Author Archives: smcquebectrip

Today, January 5th, our class had another full day of adventure! We began with a trip to the African Renaissance Monument. This is a project that began with Senegal’s third president, Abdoulaye Wade and was opened in 2010. He hoped that it would become a major tourist attraction. It was meant to symbolize the strengthContinue reading “Monuments, Museums, Markets, and More!”

We started out the day with a lecture at SIT on immigration from Thiaroye (the area just outside the city of Dakar where we work at the school). He talked about how the ways in which immigration from Senegal to Europe have changed, the idealized prospects that Europe holds are still prominently held ideas inContinue reading “Lecture & Museum of Black Civilizations”

On January 2nd, our group headed to the Waranka school again to spend the whole day with the kids. Activities ranged from friendship bracelets, to games, to dancing, to hair braiding. Some of the girls are excellent coiffeuses (hairdressers)! All the kids seemed to be extremely excited about the activities. I’m glad we could makeContinue reading “A Day in the Life at Waranka”

I believe that an important part of understanding a culture and immersing oneself into a community is to learn about the history and the story that is told with that history. While we have learned about Senegal in the post colonial sense, today we had the opportunity to learn about a deeper history that isContinue reading “Gorée Island & the english club!”

We started service at Waranka GR yesterday, as Luke explained in his blog post. Since, as he explained, we were divided into small groups, he could not take photos of everyone. I will add several later, when we go back. A group was playing soccer, one was doing painting on glass. And the school wasContinue reading “Service: a few photos”

Today marks an important day during our time here. It marks the first day we attended Waranka GR, the local school we will be doing service with for the next week or two. Before that we took a little visit to Africulturban just a little bit down the road from the school. At around 9Continue reading “Day 3- Visit to Africulturban and Waranka GR”

Today was our group’s first full day in Senegal, where we started off with an orientation at the study abroad office of the School for International Training (SIT) in Dakar. A brief series of orientation topics were covered by the SIT staff which covered essential information that will create a safe and fun trip forContinue reading “Dakar orientation and exploring”

Just a few photos from today, when we went for a walk after our activities (that Tiana will talk about in her blog entry). This is very close to where we stay!

Our first day of travel with the group was rather eventful! Originally scheduled to fly out from Boston on the 26th at 8pm, our flight was continually delayed by Royal air Maroc until around midnight when they then rescheduled the flight for 10am the next day (12/27). We were able to get into a hotelContinue reading “Day 1 + 2: Boston, Paris, Casablanca?”

Dear parents and friends, we are at Logan International airport, excited, and happy to begin our Senegalese adventure… Security check was uneventful and we thought we would send you a picture. This beautiful picture with the Boston sign was Sam’s idea. We have a few hours before we board for Casablanca (Morocco) for a quickContinue reading “We’re all in Boston ready for the flight!”

We are soon leaving for Senegal! It is when I say that word (usually with a lot of excitement) that I realize that many have never heard it. I then explain: “it’s in West Africa…” and it’s already too late. The person I was speaking to is no longer listening. They heard the word “Africa”Continue reading “Sene-what? Senegal?”

Thanks for following us! We are the 2 trip leaders taking 14 SMC students to Dakar. We are eager to show them a beautiful country! We’re leaving December 26 and will have the next posts written by students. Be patient since it will take us some time to reach Dakar and rest!:)