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Published: November 21st 2005
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When I woke up on Saturday morning, Luke was in the living room chatting to my parents (who, of course, adore him). We had a quick breakfast then headed off to Ile de la Madeleine. I had already been there, but I wanted to show Luke before he left that night. When we got to the departure area, which is on the coast near central Dakar, there was no one to be seen. We ended up knocking on this random lady’s hut. She went searching for the boat people, whom she had to rouse from bed. One of the boat guys found us some chairs and said there was a little problem but it would only take 10 minutes. So, 10 minutes go by, then 30. After an hour and half, during which the guy refused to specify the “problem”, Luke and I stood up to leave. We wanted to go but weren’t willing to wait all day. The boat guy looks utterly confuse and asks us where we’re going. When we tell him we can’t wait any longer, he says, “Oh. Well I guess we could take a different boat.”
The boat guy then leads us on an extended
In the jungle
Ok, not really. These were just cool looking plants. Anybody know what they are? hike down the beachfront road to a stretch of shore covered in pirogues. After an extensive conversation with a man who appears to wear a hardhat as an accessory, the boat guy tells us that we can go with the hardhat guy for the same price. Of course, this was not immediate, but we did manage to leave in another half-hour or so. While we were sitting there, boat guys starts asking me questions. He seemed pleased to learn that Luke was leaving later that night. Being a typical Senegalese male, he asked if he could show me around Dakar some time. I just sort of ignored him and changed the subject.
Finally, it was time to go. Hardhat guy put us in a tiny pirogue, something more like a canoe with a motor. The 20 minute ride was pretty scary. The waves were strong and kept rocking the boat. Luke helped me feel more confident by adding lots of commentary on how our driver didn’t know what he was doing.
We made it to the island and asked to be picked up in one hour, because we were on a tight schedule. I made the boat guy
Where's Waldo?
...I mean Holly. repeat the time back to me 3 times, but I didn’t have a lot of faith. After they left, we started exploring the island. It was great; we had it all to ourselves. As I’m sure you recall, I didn’t have much of a chance to look around last time I was there. This time, we climbed up the big hill and tromped around on top. Most of it was covered in tall grass with big black buzzing beetle things. There were also several miniature baobab trees, and some abandoned buildings.
Luke was hilarious. Apparently, Ile de la Madeleine is geology heaven. He was like a little kid, running from rock to rock. My job was to hold his sample bag while he found good ones to put in it. After we explored all around the plateau and cliffs, we went snorkeling in the inlet. The water was cloudy, but it was still fun.
Eventually, we started to worry that the boat wasn’t going to come back at all and that Luke was going to have to use his pathfinder skills to generate drinking water. Finally, hardhat and boat guy came back to get us an hour and
a half after the agreed upon time. During the queasy ride back, they kept asking us if we’d taken anything from the island (which is also a national park). We told them nope and planned to play dumb if they checked our bag. We made it to shore without any problem. But then, as we started to walk away, boat guy came running after us. We though he wanted to look in our bag, but in reality he wanted to give me his phone number.
Next we took a taxi to the school where I teach English. I showed Luke around the empty school (it was Saturday) and the neighborhood. Then we got directions to the big market nearby.
Our first purchase was actually my only my second market purchase. I was nervous about the bargaining, and we got a bad deal on some fabric. We mentioned to the shop guys that we were looking for a bag for the drum, and one of them said, “No problem.” He led us down the street and through a couple of shops to one that was full of drum bags. The first price they asked was nearly as much as
we paid for the drum. This time, however, I was ready to bargain. We kept saying, “That’s too high” over and over. Once they decided it was going to take a while, they sat us down on a bench to conduct the transaction. So while I bargained/chatted with the main salesman, random other vendors came up to show us their merchandise. One of them talked Luke into trying on a pair of Bayefall pants, which are the multicolored patchwork pants that members of one of the religious sects wear. He looked really funny, since he normally wears mostly earth tones. After all my giggling, he declined the purchase.
During the bargaining for the drum bag, the main guy quoted some proverb that says, approximately, “Of all the queens of the jungle, the lion chose you.” But they way he said it came out really insulting, along the lines of: “Of all the women the US, he chose
you?” I acted insulted which ended up making them lower the price, even though they insisted that they’d meant it as a compliment and not an insult. Eventually we settled on a price. The men kept telling me that I wasn’t a
Map of the Island
To the left of the word "Parc" is where we swim. toubab, I was Senegalese.
We left with the bag, bought some additional padding for the drum, and got a taxi back to Sacre Coeur III (my neighborhood). We were, of course, way behind schedule. While Luke packed and showered, I went to the
boutique and bought some goodies for him to bring home. He ate a final meal in Senegal, and them me, Luke, and my 18-year-old brother left for the airport. At the Dakar airport, you have to be a passenger to go to the ticket desk, so I wasn’t allowed to go with him. I could see him through the glass, though, so I made my impatient host-brother stand there with me until he disappeared through security.
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Rachel
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BD
HAPPY BIRTHDAY a day late!!!