Fellow Stories

The country with infinite peace.

Isabel Munoz Beaulieu

2018-02-04

While roaming through the crazy streets of Senegal in a bus that is not the most comfortable mode of transport I’ve been in in my life, Izzy, another fellow, decides to ask me what I think about Norway and its people. I suddenly got reminded of the two years I spent living there and how...

when words fail

Stephanie Sanchez-Aguilar

2018-02-04

“Music is the universal language of mankind.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  We recently had TS2, where all the fellows come together after spending uninterrupted time with our host communities and being immersed. During these seminars we have sessions in which we talk about a number of things surrounding our experience in Senegal. One of the...

Affirmations

Talia Drayton

2018-01-30

  ****This blog is about….5 months overdue?  Oops.  I can’t think of an inspiring introduction, so this is going to have to do the job**** Here is a condensed list in no particular order of importance for some of the affirmations that I have found useful during my gap year.   Self-Motivation: ….. Some days,...

Vision Statement: A Reminder to Continue to Strive for My Goals

Shannon Yang

2018-01-30

I took this gap year to grow and to develop myself as a person in the ways that matter to me. In so many ways, I am doing that. I can’t count the number of lessons I’ve learned and realizations I’ve had. However, as the year wears on (almost five months already), the things that...

Welcome to your life

2018-01-24

    05:00 – The call to prayer shudders you from your sleep, darkness still shielding the character traits of day from your greedy eyes. The “Allahuakbar” continues as you turn restlessly, taking this brief moment of consciousness to readjust the strewn blankets for optimal comfort. You lay back, the minarets concluding their call, and...

Ndanke Ndanke

Elise Leise

2018-01-15

After shelling a requisite amount of peanuts with the women of the compound, I found Dé Maraam behind a tin-roofed hut, sitting in the shade and chatting with a grandmother about the weather. As the village chief’s widow, she held respect and authority throughout Bapate and was the woman I needed to speak with about...

The Importance of Language Learning

Wyatt Foster

2018-01-09

Nelson Mandela is famous for the quote "If you talk to man in a language he understands it goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language it goes to his heart" for a good reason. Since being in Senegal I have developed a new understanding and passion for language learning. Not...

“Finding Myself”

Isabelle Johnson

2018-01-06

My first few weeks in this country acted like a giant wrecking ball came down on me without mercy. It squashed me into nothing & showed me how massive and diverse the world can be.  These last 4 months have slowly built me back up into a different version of my old self. Not one...

Kwanzaa in Senegal

Miniya Ali

2018-01-03

Unfortunately no, there were no Kwanzaa celebrations going on in the Theis or Touba Toul areas that I knew of. This is the first year in my life that I’ve ever missed a Kwanzaa celebration, but Senegal isn't a bad place to be missing it. Many people incorrectly believe that Kwanzaa is a traditional  “African”...

To everyone that told me to grow up or act my age.

Ezekiel Alford

2018-01-02

To everyone that told me to grow up or act my age. This is not meant to throw shade so sorry if it does just needed to vent my bad I meant to express my feelings in a constructive way. I don’t understand how you can say act my age when we do the same...

Senegal

Ezekiel Alford

2017-12-31

This is Home to me now Video

Allahu Akbar

Avinash Jagroo

2017-12-30

I hear it all the time. When an elder is expressing their delight that my cold has gone away, when a passerby tells my carpentry supervisor a tale he can't believe, when my host mom is baffled by my inability to remember the easiest Laala words, and so on. It's quite the common expression here in Senegal....