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Community Corner

Nonnewaug High School student, Johnny Guillemette travels to Senegal Africa on a service project excursion

2013 Senegal 2 Week Service Trip: Bee Stings

Saturday, 20th July

As a group, we have been in Palmarin, Senegal for six days. The experiences here have all been the best experiences of my life. I feel that I speak for everyone (11 high school students from USA) when I say that this trip has been a real eye-opener for all of us. People who have fewer physical belongings always seem to have much more in the spiritual sense. The people here have a connection that makes all experiences, good or bad, experiences that I will always cherish and talk about. There is always a happy and kind emotion flow here in Senegal.

Painting the middle school was a project that the people of Palmarin were really happy about. As we walked the one and a half miles to the school in the heat of the morning, people often dropped their activities to join us. On Friday – our last day of work – we had more helpers than any other day. There were at least ten kids under the age of eleven, and a lot of older helpers, too. Everybody’s can-do attitude created a fun time cleaning and renovating the classrooms, even among the biggest troublemaker in the history of the world, eight-year old Abdou. He would paint the wrong colors, pinch, and make annoying goat noises, but I cannot stay mad at him. He was only trying to help and to keep us entertained, like the other helpers I met during the trip. The people I met and worked with in Palmarin were always happy and I feel that it really rubbed off. I have never had such a constant amount of positive experiences in my life. This trip is building so many memories for all of us, and even things like lost rooms keys and bee stings are going to be memories I won’t forget.

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- Johnny Guillemette

Journalism Fellow
Senegal 2013

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