I know it has been awhile since my last post, but it has
been a busy past two weeks. Today is my
last day of classes and minus my Wolof Final on Monday I have these next two
weeks before I leave Dakar to finish my adventures, spend time with my CIEE
friends, Senegalese friends, and host family, get in a few more beach days, and
try to soak in everything I love about Senegal one last time.
I apologize for the lack of pictures in this post, the internet keeps going out.
Sine Saloum and
Mar Lodj
Two
weekends ago CIEE took us on our last program sponsored excursion to the Sine
Saloum region, specifically the beautiful island of Mar Lodj. It was about a 4 hour drive but since it was a
CIEE sponsored trip we took comfortable, air conditioned buses. In order to get to the island we had to take
an hour-long Pirogue (boat) ride through the mangroves, can you say relaxing
and beautiful? We were in Mar Lodj for
two nights which allowed us plenty of time to bond all together for the last
time while enjoying the delicious meals provided by our encampment, the private
beach and even the encampment’s bocce ball court and ping pong table. We also took a cherette (horse drawn cart)
around the villages of Mar Lodj and even stopped to play soccer with a gang of
kids. On Saturday night the village had
a lutte (wrestling) match with local lutters and then some guest fights from
our very own CIEE students. We all
“lutted” each other, I lost to my friend Cara, and the whole event ended with
our very own Ethan wrestling and beating a Senegalese wrestler. Overall, it was a relaxing, entertaining, and
beautiful weekend and we all had a hard time realizing it was the last time we
would all be together outside of class in Senegal
Lompoul Desert and
Saint-Louis
Speaking of
last excursions, this past weekend I went to the desert of Lompoul and
Saint-Louis with Bridget, Cara, and Taylor.
I have gone on multiple amazing, hilarious, crazy trips with this group
of girls throughout my time in Senegal and our final one was no different. Lompoul Desert is about 4 hours outside of
Dakar and is technically part of the Sahel Desert. After being dropped off in Lompoul Village
our encampment came to pick us up in a giant truck with seats in the back and
we began a 20-minute trek into the desert.
I have never really been in a desert before and let me just say, sand
dunes are more beautiful than I expected.
In Lompoul we rode camels, yes we rode camels! It was quite an “Oh yeah I am in Africa”
moment as I looked over the Sahel while on the back of a camel. Our encampment provided us with a delicious
dinner and some appetizers and even a drumming spectacle where my friend Cara
and I jumped in with our skills we had learned from our previous drumming
lessons.
The next
day we took off to Saint-Louis and decided to take a Senegalese bus, aka bad
decision. It took us about 3 hours to
travel a route that should have taken one hour.
The bus stopped literally every 10 minutes and we were very relieved to
finally arrive in Saint-Louis at about 3:30 in the afternoon. Saint-Louis is the old capitol of Senegal as
well as the old capitol of all of West Africa.
It was the first city in West Africa colonized by Europeans. As with a lot of things in Senegal,
Saint-Louis is an island and because of its European influence there is a mix
of beautiful colonial European buildings and Senegalese buildings and
boutiques. We wandered around the island
during the day and chatted with the pleasant people of Saint-Louis. After dinner we stumbled upon a huge concert
in the town square where Titi, a very famous Senegalese singer, was performing. After that we went to a bar called the
Flamingo, which is not only next to the water but has a pool also!
It was a
bittersweet moment as we climbed into yet another sept-place to take us back to
Dakar at the end of our final adventure together. These last two weeks are going to fly by and
exactly two weeks from today I will be meeting my parents in baggage claim at
the Dubrovnik airport in Croatia, CRAZY.
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