To be clear, the following occurred and was partially written in early February, but for various reasons I only finished the post recently:
Megan, Kaya and I set out from my backyard, among the trash and goat poop, just as the dry heat of the Sahel Desert began to diminish, making the five mile walk bearable.  I could not escape the shrieks of “SEYnabou! SEYnabou! SEYnabou!” (my Senegalese name) that arose from the small children playing in the backyard of my uncle’s house – the one with four wives and seemingly innumerable progeny.  I waved, but as usual, that’s not…

Recently Megan, another fellow from my region, and I sat in the sand deeply daydreaming in the unique way that only occurs when you have absolutely nothing else to do.
“How can I best show Leona (my host community) to people at home?” I mused, slightly frustrated, having been unable to answer the question myself.
“Make a video,” Megan answered.
“Yes, but making videos is difficult and often boring,” I countered.
“Well, make it interesting. We both like to dance.  What about a music video?”
And so “Breakin’ it Down in Senegal” was born.  Megan and I put on our…

One morning as I sat on the mat in the sand in Megan’s village, drinking my ataya, I watched Ibrahima, her six year old brother leaving for school, carrying his little backpack. This reminded me of how my little brother and all of the students in first grade in my village had recently received free backpacks distributed by the charitable arm of FIFA (Federation International de Football Association), ostensibly to encourage school attendance. This might seem like a great idea initially, but my little brother (and I suspect many of the other children who received backpacks) already had a perfectly…

Up to this point my blogs have focused on specific experiences or “ponderings” about Senegalese culture and international development.  I designed this first video blog to portray a more macroscopic view of my bridge year experience.  I also wanted to showcase the variety of skills I’ve acquired and things I’ve learned in Senegal.  Enjoy the different perspective!
From Here to There: A Global Citizen Year in Senegal…

I wrote this blog entry about three weeks into my stay in Senegal, while I was still in training, living in Dakar. It was lost in the bowels of my computer, but it is now found and posted, three months late, for your pondering:
Nutella. It’s a personal vice. Not just any Nutella – the European variety. The North American version pales in comparison. Guess which variety Senegal happens to import? I needed to get my fix. The other day after school was over, I walked to the nearest Casino – not a “casino” in the American sense, but rather…

“What is that prescription for?” I ask the nurse at the local health post as she scribbled on her notepad.
“Hypertension,” she replies.
“Is that a common problem here?” In response, she pushed the record book across her desk and pointed to the “diagnosis” column. Common would be an understatement. Surveying the column, I estimated that hypertension accounted for roughly a third of the diagnoses of patients 55 and over. “Why is hypertension so common?” I later asked another nurse.
“Diet?” he offered tentatively, with a small shrug. I found it troubling that the nurses were not sure of the…

The preferred form of public transportation in Leona is the “auto,” a pickup truck from the 1960′s (and rarely a slightly later model) with a sort of frame affixed over the bed to facilitate squeezing the maximum number of humans inside (and on top) for the journey. Like the locals, this is the primary means of local transportation for the five Global Citizen Year Fellows living in the region of Louga. Usually the trips are relatively silent, aside from the lengthy Senegalese greetings as people enter or exit the vehicle. However, one evening Kaya, Megan and I climbed into an…