Volunteer life bursts with cultural faux pas, fruitless projects and second guesses. For two years, I felt like the joke was on me. Even on my best days in Senegal, the sudden scream of "toubab," a taunting word for foreigners, reminded me that my cheerfulness was jinxed, my presence perhaps...

Many Europeans come to Senegal for sex. They do it because West Africa is poor, anonymous and convenient. Fancy resorts, with their attendant communities of tourists, are few and far between here. The country's grittiness keeps away the judgmental gaze of Western visitors.

In coastal cities like Mbour and Ziguinchor,...

I came home to Kolda the other day to find everyone in the thick of Ramadan. While I was gone for a work meeting in another part of Senegal, breakfast stands vanished, candied dates arrived and young men stamped out the last of their cigarettes. My journey home was also...

My daily romp around the city where I live in Senegal affords me a view of urban fashion trends. I've lived here for two years and speak the local Pulaar in addition to French, but no matter how "integrated" I've become with "the locals," I'm aware that I'll always be...

My daily romp around the city where I live in Senegal affords me a view of urban fashion trends. I've lived here for two years and speak the local Pulaar in addition to French, but no matter how "integrated" I've become with "the locals," I'm aware that I'll always be...