A Weekend in Saint-Louis

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Our last excursion as a full group was the long-awaited trip to Saint-Louis. The city is about five or six hours north of Dakar, right near the border with Mauritania. It was the first capital of Senegal, but also the capital of French West Africa. The city is essentially an island, though things have spread out since back in the day. The architecture in Saint-Louis is very typically "colonial"...it's a lot of pastel colors, European-style buildings, and palm-tree lined streets. It's all quite shabby, though, and paint everywhere is peeling, buildings are starting to crumble, and it's just not as pretty as I'm sure it was in its former glory.

We spent Saturday morning and early afternoon at the Djoudj Bird Reserve, about an hour and a half east of Saint-Louis. We all climbed into pirogues for a two hour tour of the river and the bird reserve. We saw a lot of birds, but unfortunately they all belonged to just a few species. The birds haven’t yet migrated from Europe, so there wasn’t much variety. Our guide kept getting really excited and telling us to look at how the birds are flying in a V-shape (we didn’t have the heart to tell him that birds in the US also fly in Vs). We did see thousands of pelicans, though, all grouped together - it was an incredible sight. I will, however, be crossing “bird-watching” off my list of possible retirement hobbies…it’s just so boring! Hopefully cross-stitch or Scrabble-playing will work out better for me…

We tried to do a bit of shopping in Saint-Louis, but that was far from successful. The prices are very high because of the large number of tourists who flock to the city. We tried bargaining, but they just refused to lower their prices. One woman told me that this pretty, 70s style shirt was 15,000cfa (about $35 with the current, terrible exchange rate), which is a ridiculous price. When I objected to the price in Wolof, she said, “Oh, I mean it’s 15,000cfa, not 15,000 Euros!” and gave me this sweet little smile. I asked about a pair of patchwork pants (which I know should be roughly 2000cfa), and she told me 7500cfa. When I mentioned that I could get them for 2000 in Dakar, she told me that I should go back there. Another shop owner told me that “grandes dames” (grand ladies) don’t negotiate prices, and therefore I should pay his exorbitant prices since I am, obviously, a “grande dame.” I gave him a dirty look and came back to Dakar empty-handed.

We took a tour of the city, which was surprisingly small and unimpressive. There was just nothing to see! We saw the river at the north end of the island, and we saw the water at the south end of the island (about a 30 minute walk from one end to the other). We stopped at Faidherbe Square, which is a poorly maintained garden that houses an old statue of the French governor, Louis Faidherbe. The people of Saint-Louis (and Africa in general) did not fare so well under the colonial rule, so it seems odd to me that they would keep a statue of a man with a bag crumpled next to his feet labeled as “Senegal.” The base of the statue even says “Senegal thanks its governor.” They should have stuck that thing in a museum when they renamed all the city’s streets to honor Senegalese men instead of French men.

Half of us stayed in the youth hostel, which is very nice and clean. I had a large room with two beds that I shared with Jen. It came complete with mosquito nets and a balcony covered in pink flowers. We didn’t have water all of Friday or Saturday until much later in the evening (they thought it’d be a good idea to cut all water to the island at once in order to do some maintenance). We did, however, have delicious food in Saint-Louis. After months of ceebu jën (fish and rice) made by our maid, who can’t cook all that well, the food was amazing. We had spaghetti bolognaise (in the Senegalese style, with no red sauce) and chocolate cake the first night, and fish, ratatouille, potatoes and rice (that wasn’t made with the seasoning that goes into every Senegalese dish made…it was a refreshing change) with a sugar crepe for dessert. It was a bit disappointing to come home to dinner Sunday night and face a platter full of peas cooked to a paste with unidentifiable meat and very dense pieces of potatoes…

It was nice getting away for the weekend, though, as my family is often a lot to handle. I now have five (yes, five!) little host brothers, ranging in age from 3 to 11 years old, who love to run in and out of my room, climb on my bed, and ask a zillion questions. This is in addition to all the women living in my house, who, now that we’re leaving in three weeks, are trying to lay claim to items they assume we’ll leave behind when we go. Combine this with the same meal six nights a week, a bathroom with a burnt-out light and a toilet that doesn’t work, and frequent power and water cuts…I think it will be very nice to come home to Ohio!

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Comments

[Katie]

Gorgeous photos, you skinny mini! :)

[karin]

You should be a travel critic
Have you ever thought of being a travel critic? Your writing is amazing. I promise no orange, greasy, spicy rice and?? when you come home. Love you lots!! Mom

[faith wassink]

SO...
So I was googling Faidherbe, because i want to write a paper about him, for Culture class.. GUESS WHAT I FIND!! Good ol Kate's Blog, and our wonderful, Mauritania adventure..