Senegal adventure part 2

Thought I would break this post up a little.....here is part 2!

Breaking our two weeks into two different trips `with Sal`and `without Sall`made the break seem much longer!

Our plan after Sal left again was to head to Ziganchour in Casamance on a big ferry boat that makes the route twice a week. Unfortunately the tickets were sold out so instead we decided to take the long, dusty road! We heard that there was a bus that left from near the port every morning around 6 am so we planned to grab that. Tuesday morning we were off on a bus to Banjul...well, to the border with Gambia. We met a really nice family on the bus who had been in Dakar for a wedding and they sort of took us under their wing and helped us with border formalities, changing money, and getting to the ferry!
You find amazing people in every corner of the world!!!

After Banjul the three of us had different ideas of where to go. Lenny wanted to head south to Casamance as quickly as possible in order to spend some nice relaxing days on the beach. Samantha and I were more up for an in-country trip in the Gambia to explore a little more. So the day after arriving in Banjul we split up.

Samantha and I went to a place called Denton Bridge in search of a boat to take us up the river to a place called Tendaba Camp. Unforunately, the Gambia river is not used so much for commercial reasons and so our only option would be to rent a touristy-boat thingy for lots and lots of money! Much more money than we could afford!! So - back to the road!!

We spent two nights in Tenadaba camp which is a fancy-little place that has had several owners in its history but currently is owned by a Gambian and employs about 90 people!! It was really nice! We got to walk a little in the mangroves and forests and then took a pirogue ride to try to see crocs! Unfortunately the crocs were all hiding but we did see a Fishing Owl, apparently quite rare!

Gambia is an interesting place. It was bizarre to switch to english so quickly and we spent the first two days talking to everyone in French and getting blank looks in return. The english is quite different though and so at times I almost wished I could explain in French because it would have been easier! Funny eh!!

The Gambians we met were super interesting. They seemed to be more relaxed and willing to help but at the same time the `business` folks we met were a little more coniving then Senegalese. We met a taxi man, for example, who told us that there were NO buses that would take us to Ziganchour and so we had to take a taxi - that turned out to be a blatant lie. That hasnt really happened so much here in Senegal!

We met this really interesting young Gambian who recently won an essay competition held through the American Embassy in Banjul. He wrote on the topic of Barak Obama`s new administration and what it could bring to the Gambia. It was really interesting and he told us about his dreams of becoming a journalist and bringing truth to all the things that the Gambian government hides. The Gambian government does not look well upon Journalists and this boys parents were very worried for him but he felt that it was important to encourage freedom of the press even if it meant putting his life in danger! He was quite a brave young man....

Tendaba camp to Ziganchour! In Ziganchour we were supposed to meet with a friend that the girls had made in December when they were travelling but he had gone home to his town for the holidays and so instead we met a friend of this friend! He helped us find a place to stay and that night took us out to see a traditional Lutte! Wrestling is the main sport in Senegal after soccer. Not wrestling like we have back home but traditional wrestling. It was soooo interesting! If ever there was an example of violence breeding violence it was there that night. The engery level and testoterone level was so high that there were constantly little fights breaking out and yelling and intensity after every bout! But as quickly as people started to argue that stopped again and put all of their energy into cheering and supporting their chosen wrestler! People were so intense that to be honest most of the time I couldnt tell if they were yelling because they were angry or because they were encouraging! Wow - intense!!!!!

That night we met up again with Lenny! She had travelled South into Casamance and we all re-united in Zig. We also went out dancing in Ziganchour with Lamine, our new friend, and a friend of his Pica. Both of them are barbers in one of the neighbourhoods! Very nice guys!

From Ziganchour Lenny headed off again to a place called Isle de Karabane for her relaxing beach time. Samantha and I were a little less clear of our plans. We decided to head to a town called Oussouye for the afternoon and then play it by ear where we spent the night. Oussouye was interesting but rather small so after a failed attempt to join Lenny at Isle de Karabane we decided to go straight to Diembering and join the friend that we had originally wanted to meet in Ziganchour in his home town.

Israel (yes, like the country...it gets better, his father`s name is American...that`s right...American) met us when we got to Diembering and took us to his house where he lives with his whole family, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles! We had a fantastic time in Diembering. It is a largely Christian town so with Easter around the corner it was party time in the village!! We hung out at the beach, went dancing Saturday night with ALL of the young people at Diembering, drank way too much Palm Wine and even went to Mass on Sunday!!

If I was the kind of person who could live in a village for the rest of my life I think it would be Diembering! It has such charm and character. Little tiny sandy streets weave in between family courtyards and houses! Chickens, pigs, goats roam all over....children run and play on the roots of HUGE HUGE trees! The beach is a 10 minute walk away and stretches as far as the eye can see in either direction! Because it was easter everyone was home for the holidays so there was life and people in the streets all the time!! Israel and his family were so welcoming and I haven`t eaten that well in a long time! Oh, we ate Pelican!!!! mmmmm

Sunday Lenny joined us in Diembering for the day because when we told Israel`s mom we were leaving right after Mass she told us we couldnt because she had killed an extra chicked for us! So...we spent the day and headed in to Cap Skiring in the evening.

That was the ride of `merde`. On Easter Sunday people go to Mass in the morning and then start drinking Palm Wine and continue until the next day. The car that we took in to town was an open top, open sided jeep. Like most transportation is was way overloaded with two people hanging of the back and two people hanging off the sides! The driver was driving fast but not crazily scary! Then someone decided it would be a good idea to open a bottle of wine!!!! One of the guys asked everyone not to pass the bottle to the driver...but oops, somehow that happened anyway. Lenny, Samantha and I started yelling and told the driver to stop and we freaked out a little. That was okay, he was sorry...he wouldnt do it again and we continued! But then surprise surprise he grabbed the bottle again and started chugging down the wine. Lenny reached forward and pulled the bottle from his hand and in the process spilled wine all over his shirt. That didnt make him happy! He stopped the car and we all proceeded to have a yelling fight with us asking people to move so that we could get out of the car, the driver telling us to get out, and everyone else asking us to sit down so we could continue! No one would let us out and in reality we were a number of kilometers from town. The reality is that the driver had probably been drinking since the morning anyway and every trip he took he put more and more people`s lives at risk. I don`t care what anyone says but his reasoning that ¨this is Africa not Europe¨ is totally unacceptable! When it was all over he still didnt seem to understand that drunk driving is dangerous but he did seem a little upset when Lenny told him that he had disrespected us all in the car! Disrespecting people here is a big no-no and so even if he didnt understand why he had disrespected us, he felt a little guilty!

Patience, Patience, Patience....the word has never meant so much to me as it does here. I am finding it much easier than you would think to have patience! I have learnt that about myself...thank god!!

So - our last night in Casamance was spent in Cap Skiring. Another one of Israel`s friends met us and helped us find a place to stay. Kelly works as a gold caddy at the club med in town and so he knows all the ins and outs of town! He also helped us negotiate a car back to Ziganchour the next day. I love this concept of the African Family - the girls met Israel at Christmas, so as friends of theirs he opened up his home to us to stay, in return all his friends opened their arms and all without expectations or demands! Of course they would help us out...we are guests and strangers in their country....what else would they do!!! I love that mentality...

At this point our trip was almost over! All that was left was a loong boat ride from Ziganchour to Dakar! A boat trip that for the girls had resembled a horror movie with people stumbling around being sick everywhere but for us was relatively tranquil and painless! We slept calmly all night in comfy reclining chairs and arrived in Dakar safe and sound the following morning!

And now we are back on campus. Classes have started up and so far look very promising. So far I have been to two classes - Sociology of Water and a Population and Migration class! I have a number that I am hoping to take this semester including a African Women class, Senegalese Politics, Gender and Society, African Litterature, Cultural Identity, Family and Health, and Physchology. Who knows if I will stick with all of those but those are the ¨trial courses¨!

That was that adventure! At the end of every trip I always look forward to arriving in Dakar because there I know how things work, what prices are, where to go for things...and that feeling only grows once we hit Saint Louis and then campus. Here we are based and at this point there are very few surprises each day. It feels nice to feel home once we get on campus! It feels nice to appreciate my village and my room.

It feels like home!

Part 1 - Easter Vacation travel-ness

Senegal Discovery!

Travelling is an amazing thing. There are so many ways to travel, so many places to go, things to see, people to meet. What I love the most is that it doesnt matter where you go, you always meet interesting people....people that challenge your the way you think, that re-affirm your faith in humanity and of course people that, honestly, just make you question to what length your patience will hold out!!!

I think that is why it is so hard to give advice on where to travel and what to see because it isnt where you go but who you meet that makes a trip what it is. The landscape never changes but the people do....

Our trip south through Senegal was really fantastic. The first week we spent with Lenny`s dad, on his whirl wind visit to Senegal. It was nice having a car and being able to get somewhere without spending the entire day travelling between towns. It meant we had much more time to see and do!

We visited Joal-Fadiout - twin towns attached by a long bridge. Fadiout being the island town made mostly of sea shells. It boasts a beautiful mixed cemetery on another little island made of seashells. We stayed in a hostel in Joal over looking the river, went for a long walk to Fadiout and along the beach and met a really interesting french man living in Joal writing an ecotourism guide book for the region and carrying out wildlife sensibilization projects with the local communities, particularly in regards to the sea turtle. He was trying to mix responisble tourism with wildlife protection in a way that benefits the community economical but doesn`t risk the environment in the process. Very interesting man! Showed us his impressive collection of various sea creature remains washed up onto the beach!!

From Joal-Fadiout we headed to Saly. Saly is Senegal`s uber-tourist destination. There are two parts to Saly; Saly-Portugal and Saly-Niakniakhale. In Saly-Portugal you could easily be confused about where you are and think that you are in any rish snazy seaside holiday desitination town. Saly-Niakniakhale is a little bit more local with sandy alleys, small boutiques on every corner and sheep roaming free all around. We stayed in Saly-Niakniakhale in a very nice little auberge about 100 m from a gorgeous white sand beach! What I love about beaches in Senegal is that even on the `touristy`beaches you find tons of people milling around. It seems like all the local young boys come to work out, run, play soccer and all the local kids come to splash in the water and poke at washed up sea creatures.
Of course you have all the local vendors too wandering around hitting up the tourists in hopes a good sell for the day!! So much life on the beach! Although, if you want a nice relaxing peaceful sejour on the beach...perhaps not the best place to go. Less than 5 minutes after stepping on to the sand the vendors approach to sell their wares. And this is where it gets interesting....

The men who sell, in general, are quite persistent but if you explain very calmly and apologetically that you are not looking to buy but you appreciate their items for sale and you hope they have a good day, they will often be a little disappointed but will call you `gentille` and with a few pleasanteries move on their way in hopes of a sell further down the beach. The women in Saly just got angry! It didnt matter how polite we were, they got mad and shot death stares in our direction anytime we saw them afterwards. So bizarre...

So, Saly-Niakniakhale was one night and one morning on the beach! After which we headed off to Toubab Diallo. We had hoped to stop at a national park just before Toubab Diallo which is supposed to have an impressive collection of animals but unfortunately the park has been privatized and so entrance was much much more than we could afford! Not sure what the point is of a park that only uber-rich tourists can acces...but that is a debate for another time!

Toubab Diallo! What an amazing little town. Set on cliffs and hilly ground it looks a little bit like greece when you are up top looking down over the village towards the sea! We stayed in an auberge that was built by a Haitian and we had a room with a door that opened up onto a little cliff overlooking the sea!! Too beautiful!!

Sal, Lenny`s dad, was quite taken by this peaceful little spot that he offered to pay for our accomodation if we stayed another night! No complaints there from our end ;)
We spent an entire day just lounging on the beach and chatting with the multitude of Rastas that populate Toubab Diallo! We met one really interesting guy who owned an auberge and club right beside ours. He had lived in Sweden for 8 years to study and work, had swedish nationality and spoke swedish fluently! He had bought this auberge and was running it because he had wanted to do something in his community to help young people find jobs (many of his friends) and he was curretnly building a house so that he could move back. He talked about how hard it was for him to be this sort of in-between person because in Sweden he was never really considered as `swedish`but after so many years away in Senegal he was starting to be seen as `not-senegalese`. He wanted to move back to regain his identity! Very interesting guy!

That was that trip with Sal! The Sunday we left Toubab Diallo in the afternoon and very very impressively, if I do say so myself, Lenny and I were able to direct Sal through the traffic in Dakar to Masco`s house (a friend who we usually stay with) so we could grab dinner and Sal could head off to the airport!

(I would like to post photos but I am using the outside wifi connection and it is just much to slow! So bientot....I promise)

On the road again...na na na na na...On the road again....

Here we are... on the road again!

After a bit of confusion and waiting around for classes to start we realized that we would have about two weeks off for the national holiday for Independence and for Easter (back to back) so here we are...

Lenny's dad decided to come for a quick whirlwind trip of Senegal for one week!! Bravely he decide to rent a car and tackle the streets of Senegal for his first trip in West Africa. I guess maybe living in Montreal prepared him for eratic driving :)

We spent the week along the coast just south of Dakar in what you could call the uber-vacation! Nice beaches, sunshine...relaxing!!!! It was pretty fanastic and much posher than any travelling we have done to date. It was really interesting travelling with an older man, father-figure, and hearing all of his impressions and comments and ideas. So many things he found shocking just seemed normal to us and it helped us re-see everything with new eyes.
The car-rapides for example, which are buses that are sort of like public transport....often the guy who collects the fair hangs outside the bus with the door open!! Lenny's dad just couldnt get over it and thought it was so funny and dangerous. I cant say I ever really thought about it as much as he did. Now when I see it I smile....funny what becomes natural to your everyday life!!

So...now he is on his way to Paris on an overnight flight and we are preparing to take a boat to Casamance in Southern Senegal. We have about a week left and the plan is to head south....visit a bit of the green, nature area of Senegal and then slowly make our way back overland to Saint Louis.

Oh no...out of internet time!!

Update to come once back in Saint Louis!!! Just wanted to let everyone know I am alive and well....Happy easter!