Elston Tortuga

Elston is passionate about sustainability and social justice. She loves learning new languages as well as delving into new cultures. She is involved in environmentally progressive initiatives and was an editor of her school neswpaper. Her goals this year are to gain fluency in French as well as conversational ability in either Pulaar or Wolof, gain perspective on the world around her, and immerse herself as completely as possible in her host community. One of her favorite quotes is "The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." --Albert Camus

My Cousin, Nogaye

Elston Tortuga

2014-12-30

My cousin Nogaye is 19. She has two years left in high school, and when she passes her bac., she plans to attend university in Dakar, where she will train to become a math teacher. My cousin plays football with the boys. Her team always wins. One night, I was helping Nogaye with her English...

My Cousin, Nogaye

Elston Tortuga

2014-12-30

My Rocky Stream of Consciousness

Elston Tortuga

2014-11-24

Writing used to come easily to me. It does now too; my swiftly improving cursive speaks for itself, but the polished creative writing and analytical essays I used to turn out for Lit & Comp feel out of reach. I suppose the ease resulted from a lacking of qualms when it came to embellishing; stories...

Meet the Family

Elston Tortuga

2014-11-03

My immediate family consists of my mom, Sokhna Deme, president of the Ngueniene Women’s Association, a woman unable to have her own children, a woman married to a slowly dying man 30 years her senior, who lives an hour away with his first wife and children; she is a strong, noble woman, a woman who...

Why?

Elston Tortuga

2014-08-01

I’ve been avoiding the task of fleshing out an answer to the question of why I decided to put off college for a year in favor of living in Senegal for eight months. Sure, I’ve formulated my logical reasoning – I’m craving an adventure, I require a new perspective in order to justify the hefty...