I’m from Thiadiaye. Saint Louis is almost as far north as you can go in Senegal and since I was heading there anyway for our second training seminar, I decided to take advantage of it by visiting all the Fellows north of me along the way. Besides the people in my own community, the rest…

18 February, 2015

There comes a point in a girl’s life when she realizes it’s time to learn Wolof. When she realizes it’s time to explore the vastly unfamiliar and to accept the glamourless reality. When she realizes it’s time to take ownership of the present and wring it of all its opportunities. And when she realizes that…

18 February, 2015

Senegal Food Focus! Peanuts are a staple in Senegalese cuisine. They have also become my first love. Tiga-dÌ©gÌ©or peanut butter is one of the most wondrous byproducts of these locally harvested peanuts. And since one of my New Year’s resolutions was to learn to make tiga-dÌ©gÌ©, I would like to share with you what I’ve…

01 February, 2015

I’m sitting on a beautifully woven met stretched out over the cool sand and beneath the dark sky. There is a light breeze that rustles the leaves on a nearby mango tree and causes a roosting bird to take flight. Reflecting on my day, I can hear the rhythmic drumming of a marriage celebration. I…

31 January, 2015

Gripping the small rough shell, I press one end between my thumb and fore-finger until it cracks and falls away in halves revealing two reddish peanuts inside. Rolling the two beads in my hand, I flick the red casings, letting the wind carry them away. I lean back against the warm yellow wall of my…

31 January, 2015

I hope you wake up to the sound of music every morning”. These words have been floating around my head ever since my father spoke them during our last conversation. Music. My whole life has been intertwined with the presence of music. Everything from music lessons and bagpipe band competitions

23 December, 2014

When I first arrived in Thiadiaye in the beginning of October, everything was new and fresh and begging for my attention. Yaay would take me to the Luma (the farmers’ market of Senegal) and every basket was full of vegetables, every table laden with fresh fish, every tent offering colorful cloth, and beautiful jewelry, and…

21 November, 2014

I’m sitting on a beautifully woven met stretched out over the cool sand and beneath the dark sky. There is a light breeze that rustles the leaves on a nearby mango tree and causes a roosting bird to take flight. Reflecting on my day, I can hear the rhythmic drumming of a marriage celebration. I…

16 October, 2014

First of all: Sheep. Now that that is taken care of – Dakar. Dakar seems to be a good place to start. It’s where I’ve spent my first two weeks in Senegal and yet I still cannot seem to put a finger on what exactly Dakar has done to me. Done for me is different….

24 September, 2014

It’s 6:30 and already I can hear our “domestiques” sweeping the tiled courtyard in front of my bedroom door. It’s the same sound every morning: little consistencies like that make me feel a bit more at home. The domestique? I actually have two of them. They are essentially maids but are treated like family: they…

24 September, 2014

Hello! So I realized that my first post was probably rather boring and random to a lot of you who aren’t yet* familiar with how my brain works. I figured it would require a follow-up introduction to the previous introduction. It’s an introduction to the introduction except that it came after the first introduction! Ok,…

13 August, 2014

Did you know that there is a part of your eye that is actually blind? Yea! I won’t go into all the details but basically there is a spot in the back of your eye where the optic nerve fibers pass through the retina so that there aren’t any light detecting cells on the surface….

13 August, 2014