Blogs from Senegal, Africa - page 45

Yesterday, I went over to N’Gor Island (readers from last year, you may remember this as the island facing opposite our house - inhabited by weekenders, vacationers, and a few wealthy eccentrics, and quite popular among Rastafarians and less purposeful potheads, and the younger abstaining Senegalese crowd who can rent rooms by the hour. winkwink.). I went with 2 american friends, both of whom are also living out their Senegal sequels. We treated ourselves to a very, very relaxed afternoon on the beach. While books and pads and pens were in our bags, we just vegetated. Enough so that I didn’t even have the energy to politely shoo away the many beach vendors…who offer ’good price’ on cloth bags, shell necklaces, imitation sunglasses. I even willingly struck up conversation with a woman as she knelt by ... read more

Thursday October 20, 2005 Well, since our last entry we’ve had our first major emergency...and it didn’t even involve any of us! After a relatively boring week of going to French classes and getting settled, we had a totally crazy afternoon. We were about to head out to downtown Dakar, and were just writing a note for Magueye, to let him know that we were going to be gone for dinner when Cheikh (the two year old) hit his head on the glass coffee table. We had been playing with him and tickling and stuff, and he was doing a little dance for us, when he reached down quickly to get something off the floor, and cracked his head off the side of the coffee table (NB this coffee table consists of a piece of glass ... read more

We still ended up leaving Tamba really late, around 5:30 in the evening. To get to the park you have to follow the road to Kedougou until Dar Salam, then follow a dirt road to Simenti. Simenti is a small village within the park with several hotels. I was under the impression that we’d be staying there, within the park. The truck, however, came to a stop in front of a campement in Dar Salam. They informed us that the park was closed and we’d have to stay here. It was annoying, but there was nothing we could do. In the morning, me, Luke, Arona, our guide, and our driver piled back into the old Nissan truck to visit Niokolo-Koba National Park. We payed way too much for what it ended up being, but it was ... read more

Monday October 17, 2005 Here we are in Senegal, finally settled and feeling comfortable…well as comfortable as you can get in 100 degree weather. We’ve had a very eventful ten days, we’ve been so busy getting here and becoming acquainted with the city we haven’t had much time to keep a travel log. So, we’ll start from the beginning. This is going to be a long entry, they certainly won’t all be this long, and we promise to keep on top of it a bit better than we have so far. This is definitely the most eventful time we’ll have here, so it’s the most packed entry we’ll have! October 6 - 8, 2005 The trip over here was a total gongshow. We left Pearson to fly to JFK in New York on a 40-seater plane. ... read more

On Friday night, Papi and I went to the airport to pick up Luke, who came to visit me for Fall Break. Even though we got there later than I planned, we still had to wait around a while before he came out. I was bored and thinking about the kids I volunteer with, so I tried to get Papi to teach me some kid songs in Wolof or in French. To give him an example of what I was wanting, I sang the ABC’s. He got so embarrassed! I guess being with a singing white girl in the middle of a crowd is too much for a 12 year old. I felt like my mom. She loved to embarrass me when I was that age.. and still loves it, in fact. Finally I saw Luke ... read more