A Global Perspective
February 1, 2011

This is a post from Mathew Davis, a Global Citizen Year Founding Fellow in the class of 2010.
Being a Founding Global Citizen Year Fellow has enabled me to see the world with a global perspective. Realizing both how small the world is and how much I don’t yet know, I feel like a man of the 21st century—because I view the 21st century as an era of global unification (for better or for worse) and my time in Senegal gave me a taste of just what that unity means.
Living in a completely different culture and way of life…

My post for the ONE Campaign
August 3, 2010

“Global Citizen Year fellow learns that poor farmers need support” – originally posted on the ONE Campaigns blog here: LINK

Every year, Global Citizen Year chooses a group of young Americans to spend nine months working as apprentices in rural communities all over the world. Mat Davis, a 2009-2010 fellow, talks about his experience working on a farm in Senegal.


Agriculture is a love of mine. I have been gardening on plots of land in inner city Indianapolis for five years.
It’s this love that led to me become a founding fellow for Global Citizen Year… . The program helps

Petit par Petit, or Lessons from Pate Diop
March 8, 2010

I work on a on a small-scale farm in Gorom 2. The owner of the farm is named Pate Diop. He was a policemen for 32 years and began cultivating his father’s farm in. Pate has a huge family. Polygamy exists in Senegal, so Pate supports two wives and I don’t know how many kids all by what gets produced at the farm. There is no other form of income. There is an African tradition of family farming, and one day Pate wants his entire family to work on the farm. Pate told me he saw a lot of things…

Becoming Ibou Sall
March 8, 2010

I have many names here in Senegal. Pap Bamba in Dakar, Tala Ngom in Bambilor, but in my village they call me Machu Leye, or my host mama calls me Ibou Sall. I live in the village of Gorom 2, which is apart of the community rural of Sangalkam. Gorom isn’t very big but there are a lot of people and I literally know everyone. I take walks everyday after lunch. I love the village lifestyle; it’s communal here. There is always waxtaan (dialogue or discussion) happening somewhere. In African culture oral tradition dialogue is the means by which people…

Root of the Sound
December 19, 2009

I recently went to a naming ceremony for my next door neighbor’s newborn. The ceremony in Wolof is called Ngente. There was an extreme amount of rice an even more people. I had never seen so many plastic chairs in my life. All the men were huddled to one side talking about something. But like most things in Wolof it seemed intense. I have been here for a while now so people know. Once everybody heard I was there I quickly became the center  of attention. I was bombarded by questions about life in the US. I kept up in…

Root of the Sound
December 19, 2009

I recently went to a naming ceremony for my next door neighbor’s newborn. The ceremony in Wolof is called Ngente. There was an extreme amount of rice an even more people. I had never seen so many plastic chairs in my life. All the men were huddled to one side talking about something. But like most things in Wolof it seemed intense. I have been here for a while now so people know. Once everybody heard I was there I quickly became the center  of attention. I was bombarded by questions about life in the US. I kept up in…

Le President
December 18, 2009

My brother Aliou Leye is my mentor in Sangalkam. I feel lucky to have him looking out for me in the village. He works for the rural village of Sangalkam youth association.  In 2002 he started an organization called the Foyer des Jeunes. He started it in order to help students get into university, mentor them while through university, and then come up a detailed future plan for a career. When Aliou first started it consisted of over 10 students and now it involves 700 student which all the in community. Everyone in the village calls him “president.” Aliou has…