Until next time,

This week has been rather interesting and eventful. We started off the week by visitng Goree Island. Goree Island is a historic island that was very important in the trans-atlantic slave trade as it served as a checkpoint for where slaves were brought to before being sent out to various destinations in South America, the Caribbean and Haiti. We saw the small areas where they kept the slaves and were baffled as to how hundreds of slaves could fit in such small rooms. These small rooms seemed to serve as the template for modern day prisons. Small spaces, poor plumbing, small/no windows, lack of hope, sense of despair etc. It was really interesting to juxtapose that history and feelings that came with thinking about that situation to the people of Senegal that lived on the very Island. It seemed like everyone was one big family on the Island, which would make sense since I believe it is 300 x 900 meters. Our tour guide lead us to a variety of important buildings and even into the Mayor’s house. Which would be unheard of in America. Towards the end of the tour, we were pestered by tons of women who had businesses and it was just funny to see how the other members of the crew handles the very forward business women.

The next day we went to the Director of the school’s house and had dinner. It had seemed we had become part of the family as debate started to occur about what it means to be black, black power, and topics of that nature. It is always interesting to see the perspectives of other people, especially native Africans, although I feel some people need to do a little bit more research.

Experiments were finished, presentations were made and executed, and now we pack waiting for our flight in the next couple hours. In hopes that we will soon get back to high speed internet, delicious fast food, and native English speakers.

I can speak for the group when saying we have all had our stressful moments, some worse than others, but stressful none the less. It is these trials, tribulations, experiences, and exposures that make us stronger in the long run. Our good friend who I will call JG that we met recently is a very unique character. JG has many random ideas and isn’t afraid to state his opinion, and while I don’t always agree with what he says I will agree with the fact that we were all meant to come here to Dakar for a reason; a reason greater than we can comprehend immediately. It is our job to look within ourselves, determine the reason and the purpose for our lives and determine how we are going to change the world around us for the better.

I know one day I will be back in Dakar, hopefully, in a better positon to improve its current state, in a way only I can.

Until next time,