They didn’t need to speak the same language to build a school, play soccer, or partake in the most popular local pastime, Senegalese wrestling.
Twenty-two students from East Hampton High School traveled to a small village in Senegal named Dara in February, accompanied by the teachers William Barbour and Robin Jahoda, to help build a school through buildOn, a nonprofit that constructs schools in rural villages without proper educational facilities.
Groups from East Hampton have helped to build nine schools since 2014. “It’s the old adage of giving a person a fish versus teaching them how to fish,” Mr. Barbour said. “It’s eye-opening for the kids here to see the struggles not just educationally, but just as far as a water source. There was a well in the middle of the town.”
Senegal, the westernmost country in West Africa, is bordered by Mauritania to the north, Mali to the east, and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the south, and surrounds The Gambia. Dara is a three-hour drive from the capital, Dakar, where the East Hampton chapter of buildOn landed.
When the group arrived in Dara, “everyone was dancing, and they had ‘Welcome to East Hampton’ signs,” James Rios, a senior at East Hampton High School, recalled.
For the most part, the students said, the main worries were bathrooms, showers, and phones, but “We didn’t even really remember that we didn’t have our phones,” said Oscar Mettler, another senior. Drinking the water can lead to sickness because of the lack of indoor plumbing, and the students were taught to shower with their mouths closed and brush their teeth with jugs of water supplied by buildOn.
“This trip helped us see how lucky we are to have all of these luxuries,” said Nayala Morales, a senior at East Hampton High School. “It helped us get back on track.”
The organization has a big team of support staff — translators, security, connections to the State Department and local government and builders. Skilled project managers in Senegal are employed by buildOn to help execute the construction of a safe and stable building that will withstand the elements. “There’s a huge team that supports us as we do this,” Mr. Barbour said while flipping through a slideshow of photos from the trip on his projector last Thursday.
“I enjoyed spending time with the kids,” Nayala said. “Even though we couldn’t speak the same language. I wanted to be there, but it felt like they also wanted me to be there too. We had a strong connection without words.” French is the official language of Senegal, but people there also speak Wolof, Pulaar, Serer, Diola, and Mandingo.
BuildOn has partnered with rural communities for 30 years to build over 2,000 primary schools in Burkina Faso, Guatemala, Haiti, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Senegal, and there are now over 275,000 students attending those schools. This is East Hampton High School’s ninth trip with buildOn and the first time Mr. Barbour has taken the students to Senegal. They’ve been to Nicaragua three times, Guatemala once, and Nepal twice.
“The local community really gives a lot,” Ms. Jahoda, an English teacher at the high school who helped organize the trip, said. Participants are tasked with raising the money to build the school, and it costs roughly $5,700 per student to take the trip. Organizations such as the Rotary Club, the East Hampton Village Police Benevolent Association, local businesses, and churches all donated. “It’s amazing. Our community is incredible.” The students even held their own fund-raiser at Best Pizza in Montauk, which donated the space.
In Dara, the students would wake up at 7 a.m. for prayers and breakfast. From 9 to 1 p.m., they would work on building the school. Lunch usually consisted of rice or couscous. After lunch, there were cultural workshops and time to partake of gender talks, wrestling, pottery workshops, games, and to interact with their host families before a group dinner. The students took games like Jenga, Uno, frisbee and Connect Four to bond with their families.
James, Oscar, and Ryan Darrell talked last Thursday about how excited all the local kids were to follow them each day as they walked from their host families’ houses to the school worksite and then build the school alongside them.
“They choose to be in school,” Ryan said. “Knowing that our school is going to be used makes me feel good. They have a place to learn because of what we did there.”
“Being able to connect with an entire community and see how in such a short period of time you can connect is truly inspiring,” James said, adding that he’d do the trip again if he could. “It was completely life-changing.”
On the last night of the trip, villagers said their goodbyes and gave speeches at a ceremony for the buildOn volunteers. James gave his host family a framed photo of his family, and Ryan whittled a wooden totem pole for his family as a thank-you gift.
“I learned to be grateful for what you have,” Oscar said. “You don’t realize how much you actually have until you leave and see what you don’t have anymore.”
Mr. Barbour was set to host a meeting yesterday about the 2026 trip. Usually 100 students attend the first meeting, and after seeing the living conditions and the hard work that goes into building a school, only a handful follow through.
