Blogs from Cape Verde Peninsula, Senegal, Africa - page 5

An uneventful day as it was apparently too rough to dive. I went to Ile Goree today, very quaint. Met a Belgian girl who works for the Red Cross. She has three masters, so it sounds like I’m on the right path. She sort of ditched me for supper though, so to hell with her. Also I recently has the difficult experience of trying to explain what laser eye surgery is to my African friends! Their only response: On na pas ca ici… ... read more

I finally left that rat-infested whore house “Le Provancal” and am at “Oceanium” where I’m about to start what very well may become a life-long love of scuba diving, or today might be a once only. Yesterday evening was grand! Finally got an email back from Kiryomi, telling me that they were going to see Youssou N’Dor. Thinking that I’d go a bit early to ensure that I didn’t miss them I showed up at 11:15 pm. Of course they didn’t arrive until 1:15 am (with two dudes --- Salif and Baidou). The show didn’t start until 2 am. At first I thought I was in the wrong place because it was a Gendarmarie base, but no. Anyway the guys turned out to be cool and the show was pretty rockin’! Senegalese girls! Wow! Best butts ... read more

Due to the lack of appropriate medical facilities in Guinea, I've been whisked away to Senegal for my mid-service check up. Despite all the fun forms and doctor visits, I'm choosing to see this as a second vacation. First things first, the moment I got off the plane, I was greeted by sliding glass doors. I'm travelling with another volunteer from Guinea and we took this as a sign that Dakar would be a little different than what we were use to in Conakry. The customs officials immediately inferred that we were Peace Corps volunteers and started speaking to us in Wolof (the predominantly spoken local language in Senegal). We apologized in French, saying we didn't understand. But apparently Peace Corps is very well known here, and has a great reputation because this didn't really bother ... read more

so this entry dates to April 8, 2009. again, almost straight out of my journal. so on wednesday April 8, i woke up at 8:30 and took a shower, which basically consisted of washing my feet since my hair was in braids and i didn't want to get it wet. the wife of the guy we were staying with brought us breakfast which consisted of bread and butter with some weird coffee/tea concoction that was pretty tasty. by 9:30 we had left. first we went to the bank where i tried to exchange travelers' cheques, but of course they didn't. so they directed us to some sort of plaza. we found a taxi for CFA5000 and left. we were in the cab for probably an hour and a half dodging cars, trucks, vans, horses, and people ... read more

(Sorry for the pictures. The first day that I could go out and take them, it was hazy). It's been five years that I left Africa.......so when we landed at 430am, I was not sure what to expect: excited on the one hand but nervous on the other. I have to admit that I was also mentally prepared to go to battle, given all those years I spent fighting my way past corrupt officers, police, and officials asking for cadeaux and threatening you. But to my surprise, everyone was calm and friendly. So we snaked along the Cape from the airport in the city center on the corniche road......it was very dry and sandy, the desert meeting the sea. All along the road were posh restaurants, casinos, and patesseries packed with party-goers at 5am. The houses--mansions--were ... read more