I visited another town today to see a fetish “Animist” traditional spirit tree. Although the town was only 10 KM down the road the people spoke a different dialect, which Simon said he couldn’t understand. It’s a very hot and nice day on the beach. The kids in the village I’m staying in seem to like me (I gave them saluting lessons). They get along well, although they’re both Muslim and Christian. Cute kids. Off to The Gambia tomorrow, hopefully to get some English books! Just finished “Sailing from Byzantium” and only have “The Mi [View Full Entry]

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So these couple days on the beach are turning out quite nicely, as the beach is beautiful and deserted. Plus mango season is on! This means I can have my fill of mangoes, while trying not to get hit by them as they fall from the trees! Babaka’s friend, Simon is very helpful and has shown me all around and introduced me to many of his friends and “family”. I can’t seen to avoid eating five meals a day as everyone is so hospitable. They are also mostly Christians, which means pigs running around and booze sold more readily, although the [View Full Entry]

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I am writing this blog early Friday night and have no plans to go out tonight. Most of my weekend nights have been on the very quiet side and me not being bothered by this in the least bit. I think I needed a break from the social life of going out in Chicago. Ok, it has been a probably about 12 days since my last update and time to finish writing about my time in Senegal. I left the remote island of Karabane and made the short trip to the villiage of Cap Skirring, which is the most touristy part [View Full Entry]

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and from there we hired a pirogue to a town composed of 4 or 5 families, one of which, called djen-dollar (cause they were "rich"), had a hostel. in two days I knew the whole tow, it was as quiet as it gets, the stars where everywhere and the river would show r sink the towns tiny beach... I mean, you have should see it. really though. I will go back there one day and stay for a month cause it was beyond anything I expected to see in casamance. people were very kind, invted me to eat at their houses, [View Full Entry]

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Yoff was a little disappointing for us, the beach was filthy and we were constantly hassled to sit in people's shade compounds on the beach. We left after one day and decided to pick up our passports with our Malian visas and head straight to Ile de Goree, south of Dakar. Ile de Goree is a short 20 minute ferry from Dakar and is a world away from the big city. It is a tiny island that can be walked end to end in less than hour, at a stroll. There are no cars on the island (yay!) which is a [View Full Entry]

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