2011-09-16
I am like a baby: I can’t eat without assistance, I can barely speak in complete sentences, I won’t sleep through the night, and for the first few days here in Dakar I couldn’t walk two blocks without my feet catching on a stray piece of concrete or rubbish. All of my senses were assaulted...
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2011-10-12
I have a secret. It’s a secret that, if discovered, could mark me as a traitor, a hold out, stingy and untrustworthy, at least to my Global Citizen Year cohort. The secret is the location of a place in Dakar where one can sit poolside, sip cocktails in bikinis, be fed complimentary olives while listening...
Read More 2011-12-12
I had forgotten how far I had progressed in Wolof. I was stressing over the little things, the fact that I could understand about 20% of the words in a sentence but couldn’t string them together to make any kind of sense. All conversations that I observed during work at the Poste de Sante or...
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2011-12-12
Let me rant just a little. The Senegalese school system often seems broken. Alright, I’m done. What brought this rant about? It all started with a little involvement on my part in the studies of my 12 year old cousin. He told me his homework was hard that night. “Mettina, Fanta! Mettina torop!” which literally...
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2012-01-30
We make our way through the village, buckets and scarves in hand. People are sitting out talking, laughing. Children are playing. Upon seeing our baggage one man wishes us luck. “Search in peace,” he tells us. Upon arrival at the water spigot, we find a small group of women, girls really, waiting. They sit on...
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2012-04-02
Senegal has taught me many things. The most important I would say is “just go with it.” “It” may be reading children’s books in Wolof to a group of toddlers, putting on beautiful clothes and pounds of make up only to have to take it off minutes later, or spontaneously becoming a member of the...
Read More2012-05-02
The path to Soudiane (SOO-jan) is like any other, winding through plains scattered with trees each a century old. If you’re coming upon Soudiane at night, the first thing you’ll see is the lights, shining like stars through windows and courtyards. These lights are nothing more than camping lanterns, each house armed with three or...
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2012-08-30
I see myself and my friends reflected in each of the 92 faces I greet over breakfast each morning: eager, excited, nervous, motivated; perhaps even a little naïve. They are smart, lucky, and courageous, all the things that I didn’t realize I was until completing my own Global Citizen Year. They are full of questions:...
Read More2011-07-05
When a person attempts to fix the problems of a well-established system, they rarely succeed. Much more effective is when many people working in many different communities spur grassroots change, conquering the problem from the bottom up. This upcoming fall Global Citizen Year will give 57 Fellows the tools they need to create positive social...
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