Madagascar Senegal 2017 review

I got home from my gap semester and since than have thought, spoken, or written about my experience with Dragons every day since. I traveled to Madagascar and Senegal with limited knowledge of both places but now want nothing but to return to spend time with my host families and continue exploring both countries. One of my favorite memories was after our first trek in Ranomofana, Madagascar we got to a village and were hoping to camp in one of their rice patties. They were not expecting us but the agreed to let us stay and later on all the villagers came down to where we were camping and brought instruments and they gave us a performance of singing and a dance and it was just unlike anything I had ever experienced. After the performance and dinner they came back and at first it was just a big game of keep away with a beach ball and than music started and we continued dancing into the night even while it was beginning to rain, and that was when I fell in love with Madagascar. I learned about community while I was with dragons; I saw how community was such a big part in the lives of the people we were meeting and before I had this idea in my mind that being independent and self sufficient was the ideal way and that that was good, even if it felt lonely at times, and now I see that having people who support you and love you and work with you is so much more important than being able to do everything on your own. For future students I tell them to just say yes, say yes when your host sister asks you to go to the market, and say yes when she wants to braid your hair, say yes when your host mom wants to dress you traditionally, and say yes when your fellow student who wants to bring you a mango when you injur yourself. Just saying yes to opportunities even if they sound strange and not everyone is doing them are where some of my best experiences came from.