So, it’s kind of obvious that I have been a little lacking in blog posts here on my Global Citizen Year blog. Heck, I haven’t posted a single one since I left Houston way back in August. Now, I understand how this may come off as simply me being lazy, but I want you to hear me out here. The biggest reason I haven’t written any blog posts recently is this — I kinda forgot I was in Global Citizen Year.
You see, as soon as I embarked to San Francisco for fall training back in August, I adopted a new role in life. That role was the role of a Global Citizen Year Fellow. I began to behave myself in my best Global Citizen Year mannerisms. This meant I was more than happy to (and somewhat obligated) capture every single aspect of my year in Senegal and share it with the world via my Global Citizen Year blog, but something rather unexpected happened. Once I was dropped off at my site back in October, I adopted yet another role. After a month and a half of living and working in the small community of Mako, I completely submersed myself in the new life I was leading. I reached a point in time in which I no longer identified myself as “Jose Duran, a Global Citizen Fellow in Senegal”, but by the new identity given to me by my host family the day they met me — Abdou Khadry Ba; the kid that lives in Mako, is always riding around on his bike and that works at the health post in Badian. With this change of roles also came a change of priorities. While Jose Duran, the GCY fellow, prioritized sharing all of his experiences abroad with all those back in the States, Abdou was more focused on doing absolutely everything he could do to help out at the health-post. In short, I became more focused on experiencing rather than on documenting the experience.
Now on top of that, there is also the issue of simply getting decent Internet access while I am at my site. To even be able to post a blog I have to dedicate a full day to getting to the nearest major town just so my Internet modem key can work. Making the 45 minute car trip to the town of Kedougou consists of this: I have to wake up at 6am, walk to the car garage and buy a ticket for one of the “7-seater” taxis that make the trip from Mako to Kedougou. Then, I have to wait until the car is completely filled before it even takes off. Did you notice how I put the words “7-seater” in quotations earlier? Well that’s because even though the cars have only 7 seats in them, the drivers will refuse to make the trip unless 9 tickets are sold, which means cars are not “full” unless there are 9 people seated inside of them. Then comes the 45 minute, crowded ride into town where I then must find a place to connect, then upload my blog and do whatever it is I need to do, and finally make my way back to a car garage to make the trip back home again.
Now I know excuses are excuses no matter what, but I hope you all back home understand where I’m coming from. Know that I am very sorry about not keeping up with my blogs and that I greatly appreciate your patience. I promise I have more blogs on the way.
P.S: Abdou Ba says he is sorry about the blog delays, too.
