Went to Goree Island today, the famed "point of no return" for my African forebears who were sold or traded into slavery. Learned that the men were priced by weight, the babies by the number of teeth, women were priced based on their breast size or whether they were virgins. Men who weighed less than about 120 lbs were put together in a room and fed more for fattening up; women who became pregnant by the slave traders were allegedly freed and the babies sold into slavery. In general, people would be held in the slave house in iron shackles for three months, 24 hours a day, allowed out of their rooms once a day, to relieve themselves. The curator gave a commanding summary at the foot of the stairs to the slave house. He said ... read more

Today was our first full day in Senegal. Unbelievably, I'd somehow not packed my journal. (Listen, I've forgotten my passport before--more than once--but never my journal. I was practically dry-heaving in withdrawal. S produced composition books from a suitcase of goods she'd brought to give and trade and let me have one. See? That's why I keep her around-- not just for comic relief--there's also notebooks, Peanut M&Ms, hand sanitizer, toilet paper--but I'm getting ahead of the story... First impressions of Dakar? Not good. After rendezvousing in Casablanca then sleeping warm and fed (twice!) on the plane, we were jostled through Immigration and wound up at the baggage claim turnstile. As luck would have it, my bag was the first one off, weighing in at, what was it again? 50 pounds? S' was next, weighing only ... read more

Historically, the start of my adventures have been fraught with surprises; some of my own undoing, and for others, the airline was at fault. This time, it was Delta (again!) I get to the airport with time to spare. At check-in, the kiosk displays that my flight is "unavailable" (kiosk-speak for cancelled, I later learn) and offers me another some 12 hours later, when I'm supposed to be well on my way to Dakar. At the direction of a ticket agent, I head to a "black phone" to let someone know the flight is unacceptable. Thankfully, my connecting flight from JFK to Dakar was an evening flight. Since I was at National before 10:00 in the morning for my cancelled flight, I had ample time to spend-- * waiting in line to use the "black phone", ... read more