Dear Friends and Families, We received notice from staff that the BYSenegal group has successfully passed through security in the Dakar airport and students are getting ready to board their respective flights. Just a note of gratitude for your......Read More
How Was Senegal? Nine months of learning outside of the classroom, that taught me more than information— I began to walk with words of wisdom. I built a family— an entire trilingual support system. There was rarely a moment when I felt lonely.......Read More
Today there is no clip-clop of hooves on the street beneath my balcony. The sandy streets of Yoff are enveloped in a muffled calm. It’s the first Friday of the Holy Month of Ramadan and shops here are mostly closed. There is no late morning mortar......Read More
Many thanks to the amazing families who took our Bridge Year students in as their own this year! Jerengeenjef bu baax!...Read More
Our excursion has come to a close, and so I share with you a little of our activities. We enjoyed our introduction to the Sine-Saloum Delta at Keur Bamboung, which gave us time to take in the beautiful environment and to reflect. Highlights include......Read More
This is the itinerary for our spring excursion, defined by the role it plays in the x-phase, the time of year when the students take charge. As such, this excursion is entirely student planned. Our destination is the Sine-Saloum region, an area with......Read More
When we first arrived in Senegal, I was enchanted by the livelihood and newness of it all. Everything from the butiks and people to the “car rapid” (“fast cars”) and fabric shops seemed like a magical experience waiting to......Read More
I am a Christian. I grew up in the church. At the age of 10, my parents left their high-paying jobs and our upper-middle-class lifestyle, to become missionaries in Cape Town, South Africa. Not knowing if we would have enough money for food the next......Read More
Chaos. Carnage. Catastrophy. Since the latest development in this Bridge Year Program, I can only assume that this is what awaits us as we descend into a “Lord of the Flies”-like anarchy. We, the students, have become the instructors. This is......Read More
Everyday in Senegal is an absolute blessing. Sometimes, I am just walking in the streets of Yoff or just enjoying a meal, and I think, “Wow, I am in Senegal.” I do not take this opportunity for granted. It is a rare chance to experience the......Read More
At prep school (hey Lawrenceville, hi Mrs. Calvert!), you basically saw two outfits. You were either wearing Bean Boots, Lululemon leggings, and an oversized sweater/sweatshirt with a Barbour jacket; or you were wearing Timbs, nantucket red pants or......Read More
Mungi dox literally translates to “it walks.” In conversation, however, one might use it to mean “it’s going,” “it’s fine,” or “it works.” When I set out to write this piece, with the prompt of “mungi dox” in mind, I......Read More
In honor of Black History Month and all of the Black Women out there… One aspect of Senegal that I have admired since the day I got here is the plethora of black women. If you are not black, you might be thinking, “why on earth is this......Read More
This new year, I’ve taken a lot of time to explore Dakar, and I wanted to share some of my stories with you. Some experiences have been profound, some not. Some fun, some uncomfortable. Sometimes I do touristy things like a local, sometimes I......Read More
One of the ways in which ethnic groups and families maintain peaceful relationships is through the “joking cousin relationship.” Certain families and ethnic group can tease each other immediately after meeting because they’re......Read More
This post was meant to be dedicated towards our two-week long excursion during which we spent four days trekking and four days experiencing the peace of village life in Timanto Samba. However, due to some recent commentary by President Donald Trump......Read More
