Senegal 2007 Winter

Looking forward, looking back

For the past couple days I've been unable to admit to myself that this experience is coming to a close, but as I packed my bags after lunch today, I couldn't avoid it anymore. It's amazing how far we've all come, each in our own way of course, both geographically and personally. This morning, a simple closing activity of presenting what we've learned about each others' cultures turned into a outpouring of honesty. Though not everything that was said was necessarily easy to hear, it was...

a sense of things

It's difficult to imagine a very different tomorrow. Some things that I associate with home seem very foreign to me now: cold weather, showerheads (instead of a bucket), eating from an individual plate, walking past people without any sort of acknowledgment. Kate and I...

Reflections from the other side of the world

Our ten-day circuit to survey three villages, Thi�naba, Ngaparou, and Louly, included such an extreme range of experiences and emotions it feels like we were in each one for far longer than the three or four days we actually spent there. In fact, I'm very much still in...

village impressions

(a fishermen pulling his pirogue by a tow-rope, Senegal River in Mboumbaye) I feel like any attempted summary of the past week's experiences would be a mass understatement. Instead of a broad overview, I'll excerpt a few journal entries. We started in Mboumbaye where we spent...

Back home in Yoff

(A sunset over the river at Mumbai) Well, it�s good to be back in Yoff. Rolling into the downtown area, I couldn�t have dreamed that seeing our local Mobile gas station (boycotts and environmental policies aside) could ever make me feel so at home. Our homestay sisters...

And we wait...

After a 6am start to the day and the experience of traveling on foot from our house to the point of departure with multiple bags slung over every arm, we're all here a few hours later waiting to start our voyage to the ecovillages as last minute information is prepared and passports are collected. I can't say it bothers me much though, as we've been told (and observed) that perception of time is quite a bit more lax here than in the States, and in my opinion, any escape from the busy rush of...

Images from Ngor

Preparing for departure

We've been back in class for two days after la fete de Tabaski, preparing for our departure to the much smaller rural ecovillages tomorrow. We have divided ourselves into five groups, each group going to a different set of three villages. Within each group, there are 8...

Last entry before the villages

(One of my housemates, Marta, taking a picture of our "little sister," Abbey) I was originally just going to dump a few pictures into this entry and bid all the faithful blog followers adieu, but I had some great conversations with Allison and Abdou (two friends...

Trying to Catch Up...

So I finally made it to the CRESP annex, the only place I'm aware of with wireless, with a small amount of spare time in order to post the few entries I've been typing at home... Alors, voila: