A Deeper Way to Experience Senegal

TENTATIVE DATES JAN 15 – JAN 25 2027

DIG’s 2027 Field Trip: Senegal

Travel alongside DIG partners, communities, and landscapes through an immersive, small-group journey.

This Senegal Field Trip is an invitation to slow down, listen, and learn directly from the people who are shaping resilient food systems and caring for their communities in the face of profound challenge and change.

Rather than a traditional tour, this journey blends community-led learning, cultural exchange, and time in nature, guided by long-standing relationships that are grounded in respect for local expertise.

Small Group, Big Experience

Intentionally small with just 6–10 guests, spots are limited and filled first come, first served.

Travel Dates

Tentatively set for January 15–25, 2027, with exact dates confirmed once the group is set.

Trip Investment

$4,000–$4,750 per person, depending on group size, with a deposit required to reserve your spot.

What Makes This Journey Distinct

Senegal is where DIG’s roots run deepest. Our work in the Casamance region began over twenty years ago, and today it is one of the most dynamic places we work.

Farmer Field Schools are woven into the fabric of communities serving people living with HIV, families resettling after displacement, widows, and children recovering from malnutrition. A central thread running through all of it is the reclamation of indigenous foods, trees, and ecological knowledge that has sustained this region for generations.

On this trip you will spend time in the gardens, in family homes, and in conversation with the farmers, facilitators, and community leaders who are doing this work every day. You will witness what food sovereignty looks like in practice, not as a concept, but as a living reality shaped by people who have spent their lives cultivating it.

This is a rare opportunity to learn from a community whose knowledge holds deep relevance far beyond the Casamance.

This journey is not about seeing everything. It is about being present, learning deeply, and returning home changed by the people and places you encounter.

Senegal Itself

This is a country that will get under your skin.

Senegal is French-speaking, predominantly Muslim, and extraordinarily welcoming to visitors. It sits along the Atlantic coast just south of the Sahara, a place where desert, ocean, and lush river delta exist in close proximity. The Casamance region where we work is among the most biodiverse corners of West Africa: bordered by mangrove forests, threaded with waterways, and an important stop on the migratory paths of hundreds of bird species.

Dakar, where the trip begins and ends, is one of Africa’s great cities. Vibrant, artistic, and deeply musical, it is home to world-class cuisine rooted in Wolof and Senegambian tradition, a thriving contemporary art scene, and Gorée Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most significant and sobering landmarks of the transatlantic slave trade.

The Casamance, where DIG’s programs are growing today, offers something different entirely: the rhythms of the Djola people, traditional fishing villages along the coast, ancient forest gardens where fruit trees and medicinal plants grow together as they have for centuries, and beaches at Cap Skirring that feel like the end of the earth in the best possible way.

How We’ll Spend Our Time

No two days on this trip look the same. Here is a sense of what the journey holds.

In Dakar, we will orient ourselves to Senegalese culture through food, art, and history. A culinary tour of the city’s markets and restaurants. A crossing by ferry to Gorée Island, where we will sit with the weight and meaning of what happened there. Time in galleries and cultural spaces that reflect Senegal’s extraordinary creative life.

In Ziguinchor and the Casamance, we will spend four days alongside DIG’s program teams. We will visit Farmer Field Schools, sit with families in their homes, and learn from community leaders and agricultural experts. We will witness firsthand what it looks like when communities lead their own food futures. An excursion by pirogue through the mangrove waterways and excellent bird watching in one of West Africa’s richest wetland habitats, along with other thoughtful activities round out our time in the field.

At Cap Skirring, we will rest. Two nights on one of Senegal’s most beautiful beaches, with space to decompress, swim, surf, fish, or simply sit with everything we have seen and felt.

Senegal is where DIG’s story began. More than two decades later, the relationships, the knowledge, and the work here are more alive than ever.

Leadership & Guidance

This trip is led by people who know this work and these communities deeply.

Sarah Koch is DIG’s Founder and Executive Director. First serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal, she has spent more than two decades building the relationships and programs that make this journey possible. She will be your guide, your host, and your companion throughout.

Seckou Badji is DIG’s Senegal Executive Director and a cornerstone of everything DIG has built in the Casamance. His knowledge of the land, the communities, and the culture is irreplaceable.

Members of the DIG Senegal team will join us throughout our time in the field, offering context, translation, and the kind of access that only comes from years of relationship-building.

What to Expect

This is not a passive experience. You will be asked to show up with curiosity, humility, and a willingness to be uncomfortable in the best possible way.

You will walk through gardens. You will sit in homes. You will be hot. You will share meals with people whose lives look very different from your own, and you will find more common ground than you expect. You will learn things that change how you think about food, health, community, and resilience.

We ask that participants approach the communities we visit with respect, patience, and openness. DIG’s ethical storytelling guidelines apply throughout the trip. We will discuss these as a group before we arrive.

What’s Included

This is an all-inclusive, in-country experience, designed so participants can stay present and engaged throughout.

The trip includes:

Accommodation throughout the journey
All in-country transportation, including domestic flights
All meals & bottled water
Laundry services
Guided visits with DIG farmers, community members, and partners
Pirogue excursion through the Casamance mangroves
Gorée Island ferry and entry fees
Cultural experiences including local guides, traditional music, and dance
Translation services
Facilitation and accompaniment by DIG staff
A contribution to DIG’s work

Ready to join us? This trip will run once. Spots are limited to 10 guests and will fill on a first-come, first-served basis.

Contact Sarah Koch for next steps

A Note on Our Field Trip Experience

DIG has facilitated field trips to Kenya and Uganda since 2009. The 2027 Senegal trip will be our first journey to West Africa, bringing the same depth of relationship, care, and community-led experience to the country where DIG’s story began.

Check out a few blog postings from past participants sharing their traveling experience with DIG.

In the Field with DIG

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