‘Definitely an adventure’: Amherst students share stories from Sene-Gambian exchange

AMHERST — After breakfast each morning, Amherst Regional High School sophomore Ra-Star Ferreira rode on the back of a motorcycle to get to the Gunjur Senior Secondary School in The Gambia.

“My guy, he was moving on it, going pretty fast,” Ferreira said of his recent experience while traveling overseas. “Definitely an adventure.”

At the family compound where he stayed in The Gambia, senior Edson Evora shared time with his hosts cooking and watching television, living at a site with sheep and goats and a garden with bananas and oranges.

And because he was a guest, he got to have an indoor bathroom, even as others were using an outhouse.

Ferreira and Evora are among 10 Amherst Regional students who have returned from spending 22 days, about equally divided between being in a rural village in The Gambia and staying in the city of Dakar in Senegal.

On Thursday, they and others who are part of the Sene-Gambian Scholars program got to recount aspects of their journey to families and friends who turned out for an in-depth slideshow presentation, an evening that started with serving bissap, a traditional West African beverage made from hibiscus flowers and bouye, made from the leaves of the boab tree.

This is the sixth time that Amherst students have made the trip, joined by chaperones, current educators Annie Paradis and Mary Custard and retired educators Momadou Sarr and Bruce Penniman.

Zack Heim, a senior who emceed the event, explained why the students participated.

“While the purpose is cultural exchange, we bring ideas we take for granted in the United States and see how they apply, transfer and translate to the rural The Gambia and the cosmopolitan Dakar,” Heim said.

The students spoke on a range of topics, from how football, or soccer, is played in those countries to the environmental activism of Isatou Ceesay, a Gambian activist who has been called the Queen of Recycling.

For the day-to-day activities, Ferreira recalls being in a geometry class, praising the teacher for how the instruction was done, but also going to the beach three times and having a picnic with exceptional chicken. “It was amazing,” he said.

Sofia Ameen-McCabe, a sophomore, described the youth culture and noticed that girls didn’t gather together much after school in The Gambia. “I think hang out was new to them,” Ameen-McCabe said.

The Gambian students also dressed mostly in uniforms with some head coverings. There were fewer curfews and more freedom in Senegal, which she found more similar to Anherst, in that students could wear T-shirts and tank tops. But in both places the youths liked to play music.

Aidan HawkOwl, a junior, showed off some of that music, including Kumpo dancing in The Gambia and the traditional music and dance of the Jola people, as well as a song written by the Gunjur students.

Paradis, who teaches science in Amherst, said the scholars met up once a week for more than a year to prepare for the trip, including getting some language skills from Sarr, who is a native of The Gambia and getting to stay in his home village, along with environmental studies and West African art.

The program has spawned an African History curriculum designed and taught by assistant principal Samantha Camera, and African Literature courses, twice taught by Penniman and Keith McFarland.

Penniman said the program began as the African Scholars and as an alternative at a time when most of the trips abraad were to Europe. One of the challenges was to inspire students in a non-language based program and recruiting interested students.

But it has shown success, so much so that it is now the last of the exchange programs still running, though students from Amherst’s sister city Kanegasaki, Japan, have come to Amherst.

Choosing these West African countries was a logical move given the existing local connections. The program was founded by Sarr along with Oume Sisse, a French teacher originally from Senegal.

The fundraising has included take-out dinners that have been prepared at the South Congregational Church kitchen and offering scholarships to defray some of the costs.

The hope is in spring 2027 to welcome Senegalese students for the fifth time to Amherst, with the students who aren’t seniors getting to host, though due to visa restrictions imposed by the Trump Administration there is uncertainty around that. Students from The Gambia have also visited once.

Penniman observes that one of the big changes in the nearly 15 years of the program is that students now can use What’s App to be in touch with their families while overseas, whereas when it first started they might be fortunate to send one text a day back to the United States.

The scholars are also hoping to raise money for the Gunjur Preschool, which has a leaking roof, with the money to buy corrugated metal, wood, nails and pay for the labor to replace a damaged section. To donate, visit gofundme.com/f/help-gunjur-preschool-fix-their-leaking-roof

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