Senegal

This past term at school, I (Billy) was able to participate in the Thunderbird Emerging Markets Laboratory (TEM Lab).  It's a really neat program my school has where they send students out to developing countries to do some kind of project relevant to our studies.

I went with two other students to Senegal where we worked with four different organizations with Winrock for the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer program.  The overall goal was to help each organization form partnerships, so we helped them learn what they could offer in a partnership and what to look for in potential partners.  We also helped identify potential partners and got some initial meetings started for them.

It was a really awesome experience!  We were able to do great work for each organization and I learned a lot along the way.  I had fun with my teammates, Colin and Mohamed, and I got to experience a different culture.  Most of our work was in the capital city, Dakar, but one week we were about 100 km north of Dakar just outside of a city called Mboro.  It was a bit more rural out there.  Here are a bunch of photos from my trip.

Our first meeting with the president from the first organization we worked with.

Goree Island

Meeting with the second organization we worked with.

Our training session with the third organization we worked with.

One of the many crazy looking moths that were attacking us at night while we were working.

The African Renaissance Monument.

The Pink Lake

Meeting with our fourth organization and a business partner organization.

Cool Senegalese clothes our first organization gave to us at the end of our trip.

Western-most point of Africa

After our presentation at Thunderbird with our faculty advisers.