Grace Bachmann

Grace founded her own community service project, Belly Buttons for Hunger, an integral building block that lead her to live and intern in the Ecuadorian Amazon. She has held the roles of captain of her rowing team and intern on a local NPR radio program. She cares deeply about health and longevity -- that of people, culture, tradition, and the natural world. She is enamored of puns, has a habit of baking during the night, and is currently learning to slackline.

It is real.

Grace Bachmann

2013-05-14

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdIFSTMl-H4

Becoming Fatou

Grace Bachmann

2013-05-13

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdWYGGY9zxM

A Self-Diagnosis

Grace Bachmann

2013-04-23

Dindefelo lacks a certified M.D., let alone any sort of therapist or psychiatrist. Thus, I take it upon myself to access my own mental health condition. Diagnosis: Frantic Socialite Syndrome Frantic Socialite Syndrome is a type of anxiety disorder derrived from assimilating a social and cultural code but lacking the ability to default to said...

He said, she said, we said: In translation

Grace Bachmann

2013-03-12

Host father, the village religious leader- “Fatou, where have you been? I hardly see you, my child, anymore.” Me- “I like to wander all over the village.” Host father- <chuckles> “That’s great- now the whole village knows you.” Neighbor- “You’re taking corn to the grinding machine. Can you cook latcheeri*?” *traditional corn cous-cous dish Me-...

Grace Bachmann

2013-02-11

The words sunu gaal in Wolof translate to our boat”

A Portrait of the Pulaar Family

Grace Bachmann

2013-01-24

Each family has a patriarch. He may have more than one wife, though I observe most commonly that a man has no more than two wives in one household. They have many children if they are fortunate; child mortality rates are relatively high. When a wife passes, the partriarch may take another wife. When the...

A blank page and a Pencil

Grace Bachmann

2013-01-04

A classroom full of ten year-old’s is daunting. They wiggle at their desks, leave their seats to wash slates, and argue over bits of chalk. In broken French, and then more fluidly Pulaar, I ask a few students to draw a face on the blackboard. Every student jumps from his decaying wooden desk, arms outstretched...

You. Be. Careful.

Grace Bachmann

2012-09-07

The Ecuador Fellows might have boarded a plane by now, and Brazil Fellows are soon to follow. This evening, only 30 Fellows remain. The Senegal Fellows. Together, we overwhelmed Gate 43, San Francisco International Airport, armed with One World Futbols, green Global Cltizen Year T-shirts, and red, yellow and green bordered visas marked ‘Republique du...

“You Might Be More Cut Out For This Than You Think”

Grace Bachmann

2012-07-10

I heard a pen click and scribble as the forensic investigator hung up the telephone and marked off the name of a decedent’s relative. He pivoted his chair and studied me: the intern sitting in a swivel office chair at the desk next to him, my hands restlessly toying with latex gloves, damp from my...