over five months, I don’t want to leave. Even though my mom regularly texts me with the exact number of days until I’m home, I still don’t want to leave. And even though my dad just started making me homemade sauerkraut (trust me, it’s something to write home...

Answering questions I get the most!

Zion Barnett-Bishop

2020-02-09

Where have you been?  I’ve just been living to be honest! I’m in Senegal, Taiba Ndiaye to be exact. How much longer are you going to be out there?  Well, as I am writing this it is February 2nd, so around 2 more months. How is it?  That’s a loaded question. Some days I wake...

Moving in the opposite direction

Christine Alhalabi

2020-02-08

Blog 5

Hadley Duquette

2020-02-06

Missed and Will Miss When February started it really hit me that I would be leaving my home in 2 short months. My plane ticket was bought and all of a sudden more and more people started to ask how long I have left here. This is when I realized just how much I am...

Presenting the New Nikola Tesla

Drew Erickson

2020-02-05

I have grown beyond my limits this year. Living in Senegal has been both one of my biggest joys and my biggest hardships. When you are navigating a new space, culture and language, you must learn to adapt and change the way you function. In short, you learn to innovate. And I have to say…...

Romanticization of the ‘West’

Kali Regenvanu

2020-02-05

Living in Senegal, it’s impossible to avoid the endless references to the so called ‘west’. Actually, scratch that. It’s impossible to live anywhere without constant reference to North America and specifically the United States. Living in Thies Noon with my host family has exposed me to an innumerable number of conversations about the greatness of...

Introducing Assa

Crystal Bach

2020-02-04

Hi, my name is Assa Ndiaye. I am the namesake, or turëndo, of my host papa’s mother, who passed away 6 years ago. I also share this name with one of my older sisters, so as you can imagine this leads to much confusion at times. I was given this name when I met my...