During our last week in The Gambia we had a free week to explore and say goodbyes to our new friends. A few of us went to Senegal to visit the Fathala wildlife reserve to hang out with some lions, they were huge and so curious! Three other classmates and I rented a compound for…
Week 5 Gambia Update
Week 5 of The Gambia has been so busy and educational. We had our usual routine of internships and class sessions with some educational excursions. Last Thursday we attended the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) to hear witness/victim testimonies of those who have been affected by the former dictator Yahya Jammeh who was in…
Updates from The Gambia!
Week two and three of The Gambia have been exciting and overwhelming (in the best way possible of course). On week two we began our internships, each student in this study abroad program has an internship tailored to their major and interest. I am a biomedical science major and am interning with The Network of…
Greetings from The Gambia!
The Gambia is a very different country from others I have visited. I have never felt so welcomed being a foreigner. That was something I was a bit nervous about before arriving. I have traveled before and some countries aren’t fond of Americans, so I didn’t know what to expect. Our first full day, all…
Coming Home, Anew
What a weird feeling to be home. It was definitely hard at first to process being back in Washington and no longer in Tarija and having had to travel for 30 hours added to that struggle. Having a few delays, sleeping on the floor of the airport in Cochabamba, and getting stopped for an additional…
Surgery and Salt Flats: Preparing forHome
Bolivia has been great and while I miss home and a lot of things about it, I am a bit sad to be leaving Tarija soon. I’ve been having a great time here after having adjusted a bit more. I’ve gotten more used to the transportation systems (I now know bus routes, which truffis to…
Biomedical Sciences in Bolivia
I left Sea-Tac around 9PM on Thursday night and arrived at the Tarija airport at 9AM on Saturday morning. The five of us who arrived together were picked up by the program’s medical director and we were then taken to our different homestays. After meeting our host mom and getting situated in our rooms, we…
Reflections from Brazil
So, my second week in Brazil was quite different than the first, with much of our time spent on campus at UFMS (Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul), listening to lectures about various issues that affect Brazilian citizens, such as women’s rights, the quota system and refugee policies. I also spent much of the…
The Amateur Travelers Guide to Preparing for Your First Trip Abroad
For the past twelve weeks I have been over 200 miles away from home and I’m about to go even farther. This got me thinking about how being only one state over from my school and family was preparing me to be an ocean away from them. I’ve had the luxury of embarking on quite…
What I’ve Learned in Campo Grande, Brazil
Oi! I am reporting on the rest of my first week here in Campo Grande, Brazil, and a few of the highlights from my time here. As promised, I will talk a bit about the urban indigenous community, the Terena tribe, the Quilombos and a public high school where I visited and spoke with a…