Adjustment

I‰Ûªm sure every Fellow (that wasn‰Ûªt sleeping) can remember the presentation on Culture Shock‰ã¢ that Andy, team leader from Ecuador, gave one of the final days of Pre-Departure Training. A graph of the process of immersion on the board, an upside-down parabola. The honeymoon phase…

19 May, 2015

Social Stability

You can spend hours talking about the issues of Senegal with Senegalese people: the sexism, defined gender roles, discrimination against non-heterosexuals, problems with the education system, the child and spouse abuse, dominance of Islam, ignorance of current world issues, elevation of elders/males, and the absence…

18 April, 2015

Privilege

I never understood how lucky I am. My father (papi) was born in Barrio Mexico, one of the poorest neighborhoods in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital. Raised by his mother and alcoholic father, he and his two brothers shared an outhouse with the entire block….

26 January, 2015

We Share

On a brisk spring morning 14 years ago, my Costa Rican father and gringa (Caucasian) mother got up at 3:30 in the morning and waited in line all day to ensure my enrollment in a bilingual immersion elementary school. When I reached middle and high…

26 December, 2014

Kurt Vonnegut is a Genius

In a collection of his infamous graduation speeches (found after the previous Fellow Eli left it in my house), there are a few things that stand out about Vonnegut’s brief, insightful, words. He chooses a different theme and moral for each speech, but they always…

24 November, 2014

Senegalese Respect

I never should have made that French toast. I had missed cooking and American food so badly that I’d spontaneously decided to buy dehydrated milk, eggs, bread, and oil and managed to prepare a half-decent “dinner,” that sweet, thick, crispy dish I used to make…

24 November, 2014

Do You Know Obama?

Global Citizen Year made it very clear to the Fellows crazy enough to sign up that this experience and the places we were going to would defy all of our expectations. Before I left for this experience, my mother drove me all the way to…

13 October, 2014

“When One Door Closes, Many More Open”

For months, I have been telling anyone who is willing to listen about the upcoming year.  Everyone that I know and their mothers know that I’ll be spending the following 8 months in Senegal.  I have been so excited and afraid at the prospect of…

23 August, 2014