2018-06-01
“Traveling—it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” —- Abn Battuta, Moroccan explorer, 1300s. How was Africa? My feet still hold onto the last markings of fuden, the traditional henna paste my older sister traced into decorations the week of Easter. I still sometimes wear my colorful wrap skirts, and I write my...
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2018-03-09
Ten kaleidoscopic skulls stare back at me, strung together along the bracelet that now rests in my palm. A present from a stranger, something I would never usually adorn myself with but that I know will remind me of the man seated in front of me for weeks and years to come. He winces as...
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2018-03-09
Senegal, I can't remember clearly what I imagined you to be; what stereotypes I inadvertently packed in my suitcase alongside my solar charger and all-polyester clothing and water sterilization device. Vibrant saturation of color, drums beating deep and low, sun-scalded dirt roads, lions — I'm ashamed to admit it now, but that was the basis...
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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...
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2017-11-17
As I walked through the doorway of the kindergarten, a little blur of limbs darted over and wrapped herself around my legs. "Mamedome!" she tried to say, in the garbled language of a two-year old. I laughed in delight and shock and a strange feeling that made me want to tear up a little bit,...
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2017-10-17
I fold my legs beneath me, silently stretching my arms up and out to the edge of the periwinkle horizon, where streetlights trace a thin line between city and neverending sky. The half-finished cement buildings create a jigsaw puzzle, cut through with abstract slashes of laundry lines and dirt rectangles of futbol fields. Far below...
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2017-10-12
My hands plunge into the bucket of soapy water in search of the next piece of clothing. Grabbing a corner, scrubbing vigorously, I rid the fabric of all the dust smudges, sweat, and rice I tried to eat with my hands but that decorated my shirt instead. The sun hits hot on the nape of my...
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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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2017-08-26
She grasped a stick of honey in her fingers, carefully, as if handling a precious possession. “Here,” she said. “I want you to have it.” Five years old, she stood in front of me, serious, dark hair brushing her shoulders. She didn’t have that much to spare, her family didn’t have a lot to get...
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2017-08-14
Au revoir. Ba beneen. Mornings spent struggling with vowels on Rosetta Stone have equipped me with basic French. My small, yellow Wolof phrasebook, sure to remain my trusty sidekick throughout the year, helps me bid adieu in a Senegalese language totally foreign to me. Yet the translation in English is the hardest to say....
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Transcripts. Letters of recommendation. Freaking out over the relative merits of extracurricular activities. It’s August, and college application season is officially upon us, marking the final culmination of the high school experience. It seems as if the school of your choice will decide your success, wealth, and happiness for life. Not in actuality. But...
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