2017-09-09
I stand here as a daughter Young, ripe, and sweet as clementines’ Dripping sticky down your hand I am a sister Calloused as the camels’ back Grown rough to pinches, teases, and taunts A lover Sometimes lapping lightly up the shoreline And other times thrown into a feverous riptide Salty, leaving lips parched...
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Full disclosure: I am writing this post in the Houston airport on three hours of sleep in one of the most tumultuous weeks I’ve had this year.* I was hoping to upload this second blog post last Saturday, September 2nd; the day the Ecuador cohort was supposed to leave for Quito. Due to Harvey’s damage...
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I’m currently suspended 37,000ft over the Caribbean Sea, finally on my way to Ecuador, where I will spend the next 8 months of my life expanding my notion of normal by immersing into an unknown culture. Acknowledging that adapting to a foreign lifestyle is easier said than done, I made sure to pack my bags...
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2017-09-08
“Sometimes crying or laughing are the only options left, and laughing feels better right now.” –– Veronica Roth, Divergent That first initial contact with Senegalese air was intense. It was humid, the sun was hot and the feeling of being overwhelmed started to bubble in the pit of my stomach. What in the world...
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2017-09-08
In a street shop bursting wall to wall with colorful boxes and packaged foods, I ignore the curious eyes on me and step up to the counter with my attaya and bleach. Conversation blurs around my ears in a rapid-fire stream of unintelligible words. “Toubab,” I hear. Foreigner. I smile, the one universal gesture...
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2017-09-07
Phones recording, people yelling, razor buzzing, I flicked remnants of my hair to the floor of the Stanford dorm bathroom. The electric atmosphere of the overcrowded space hummed, punctured with gasps and uncontrollable laughter. In the space of four days, not even the duration of Global Launch, the Fellows around me flipped...
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I’ve been in Thiés, Senegal for almost a week now and I must admit that I’m loving this country. Since making lists is therapeutic for me, as weird as it sounds, I’m going to list the things I’ve observed and experienced this week that are making me fall in love with this country ‘ndank ndank’...
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