Senegal

April 2 – 9, 2026.

 I spent the first week of April in Senegal visiting my old friend and and colleague Mark Sawyer. Mark is based in Dakar with a US State Department program developing English language capacity in the country. Like other post colonial countries in Africa Senegal struggles with economic development but has long had a stable democracy and the people are great. The most moving part of my stay was the visit to Goree Island just off Dakar. Goree was the main dispatch point for the transatlantic slave trade and there is a memorial on the island to this shameful chapter of human history. A much happier experience was meeting two groups of staff at the Senegalese National Assembly that Mark is working with.