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Checklist

Wow!  There is so much to do!  This exchange is teaching me so very much about organization and planning!  The thought of being gone for a year is quite daunting, and thinking of all of the things that need to be taken care of is a bit overwhelming.   I'm thinking about... -UK visa -car insurance -driver's license -home insurance -bank accounts  -transferring money -cell phones -ways to stay in contact -home repairs -finding ways to ship items -places to visit -what I'll be teaching -what to pack!! There's so much to do and plan for!  I know that things will still through me for a loop, no matter the amount of planning I do, but I hope to be as on top of things as I can be.  I'm also very thankful for the communication and comradery from the other Fulbrighters as we share thoughts and tips to help each other through this checklist (and all the things I'm forgetting about!).
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Goree Island

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Today was difficult and amazing. Our morning started with fascinating talks about Senegalese culture, education, language, history and politics. I’ll share more on that later. Then, this afternoon, we went to Goree Island. Dakar is the most western point of continental Africa. A short, fifteen minute ferry ride off the coast is a small island. The island is beautiful, colorful, and a UNESCO Heritage Site because of the atrocities that were once committed here. For two hundred years, the small island supported the business of slave-trade to Europe and the Americas. Today, for that reason, it is one of most highly visited sites in the country, while also being a retreat for the wealthy. The island is small, about 1800 residents. We walked around most of the island in a very short afternoon. And yet, for quite some time, this tiny island created unimaginable horrors for millions of people. Enslaved people were brought to this island, and immediately separated from their families, and put ...
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Dakar

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This farm girl loves seeing new places and experiencing new things. I love to see big cities, but I am most at home in nature. I often find big cities overwhelming, and Dakar was no different. The city enlivened all of my senses, sometimes so many at one time that it was almost hard to comprehend what I was experiencing.  Rich, vibrant colors were easy to spot whether in clothing or fruits or flowers sold in nurseries. The air felt warm, but with the breeze from the Atlantic, the air felt immensely pleasant. Sounds varied from goats crying to cars honking to the reverent call to prayer. Smell was not always the most pleasant of the senses. Some were delightful like peanuts roasting or incense burning, but sewer, fish and large crowds in warm weather did not always please the olfactory. I’ll save the tastes for a separate blog. The city is wide and expansive, jetting out on a point creating the most western point of the continent. The city is densely populated with no trains or subw...
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