La Troiseme Partie

So this vacation story has gone on far to long so I will end it today.

 

Our return back to Senegal was definitely an eventful one. We left the Gambia with a few days left of our vacation so we could see some of the Sine Saloum Delta, which is supposedly one of the most beautiful parts of Senegal. We drove from Tendaba to the Gambia River crossing with no problems except that we drove mostly next to the road because the road itself was so bad, but that’s very standard. However after a very uncomfortably smoky ferry ride, and a surprisingly easy trip across the border, we had to take a very eventful Ndiaga Ndiaye ride. First after much confusion we found a Ndiaga Ndiaye that we thought was going to Joal, the town we were planning on spending the night. However a couple minutes into our journey, as we were handing our money to the appranti , the boy hanging off the back of the bus who collects money, people start asking us where we are going the costs so much money. Apparently the Ndiaga Ndiaye only went about half of the way we were expecting and when people in the bus found out that we were being ripped off so badly they all started yelling and demanding that the appranti give us our money back. Once that was all sorted out and we were on our way, at a surprisingly slow pace I might add, one of the windows of the bus fell off, oops. Then our driver had to keep stopping the bus and unscrew and reattach one of the petals because apparently it was not working properly, hopefully not the break. Then we had to forge a river that had completely flooded the road for about half a mile. Finally we heard an explosion followed by a bump and the sound of a flat tire dragging along the road. Yes on top of it all we had a flat tire. But did that stop us? No. We continued driving. After about an hour we stopped and switched vehicles, however the new bus was about half the size and we still had the same amount of people to squish in. We finally made it to Koalack, where we got a sept-place (seven places), into which we squeezed eight people and arrived in Joal safely.

 

Next to Joal is a peaceful island called Fadiout. We took a nice tour of the island with one of its residents.
 

That night we happened to eat dinner at a restaurant where the Peace Corps were having a summit for all health and environment volunteers in Senegal. We meet some really cool people and I learned a lot about how Peace Corps functions in Senegal and on the ground in general, which was really interesting to compare to my time working at head quarters.

Unfortunately a bunch of us got food poisoning so we were unable to see the rest of the Sine Saloum Delta, which was a huge disappointment.

So that was my vacation, I have a lot more to catch up on but I don't have school for the rest of the week because of a holiday called Tabaski so I will have plenty of time to write.

Ba Beneen Yoon.

En Vacance: Parti Deux

So, about the palm wine. We ended up sitting in the middle of a rice patty field, under palm trees, on buckets and rusted car parts, drinking palm wine out of old gasoline containers with a group of random men. Not exactly what we were expecting… But they turned out to be very nice and none of us got sick! We also learned that palm wine is made like maple syrup, by digging a hole in the trunk near the top of the palm tree and sticking a bottle inside to collect the palm juice. Then you can either drink the juice or wait for a while for the wine to ferment. Who knew?

Ants!



Molly

After the Serekunda we took a geeli geeli to a camp in Tendaba, further east in the Gambia. It was actually a really fun ride. I loved being able to see rural areas and since the rainy season has just ended, all the plants are really green which creates a really amazing contrast with the red dirt roads and red ant hills. However, by the end of the drive we all had rather impressive dirt spray tans.



Temple Tree

Tendaba Camp

Tendaba was definitely my favorite part of the trip. Tendaba  camp  was a very peaceful place, right on the edge of the Gambian river, with plenty of places to sit and relax. Including a bench under a tree with a sign that said "Temple Tree: Relax, Find Your Soul." 

We took two excursions while we were at Tendaba. The first trip we took started with a pirogue (colorfully painted fishing boats kind of like big canoes) trip down the mangrove lined river to a nature reserve. 

The reserve was so beautiful. After walking for a walk through a field of tall green grass, we came upon a marshy area, but since it was low tide it was a vast expanse of sand. We walked across the sand, past mangrove trees standing gangly roots. We eventually came upon water, which our guide said was the biggest watering hole in the area so all the animals in the area go there for water in the dry season. But since it was the rainy season, animals can find water elsewhere in the bush so all we saw were footprints. But the landscape was strikingly beautiful and I did catch a glimpse of a crocodile!

The second excursion we took was a pirogue trip on a small river that runs through a marsh along the Gambia River. While we did not see any crocodiles like I was hoping, we saw many different kinds of birds. I loved gliding through the mangrove lined water, past green marshes, baobabs and egrets just as the sun was setting.

Next on our trip, we headed back to Senegal, but I am on my way to Fatick to do a survey with children about malaria for my public health class and then I am going east to a village called Manda for a rural stay so I will have to finish this another day...

Ba ci kanam, Inshallah (See you soon, God willing)

En Vacance: A Sene-Gambian Adventure



Ndiaga Ndiaye

I decided to spend my fall break traveling around the Gambia and the delta region of Senegal. We started out early Friday morning on what turned out to be quite the adventure. To get to the Gambia you have several options for transportation. Most commonly people take what is called a sept place which are very old and beat-up station wagons with a bench seat added in the back so their are seven seats for passengers. Unfortunately we were a group of 10 so on our way to the Gare Routière Pompiers where we pick up the cars we decided to split up, 7 in one and 3 plus anyone else at the gare going to the border. However all that went out the window when we got to the gare and were immediately surrounded by a mob of drivers. The gare is a huge parking lot filled with hundreds of sept places and Ndiaga Ndiaye minivans going all over Senegal. Normally you just pay a small fee for a spot in the car but for a large group of toubabs it is impossible to find out how much it is and where they are going. After much negotiating, yelling and marriage proposals we ended up in a small bus to ourselves.

  



Driving on the wrong side of the road, typical





 




Kaolack





At the border we filled out some information about our travel plans in what looked like guest books at a wedding, showed our passports to a chatty Gambian official and we were in the Gambia. After refueling with some mboq, corn cobs grilled on coals on the side of the road, we caught the Gambian equivalent of a ndiaga ndiaye, a gelli-gelli to Banjul to catch a ferry across the Gambia River. The ferry ride, which cost the equivalent of 30 cents, had an interesting mix of passengers. There was a huge truck filled with brahman cows and a man in a hammock suspended over it, a military truck with hundreds of Gambian soldiers and various cars and individual passengers. The rest of the trip went smoothly, after the ferry our hotel in Bakau was only a short gelli-gelli ride away.

The two days that we spent in Bakau were a nice relaxing break for the hectic energy of Dakar. Vendors are less pushy, there is less pollution and every month the Gambia has clean up days and everyone picks up trash on the street. Tourist season in the Gambia doesn't start until October 15th so we were some of the only toubabs there and therefore attracted a lot of attention from out of work tour guides. While this was frustrating we did meet some very nice people at the highlight of my time in Bakau, the monkey park! Liz and I were lead around a reserve by a very funny guide named... We saw lots of monkeys, termite mounds and palm trees during our 8 km hike in the park. On our way our the women collecting money was worried that we would be given a bad price for our taxi back to our hotel so she decided to come with us to negotiate. We talked with her about our studies in Dakar and our host families and she invited us to her house for dinner next time we are in the Gambia to compare family dinners in Senegal and the Gambia, so hopefully someday we can take her up on her offer.

The next stop on our trip was a camp in Sekuta close to the abuko nature reserve. The camp, run by a couple from Germany, was the nicest place that I have stayed in the Gambia or Senegal, it was clean, had running water and electricity! What a treat...

Hyenas



While we were in Sekuta we stopped by the Abuko nature reserve to see some wildlife. While we didn't see as many monkeys as at the monkey park, it was a nice walk and a great break for our poor polluted lungs. They do have an animal orphanage at the park where we saw baboons, monkeys and hyenas in enclosures. Hyenas are so much bigger than I was expecting! I guess when I saw them on TV they were always near lions who are huge and make hyenas look like small dogs, well they are not the size of small dogs, they weigh between 90 and 190 pounds.

After our nice walk through the park, our guide asked us if we wanted to try palm wine. Thinking this would be a fun thing to try and a Gambian cultural experience, we said yes, but we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.



To be continued...

Discussing politics in the dark

So the French classes that I have taken at GW haven't really prepared me for conversations like, "the water does not work during the day" or "were your sheets changed" etc. which has resulted in quite a few misunderstandings. However, I am well prepared for conversations about history and politics. Lucky for me, the daily power cuts have started many a conversation about politics in Senegal.

Senegal is a democracy but President Abdoulaye Wade does not seem to feel like he needs to listen to the needs of the ordinary Senegalese citizen. This is illustrated by the giant statue (designed by North Koreans) in my neighborhood built as a dedication to the African Renaissance. My family and a majority of the population are utterly disgusted by the statue for many reasons. One, it depicts a family who are dressed very indecently for a country where a majority of the population is Muslim and values conservative dress. Second, the statue cost $27 million in public funds in a country where millions live in poverty and 48% of the population is unemployed. This money could have gone far in projects to improve the infrastructure. The torrential rains make the roads impassable as I found yesterday when mid-car rapide ride to my first Senegalese dance class, it started to pour. We pulled over to the side of the road and stayed in the car rapide (which wasn’t waterproof due to the more than ten rust holes in the metal roof) until it stopped. We then had to wade ankle deep in water (and I don’t want to think about what else) to get to class.

Okay so I went on a bit of a tangent there. Anyway, paying $27 million dollars for a statue is absolutely ridiculous when the government cuts power at least twice a day because it cannot afford the price of petrol.

Every time we lose power my family and I sit outside the house on a bench and talk. I really like this time because I'm at school for most of the day so it provides time to talk about politics and have Wolof lessons. One night we used the time in the dark to make milk. I am not exactly sure what the drink is called but that is what my sister said to me when we were trying to think of things to do "do you want to make milk with us" (in french of course). We went to the boutique (tiny convenience stores you can find on almost every street corner) and bought a huge bag of powdered milk, three cans of condensed milk, laughing cow cheese and a bag of mint candies. I was very confused about how all these ingredients would go together, but when combined over heat they made a very delicious, thick, milky and minty drink.

There are a lot of people in my family, this means lots of birthdays! Here are some pictures from two of them:

Here are some more photos from my walk to school:

And some photos from when my host siblings discovered my camera:

That’s all I have time for now. I am off to Toubab Diallo, a beach town north of Dakar, for the weekend so I am sure I will have photos and stories for next week. The first week in October I have a vacation from school so I am off to the Sine Saloum Delta and The Gambia so i'll be doing lots of traveling in the next couple of weeks, (we'll see how that goes as traveling during the rainy season can get very difficult.)

Jamm ak Jamm,

Ba Beneen Yoon

Korité

Some of the Ouakam Toubabs in their Korité finest

So the month of Ramadan came to a close this weekend with the celebration of Korité. After a month of fasting Korité is a day to eat, visit friends and wear a new outfit. I went to the market in my neighborhood of Ouakam to buy fabric with two friends and one of their host moms. The market was small but had a decent selection of eye popping patterns for us to choose from. I then gave the fabric to one of my host sisters and she made a traditional outfit for me to wear on Korité.

On the morning of Korité I helped to prepare pommes frites (french fries) while eating a breakfast with my family for the first time, which consisted of yogurt and millet. Later we sat down for my first lunch with my family, which required two bowls and two circles since the family is so large. We eat fried chicken with an onion sauce over pommes frites. Then everyone got all dressed up and we walked around Ouakam visiting friends.

Here are some of my family members all dressed up for Korité,

Viki Junior

Babacar

Therese (The one who made my dress)

Adji, one of my older sisters

Yacine

Therese Sow

Bebe Anna or Chupete

Yacine and Chupete