Welcome to New York!
Sarah O'Brien, Dragons Admin
The West Africa Semester landed at JFK successfully! We wish them the safest of travels and a happy reunion with loved ones at home! The Dragons Admin Team...Read More
West Africa: Rhythms of Senegal
Students are on their way!
Instructors, Instructor
We have just dropped off the students at the airport for their respective destinations . As we all gave our last hugs and goodbyes it was clear that we all have left this program changed, for the better. We as instructors are deeply grateful to this......Read More
My Journey Through My Journal
Khi’Aura, Participant
Feb 14th ( Happy birthday mama) Yesterday was pretty fun and today is a new day filled with adventures . We swam in the ocean yesterday and let me tell you it was very salty .Small recap of yesterday we learned some new Wolof/ French words. Then we......Read More
“How was Africa?”
The students, Participant
Yak of the Week
Greetings to everyone following along on our journey, In these final days of the course, we shift our outlook from new experiences and learning to an integration of what we have learned as we all transition back home. While we start that process......Read More
Words we do not have
Harry, Participant
Yak of the Week
It’s going to be weird being back home. Three months ago, I never had a word for the act of knocking mangoes out of a tree with a stick, achieving the proper atayya foam, having my leg fall asleep, shooing chickens, cooling down hot coffee, or......Read More
X-Phase Photo Yak
The Group, Participant
A few photos from the student group X-Phase Travels…...Read More
Lessons Learned (an incomplete list)
The group, Participant
Greetings from our gorgeous, beach-side transference location in Toubab Dialaw! In these final days of the program, we are slowing things down to reflect and soak our last days together as a group and in Senegal. This morning, we sat together to......Read More
Our Last Day for X-phase!
Khi’Aura, Participant
April 25 We arrived at Lampoul desert. We had to take this big Jeep in order to make it into the dessert and it was quit the bumpy ride. When we arrived to the camp site it was so beautiful (for some reason I thought the camp site was the dunes, I......Read More
International Return Flight Information
Sarah O'Brien, Dragons Admin
Dear Families & Friends, It is hard to believe that almost three months have passed since your student embarked on this incredible adventure! It won’t be long until students will be boarding their planes back home. We are sure you are......Read More
Yak yak yak
Suzy, Participant
I don’t want to write this yak, so I am hiring Harry to help me. 2,000 CFA should do it? No, he doesn’t seem convinced. “Wait, that’s 40 bissaps…but still no.” Dang it, Ibby is making atayya on the ground I think I’ll go......Read More
The Best Dish Ever
Khi’Aura, Participant
Senegalese dish I ate here was Cheboujend and it was at Eden, the hotel, and that was and still is my favorite dish. Especially at Eden and how they make it. If I could re-live the first time I had Cheboujend, I would, it was just so magical (I’m......Read More
Our Sense of Humor
Angelo, Participant
Over the course of this trip, we have had an unhealthy fixation on reoccurring catchphrases/words/jokes. In an effort to covey some of them, I present you with Dragons 2022 West Africa’s sense of humor. Atayya Jangly Hunnerd Kevin Gates Bissap......Read More
Thiakry Yakry
Ibby, Participant
My host uncle’s name is Ahmed, and he is a thiakry fiend. Either that or thiakry is just something that merits a half an hour walk through the chaotic streets of Thies at 11:30 pm. I’m actually starting to think it’s the latter. How to......Read More
X-Phase Day One: And we’re off!
Ibby, Participant
It is 10:59. The first day of X-Phase has only just begun, but I am electing to write this yak early rather than later as (presuming all goes well) we will be exploring and camping in the Langue de Barbarie national park this evening, with dubious......Read More
Don’t get lost
Harry, Participant
Yak of the Week
I said the Thies market deserved its own Yak, so here it is. It’s as close to sensory overload as I’ve gotten, I think. Hands, elbows, shoulders, and buckets full of vegetables push up on all sides of me, their owners seemingly not caring that......Read More