Blogs from Serrekunda, Western Division, Gambia, Africa

Lately, all the local occurrences have made me feel more at home and excited for the future. There is a great level of comfort within finding that the steps towards achieving an ambition you initially thought would need patience to be seen. Of course, my primary dream is to practice physiotherapy in a place without the benefit of such services, while appealing to my ex-patriotism wanderlust that I cannot seem to shake. Of course, that is not enough for me. Understanding the needs of people are so great and diverse, I am thirsty to learn how to satisfy the needs for things such as clean water, business development, beneficial policy, and malnutrition. Even if I was to learn enough about one of these issues to find that it something I can only advocate rather than solve, ... read more

It is worth mentioning repeatedly that we are creatures of our environment, and that the situation on Agua Campus is no exception. For a few months, I spent time interviewing over 70 applicants for the International Sustainable Development Internship, and approximately 14 are coming over the course of this summer. Although we currently have three international interns, I can see the potential of structuring such environments with decorated, passionate, and intelligent individuals with the intent of producing some of the most productive behaviors towards innovation. Franco, the first to come and is now leaving today after 1 month, has shown me a lot about what it means to be on the receiving side of valued experience. As a finance and anthropology major, Franco has proven to be a fun-loving, driven, and globally-infatuated individual with changing the ... read more

I am seriously hungry right now, and have been for the past week. It’s a pretty viable assumption that I probably have a tropical parasite in my tummy eating all my food and giving me the runs. My friend had this problem while living in Mexico, and the local solution for her was to not eat for 2 days, to starve the little critters, and then drink vodka, to get them drunk and confused and kill them. It worked for her, so if my problem persists I’ll give it a go. In homage to my hunger, I would like to share all about Gambian food with you (partially because I want some, partially because it’s good). For breakfast people eat a multitude of things. The local bread here is called Tapalapa (which I’m pretty sure has ... read more

For some queer reason I have been frequently getting the “What do you want to do with your life/ what are your career goals” question lately. I usually stare at the person with glazed over eyes and drool hanging off my chin in response. I usually don’t have much to say, and when I do say something, people look at me like I’m not ambitious enough, that I won’t amount to anything. What they are really saying, in their deepest gut, is, “Well why don’t you want to be successful and make a good living for yourself?” These life questions usually make me think of the question in different terms…What do you want? Well I can answer that question. I want more girls in the developing world to be educated. I want my family to be ... read more

After 2 long days of mind-blowing travel, I have finally arrived. The journey started out in DC, then I flew to London for a small lay-over, and then to Madrid for the most tummultuous and angry 11 hour lay over ever. After being charged an extra 650 dollars to check our bags through SpanAir, Julia and I were thouroughly pissed. We arrived in Gambia at 2 am on friday, and surprise surpise, our ride wasnt there. The intention from my friends to pick us up at the airport was completly honorable, except they thought we were coming on saturday. With no where to go, and no ride, we got some dude at the airport to drive us to my former land lords house, where we spent the night on the floor. We finally arrived to our ... read more