tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19677829949207438432024-03-13T08:58:18.243-05:00A French ConnectionKellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-31227064620496094532014-05-09T18:11:00.000-05:002014-05-09T18:11:01.810-05:00Saying Goodbye
Welp, this is it I guess. I
am not sure if I can call it the end because, while it sounds cliché, this
experience will be with me forever. Whether you want it to or not, it is not
something that you can’t just shake off and forget about, though I did have
plenty of days that I wished that I could have!
My last week at site was about as perfect as you could imagine. I had a lot of quality Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-62518631057843260622014-04-19T12:35:00.001-05:002014-04-19T12:35:44.774-05:00No Regrets
Setting your mind to
something and actually doing it. Traveling, writing a book, jumping out of a
plane or landing a dream job, these are all things that we dream of everyday
and only hope to accomplish someday. For me it is traveling. Not just sightseeing
or that two-week break from work but actually seeing other cultures for what
they are, learning from the people and understanding their way Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-86472818461618381512014-03-30T11:28:00.001-05:002014-03-30T11:32:11.757-05:00Youth Empowerment: not just a camp but also a lifestyle
I am unsure if this week
will ever go as planned. It seems like forever that we have been working out
the details, running around town finding trainers, securing financing and
nominating children to participate, but the time is finally here. Kids hide
behind their parents as they walk up to the welcome table with their little bag
full of nothing more than a change of cloths and maybe a Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-11848724131919509692014-02-21T14:30:00.001-06:002014-02-21T14:32:38.872-06:00So What Am I Supposed To Do Now? And Am I Qualified To Make That Decision?
My head bangs against the
metal as we swerve to miss the potholes in the road to only hit smaller ones. It is a
feeling that I am all too familiar with. The sun is hitting my arm like the
feeling of laying on asphalt on a warm summer day; a sad reminder of what is to
come in hot season. When we stop to let a passenger out, the windows quickly
fill with women and children selling water, juice, Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-92010521850408367762014-01-20T12:58:00.001-06:002014-01-20T12:58:23.640-06:00Living The Dream: Job Searching and Cheese Plates!
As
I am sitting here trying to write, and honestly picking peanuts out of my teeth
since it is the only crop that you can pretty much rely on year around and, it
is not rice, I can’t help but think about all the things that I make note to
write about, which I can never remember when it actually comes time to write,
versus the things that end up flowing from my fingertips more naturally onto
thisKellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-76377271603003484242013-12-27T11:47:00.001-06:002013-12-27T11:47:26.885-06:00"I Touch It" says the Italian
The
travel bug. Something that seems more like a disease in the sense that you are
born with it and it never really goes away versus something temporary that you
catch. I have been infected with this disease, if you will, sine I can
remember. Moving every few years, visiting family that were spread across the
United States and continuing traveling though my studies and now through my
work has Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-41214262720132809752013-12-04T15:07:00.001-06:002013-12-04T15:07:42.465-06:00Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems
Peace
Corps is hard. Development work is harder. There are things that we do to
ourselves to make our lives more complicated, drinking too much and having a
hangover when it is already 100°F, and there are things that
the world does to us and make us wonder why, such as people stabbing your already
overworked donkey, but I will elaborate more on that later. With all these
things being said when Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-85551736413496182082013-11-10T11:39:00.004-06:002013-11-10T11:39:34.558-06:00The Best Game
I
tend to get in the habit of writing about my experiences and I skim over the work that I am
actually doing. I talk about how things make me feel, or I write about things
in an attempt to better understand my surroundings or for the chance for those
you of actually reading my blogs to better understand Senegal, even if it is
just a little bit or through only my eyes. Well this post is differentKellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-82299215758753982162013-10-14T05:53:00.001-05:002013-10-14T05:53:44.611-05:00Transit Card? Yes Please!
I
have just finished a series of Ted Talks all based on the idea of the
workplace; where are employees the most productive? How can businesses be good
at solving social problems? What makes you feel good about your work? With the
inevitable and seemingly prolonged return back to the States I can’t help but,
as any good OCD job-seeker may be, start thinking about how the workplace has
changed Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-80506507786548155322013-10-03T04:09:00.000-05:002013-10-03T04:09:37.661-05:00It's Like Herding Cats
Hello
there digital world. I must say it has been a little while since I had written
last and, depending on why you read this blog, I am both sorry and you are
welcome for the lack of entries. After returning from Thailand I had about two
weeks to prepare for mom’s visit to Senegal. It is amazing how, when you
actually have work, quickly time passes here which turns out to be more of a
good Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-85849220595211705092013-08-26T15:10:00.001-05:002013-08-26T15:12:04.906-05:00Pad Thai in Thailand... OK!
In
a complete attempt not to bore you I decided that it might be better to write a
kind of long post, sorry, about my trip to Thailand instead of just posting my
itinerary, as I originally was going to do out of pure laziness.
One
of my best friends from the states that I have known since high school has been
living the exciting life of traveling around Southeast Asia and I had the
opportunityKellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-49541548487580211282013-08-06T06:52:00.002-05:002013-08-06T06:52:49.084-05:00My New Pet Chicken
It
seems like just yesterday that I was on a flight from Minneapolis to Honolulu
writing a blog entry on my computer as I listened to a mix of airline provided
music and the hustle and bustle of surrounding passengers. I was on my way to
visit friends and family before heading off to Senegal to serve as a volunteer
in the Peace Corps. This year has
proved to be quite different than what I Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-24317965635519309302013-07-21T15:57:00.000-05:002013-07-21T15:57:24.497-05:00My Day of Ramadan
I
was called the other day by a good friend in country, Lisa, who was telling me
how she was going to try and fast for a couple of days with her family. We are
in the middle of Ramadan and while we were here last year for this event that
millions around the world partake in, I usually don't think twice about it, for I
relate it to something Muslims do and since I am not Muslim I didn’t see howKellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-34204204543549545972013-06-29T13:47:00.004-05:002013-06-29T13:47:53.950-05:00Invasion of the Grasshoppers
Work.
There is a wide interpretation of what exactly the term means and how exactly
it is supposed to fit into the activities that compromise the tasks of our
daily schedule. Is pulling yourself out of bed to say hi to your counterparts
family considered work? Is walking to the market just to make yourself seen for
the day so that the masses don’t start to suspect that you skipped town
Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-64095960106863699612013-06-24T05:53:00.002-05:002013-06-24T05:53:39.745-05:00One Year Down, One Year To Go!
About a year ago I left the life that I had built for
myself in Minneapolis and moved to Senegal to join the Peace Corps, before
making a quick stop to my second home in Hawaii to visit friends and family.
The anniversary of my presence here has made me reflect on how amazing my life
was before I left it, how great my life is here now, even though I am living in
less than dreamy conditions, and Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-33425020035569239912013-06-04T09:29:00.002-05:002013-06-04T09:31:41.405-05:00Career Advice Anyone?
What should I do with my life? This is always a question
that seems to be in my head and it seems that no matter what stage I am in life
I am always researching and weighing my options. I have not quite figured out
if this a good thing or not but I am pretty sure my OCD is more helpful than
hurtful. Right?
My year mark in country is fast approaching, less than two
weeks, and I am left Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-21890546760890252582013-05-25T14:14:00.003-05:002013-05-25T14:14:40.621-05:00...with my flippy floppiesLast week I made the trip up north, about twelve hours from my village by car, to attend Jazz Fest 2013 in St. Louis. This annual festival is opportunity for many volunteers to get out of site, hang out with those volunteers that they may not see too often and do those American things that we all so much miss; wear shorts (still long by American standards), drink beer and speak English.
Since Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-38904105636513644462013-05-04T13:41:00.009-05:002013-05-04T13:45:14.956-05:00Do Handouts Actually Help?
My counterpart
Amadou asked me the other night why I had [student loan] debt when my country
spends so much money on education in other countries. I must say I was more
troubled that an uneducated man in Senegal made this realization on his own
than the fact that we can’t even get our own politicians on board with the
notion of affordable secondary education. This question, and the fact that Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-48266024884942858982013-04-27T08:34:00.004-05:002013-04-27T08:34:54.471-05:00Soccer Tournament and Earth DayMy youth project has officially started, even though we have not received funding yet but that is another story, and I must say our soccer tournament last week was a success; the tournament was programmed for seven youth groups in Velingara to be held over a period of three days.
The tournament started on Sunday, April 15th with a series of three games, six teams included for the day’s Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-21476877681647430072013-04-22T07:33:00.000-05:002013-04-22T07:34:32.860-05:00Health Fair in Sare Coly Sale
I tried really hard to think of an introduction that would
be an eye catcher, something to really pull in an audience, but I was left
stumped. It is not that it was a boring day, it was actually really fun, but
how could I make handing out condoms and ORS (Oral Rehydrating Salts) to high
school students alluring?
My two site mates (Jordan and Wilma) and myself started out
the day heading out Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-20793129703076181992013-04-15T13:40:00.000-05:002013-04-15T13:40:31.533-05:00Hot Weather and, Uh, Reading Material
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Now
I know I left off with my last post about grants, writing them specifically,
and I know I stated that I would not write a grant for my waste management
project and as for now I am still sticking to that but I could not have guessed
that it would be this soon there after that I would be researching writing
grants for other projects.
Everyone
always says that projects Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-41987519503105595442013-03-05T11:43:00.001-06:002013-04-02T20:14:56.514-05:00When Is Your Work Complete When You Work In Development?<!--StartFragment-->
Development
Work
work
aimed at helping a country become more competitive across many overlapping
sectors, from health, to education and many places in between with an end goal
in creating sustainability
I have been thinking a lot about sustainability
and development work while working in Senegal and each day I come up with a
different Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-24331042227375964972013-02-22T12:00:00.000-06:002013-04-02T13:38:32.843-05:00W.A.I.S.T.<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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{mso-style-name:"TableKellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1967782994920743843.post-48909908264874319642013-02-13T17:45:00.000-06:002013-04-02T19:01:30.544-05:00Another Flat?!Dear Cruel Cruel World,
I am currently en route to Thies where all the
volunteers of Senegal have a two day conference, referred to as All Vol (All
Volunteers). The night bus is not exactly the preferred mode of transportation
(also not exactly forbidden, yet) according to Peace Corps staff; they say that
it is dangerous to drive at night and we are at risk of having drivers whom are
Kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10924057865698366758noreply@blogger.com0