Peace Corps Senegal staff are supporting program partners in food security during the pandemic-related absence of Volunteers.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in the spring of 2020, I was weighing decisions about graduate school while working a variety of jobs, from child care to ride-share driving.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, and in the absence of Volunteers, Peace Corps Senegal strives to support our program partners. Master Farmers are an important partner, and our Agriculture and Agroforestry teams are hard at work supporting them.

The remaining staff members and I began looking at one another, with blank faces, feeling empty and alone. I think it’s safe to say we were all in shock at what had occurred.

“She looks beautiful!” I heard them say as my mother dressed me that morning. I’m only about a week old and prior to today, no one in the community knows my name. It’s a secret.

Women from a small community in Kedougou learn to construct mud stoves to reduce deforestation and simplify their daily tasks.

During Peace Corps’ history, the Boston metropolitan area has consistently ranked as one of the top Volunteer-producing areas in the nation.

Two teams, dressed in mis-matched red and blue jerseys, stood in the middle of the soccer field facing one another – goalie eyeing goalie, with defensive and offensive players falling into line behind one another.

I have been welcomed with open arms from my friends, crinkle-eyed smiles from my elders, and by the sticky kisses of children who love to poke at my chronic sunburn from the moment I set foot in Boki Diawe, a lovely road village in the northern region of Senegal.