In Senegal, part 1 - Dakar, Jinack, The Gambia and arrival in Kedougou

Jon and I recently came back from an adventure trip in Senegal, where we went to visit our friend Ian, who's a Peace Corps volunteer there. When we landed in Dakar on the evening of June 14th, Ian came to pick us up at the airport with a couple of his PC friends - Frank and Emily. The adventure started right away: getting out of the airport is insane, there is an incredible number of people offering to sell taxi rides, food, help... It' s a bit overwhelming. Jon was reluctant to shake hands with this unknown man who came up to him smiling and holding his hand up, but then thought it was OK when Ian greeted him warmly: I'm his friend, said the guy, don't worry. Jon then went ahead and shook the guy's hand, but almost lost his engagement ring (it turned out that Ian had never seen the man in his life - the unknown guy was just bluffing to try and get the ring).

We sneaked in at Fana Hotel for the first couple of nights, making sure to mingle among the PC volunteers that were there for a conference. Nobody noticed the two extra toubabs and we got a free ride. After Ian was done with the conference, we headed to Jinack with Richard, Frank, Jason (PC volunteers as well) and Skipper, Richard's super fun dad. We had a mighty good time staying at the Jinack Lodge - they are called "purveyors of tranquility" for a reason. Fun, beach, heat, more fun, good food, etc. We enjoyed ourselves.

From Jinack we headed to Banjul, in The Gambia. Since we did not have the necessary visa to enter the country legally, we decided to use the back door and just crossed over by boat from Jinack. It was a pleasant 45 min trip that took us to the back of the Albert Market in Banjul. I must tell you, this market is one of the poorest places I have ever seen. It was very sad to see a woman breastfeeding a baby among a bunch of garbage ornate with buzzing flies.

Once we were out of the market area, the poverty was a little less striking, but present nonetheless. It was lunch time and we decided to eat "Tcheb" from a street cart. Little did we know that it was the begining of our nightmares... Don't take me wrong, the food was quite tasty, but eating there cost me several days of severe vomiting and diarrea over the course of the whole trip. And it was too bad too, because I had been really careful to drink only potable water. Alas, the bug caught me anyways. The good thing is that I only got sick the next day, so I could visit a couple cities in the Gambia, including Senegambia, Saracunda and Banjul.

In Saracunda, I visited a polygamous family for the first time, when we went to have lunch at Sherrif's (I wonder if that's how it's spelled), Skipper's friend from a long time ago. Sherrif is a guy who traveled the world quite a bit; he even lived in Canada for a while. Anyways, he is currently back in Saracunda, where he is the head of his house, living with his many wives and kids. He is the financial provider for 18 children of his own (with the 4 different wives) and he is responsible for his deceased brother's wives and kids as well. I can only imagine that he must have a tough time with the "dépenses", as they call it. The wives don't have it any easier, though. Judging by the clothes line that was stretched across the compound, they must spend hours at a time washing the clothes by hand, with water they fetch from a well that is also in the middle of the yard. Caring for the children, cooking, cleaning the house, etc, must take all of their time.

I was already starting to feel sick from the street Tcheb when we went to visit them, but I still had a little bit of energy to dance with the kids. They were real sweethearts, dancing away the afternoon to the music playing on the big brother's cellphone.

To exit The Gambia we also had to cross by boat, because otherwise we would have to pay for the visa on our way out. That boat trip was extremely hard for me and my upset stomach. By the time we got to the other side, I could barely walk. It would take 2 miserable nights before I was back on my feet and could continue traveling. Once I was feeling a bit better, we headed to Kedougou, via Kaolac and Tabacounda. Kaolac is extremely dirty and smelly, but Tabacounda seemed to me like paradise because I could finally lie down. We ended up waking up super early with the roosters and prayers, but that was OK because we got a sweet ride from a PC employee down to Kedougou. I tell you, an air conditioned pick up truck equipped with seat belts beats by far the trips in the infamous "set places".

To be continued...

Comentários

Mirian disse…
E vc tá achando bonito entrar ilegal, né sis? Tsc tsc...

Postagens mais visitadas deste blog

Le Jeu de Robin et Marion

Languages of Privacy

Transkribus and the Altona Case Team