2019-09-25
Hello! It has been exactly a month since I was last in Minnesota. That’s crazy! Time has flown by so fast. I was in San Francisco for a week before departing to Senegal. When I was flying to San Francisco, I started to write my second blog entry. It’s too late to post it now...
Read More2019-09-25
Today is September 25. It’s been two and a half weeks with my host family. Some part of me is surprised (“wait already!?”), and some part of me is surprised for a completely different reason (“wait only!? I feel like I have known them for much longer!”) (First time I met mi familia) I am...
Read More
2019-09-25
Before I get a kindly-worded letter from in-country staff or Falik herself, hear me out. Also, boy do I have a lot of words to say. 1908 to be exact. PROTIP FOR FUTURE FELLOWS #1: Bring a laptop, even if it gets hot when you open notepad. Your capability of doing blogs and college applications...
Read More
2019-09-24
Garab The tree. It brings my family together as we all sit in its shade while cooking lunch, preparing for a party, or just chatting. For the past two weeks or so I've spent hours just sitting under this tree. Most of the time I just sit and watch all of my little siblings running...
Read More2019-09-24
I’ve learned to realize that everything eventually comes full circle. The awkward moments seem to right themselves over time, and, in my case, within two days. For the awkward half of the story, the fact is that my second or third day in Senegal, I was peed on. I had gone outside to look at...
Read More2019-09-24
I love my name. But it took a long way to get here. Years of people singing “Eleanor Rigby” and telling me their grandma’s name was “Eleanor” fueled a hatred in me for my name so strong, I forced my friends and family to call me Ellie. Well, at least for a while. But over...
Read More
2019-09-24
If I had to sum up all my emotions into one experience since I have been living in Ecuador with my host family, it would be as such: We had finished eating dinner and normally I would say goodnight and head upstairs but I see my host mother putting on a sweater. I assume she...
Read More