My Host Sister Colle's Bday

So I woke up this Thursday morning and wished my roommate and host sister, Colle, a Happy Birthday. I promptly fell back asleep lol. But she went off to work and I had my classes and work to go to – so it wasn’t until evening that the real birthday spirit was on.

Of course, since it was Ramadan we had to wait to break the fast. There was some bread and hot beverages – and I thought that would be all to break the fast and then dinner. Boy was I wrong. Minutes before the calls from the mosque, some of Colle’s friends burst through the door saying “Surprise”. With them were huge platters of food – unbelievable! There were crepes, croissant sandwiches and more cheese/sausage sandwiches. Then my host mom brought out some begne she had made and some fataya (a fish pastry thing) the maid had prepared.

Can you spot the sandwiches, croissants, crepes and begne?

We still managed patience to have our dates first – and then it was time to dig in. The air was full of conversation and laughter as we all ate – I ate my fill and it wasn’t even dinner yet.

As the platter of dinner arrived - all waiting patiently to eat AGAIN

After a little pause, it was dinner time. We had grilled lamb and chicken with fries, served with salad. Absolutely delicious. I am surprised we could eat more.

But that’s when the cake came. I took a pic of it and the next time I looked there was Colle cutting her cake. I immediately put a stop to it – insisting that we at least sing “Happy Birthday”. And Happy Birthday it was IN English lol because I really didn’t know it any other language – so it was mainly me singing.

Cake time!

I then allowed her to carry on with the cake cutting and we all had a slice of deliciousness. I am not sure if I felt guilty after all this, but I decided to be ‘healthy’ and have cubed mangoes as my second dessert. My host sisters were too full, but at least my host mom joined me eating the mango.

Colle cutting the cake!

This post is probably a lot about food – but I think food is a universal language whereas I can’t explain some of the things my host sister and her friends were saying in Wolof cause I don’t understand – I can certainly speak food.

Me and my food understand each other very well

It was definitely a good birthday surprise I believe!

Wednesday - Out All Day in Dakar

 I woke up this morning – prepared for French classes but it turns out that there was no class due to what I will call a little misunderstanding. A little late for work, I went to La pouponniere, where I saw Zhaoyi. Since I planned to work in the afternoon, I just stayed by Zhaoyi’s place in Guele Tapee which is only 10 mins walk from work.

By Zhaoyi's - my famous-by-now Jamaica bag taking up half of the pic

We were just tired with all the heat. Plus, I was fasting so I felt drained. But after the break, I went back to work and met up with Amira who was working in the afternoon.

I had expected Coumba to come by as well – but she got caught up with other things. Which meant I was going to the tailor alone – not alone, since I had Amira but without Coumba who usually comes with me. Using my resources I called the taximan that is close to my host mom who had dropped us en ville on Monday and he agreed to carry me there. Thank goodness cause I can barely give directions even when I know the place as I forget the directions myself.

How was I supposed to find my way through this madness? Everything looks the same. Roads, people, shops and then  stalls along the sidewalks - everywhere.

I arrived safely at the tailor’s and my outfit was much improved – Hallelujah. I asked for one part to be adjusted and insisted that it be done while I waited (I have no time and energy to keep going to the tailor). After, everything was perfect, I paid and took a taxi home – Amira’s home that is.

I was going to break the fast there with Amira’s family. Like clockwork, as we heard the call to break the fast from the nearby mosque and the programme on TV we all took some dates and drank some water.

There was more Kenkeliba tea and Amira and I had this yummy bread that we bought en ville with some chocolate spread. For dinner, there was vermicelli and beef. You can correctly say I was stuffed. Oh and I forgot to mention this yogurt snack thing in a bag that I had too – for dessert.

My food hadn’t settled it seemed when 2 hours later we were walking down to the beach – or at least that was my excuse when they were all ready to jog for 20 mins straight. Haha, I didn’t even make ten and I moved to the sand closer to shore because it was easier than running in the regular sand lol. But we really got a good workout by the beach, in the pitch black of night.

Amira and I after our workout by the beach

 We literally left around 11:30 and I reached home minutes to midnight (Ouakam beach is around 20 minutes away).

Remember I would walk here with my mom in the mornings? 

(Pic above taken one aforementioned morning)

Really love me some Dakar. What a good day!

Too little time for The Tailor to be messing with my Clothes! (Tuesday)

 After going to bed after 3 in the morning because of a lovely Skype conversation with a loved one, and waking up at 7, you know I was tired in French class. But I pushed through and it went well.

After French class, I went into town with Coumba to go to the tailor’s to pick up my outfit. One part was flawless just that I wanted it tighter – but the other, well let’s just say nothing was right with it. I was so upset, I was like this must be the first draft -_- where is the real thing. Of course since he had to take in all my alterations and advice and new sketches of what I wanted, I left empty handed with the promise that it would be ready on Wednesday. Hmph, so much for efficiency, I hope it’s perfect then because I really don’t have the time and money to keep travelling there to leave with nothing.

Literally my face when I saw the horrid outfit

I had to take a taxi back to reach work on time. Amira was already there when I came and I shared my horror story of what the tailor did with the outfit. I had enough crying babies on my hands, without my twins (who I still miss terribly) and in the heat, work was pretty tiring. Before I knew it, work time was over – this is how all the days fly by, I swear. Amira and I found no begne altho this lady on the road was making some similar looking balls but those were from beans – and we didn’t exactly trust beans, from the roadside. She hopped into a car rapide and I decided to take the 50 min walk home – I haven’t done casual walking in a while.

There was only blip in my walk home. I was passing by the University (20 mins into the walk) and some guy taps me. He bursts out laughing and I’m looking at him like who are you? And I held onto my little Jamaica bag a little tighter. I tried to decipher what he was saying between all the laughter and his line was that I looked like someone he knew from the university. I just said oh, well I’m not and tried to move on. He held on to me and I immediately batted his hand away - but he laughed again as if nothing happened and asked for my number. I was so disgusted by his twisted mind – he was scaring me on the roadside (me trying not to get robbed after Zhaoyi getting robbed) all for my number? I really had a no nonsense face on being all hot and miserable and in a rush – and with that I said No, I have to hurry to somewhere, GOODBYE.

A minute later, I heard someone yell “Chantelle” – I literally let out a tiny high-pitched shriek. It was a real busy road as everyone was trying to get home to break their fast, but I hadn’t expected to run into my Wolof professor. I sighed a huge sigh of relief seeing him and told him I was arranging my last visit to WARC this Friday to say my official goodbyes to everyone. With no more strange greetings from strangers, I arrived home safely.

Remember the Wolof prof? He likes to walk a lot.

I reached home in time for some of the food preparation and we soon after broke the fast together, commencing with dates. There was toasted French bread, fried eggs, cheese, beef sausages, butter and hot chocolate. I ate my fill and that wasn’t even dinner. We had liver and a pasta side after that. I really could get used to this breaking the fast with so much food at the end of the day haha. Only thing I need now is some begne to make the meal complete lol.

The breakfast food after I got through with it!

Near to Tears without my Twin Girls

So I decided to fast this Monday too. I got up and had hot chocolate tho (I drink during my fast) because no one wakes me up for the early breakfast – wouldn’t want to be up at that ungodly hour anyway to eat bread, porridge and tea, I’d rather sleep lol.

Class went pretty well, altho I felt so sleepy from my Sunday outing. After class, I tried to rest a little before heading out for La Poupponiere. I arrived there and as usual found a baby who was crying and fed him. Feeding time was basically soon done, and I went to the 5^th room as usual, to change my twin girls – Ousseynatou (#33) and Assanatou (#34).

This is me standing in the cinquieme chambre with my two lovely twin girls only in June

Only problem was they weren’t there – instead there were these other twins – like newborns basically in their crib spots. I flashbacked to when I was feeding a baby a few minutes before and saw a tiny baby bottle marked #34 and thought Assanatou drinks from a bigger baby bottle than that now. So it clicked that these new twins had taken my twins’ numbers. But where were my babies? I thought maybe they had gotten too big and were now downstairs with the older children (7 months up).

Ousseynatou after eating :)

Confusion was clearly etched into my face as I asked the other workers were my twins were. But they all told me the same thing – they were gone. Gone? How could that be? I didn’t see anyone coming to visit them who looked as if they would adopt them. Where could they have gone?! Turned out that their parents had come back for them on Saturday. I still couldn’t believe and thought it was a huge prank they were playing on me. But after searching all the rooms, I had to accept the truth. My twins were gone. And with their parents no less. I didn’t even know they had parents – but I was told that the mother was really too sick to take care of the babies and she was forced to leave them at La Poupponiere. What had me on the brink of tears was that nobody knew the mother had gotten better – she just came back on Saturday and disappeared with the twins – no warning! So I didn’t get to say goodbye to my baby girls L

Ousseynatou is forever in my heart

I made sure I kissed all my other babies this time when I was leaving work because I refuse to take any more chances. Amira (who has now become attached to the cute little ones and so will work with me for the rest of this week) and I thought to cheer ourselves up with begne. The plan was to buy some and carry home to have after breaking the fast – only problem was, we couldn’t find anyone selling begne – so I went home even more disappointed.

 That night I walked uphill and exercised my butt off before breaking my fast – but I still couldn’t help feeling cheated of my goodbye. Hope they have a good life with their family tho – that’s a lot more than most of the other babies there have now.

Goodbye my lovely Assanatou <3

Hello Lac Rose - Time to Float!

From my very first week in Senegal I have been wanting to go to Lac Rose. Sherraine, an old friend from high school posted a beautiful picture of the Lake on my wall and I was hooked since. But you know my schedule is pretty busy and I often had classes even on the weekend. 

However, as my last Sunday approached I knew I had to make my way to Lac Rose. Henri, an elder from my church had offered to take me with a few friends and so I was psyched to go.

As if I don't like pink enough, Lac Rose <3

I met with Malcolm and Amira outside my apartment where Henri picked us up for the journey to Lac Rose. We took the worst roads, that were flooded too that I thought for sure the little car we were in would shut off before we got there. Thank God, we reached safe and sound.

Oh the lovely half road, half waterway

When we arrived, vendors tried to get us to buy things by the craft market there. However, we were escorted by this guy to see a monkey. Literally, that was one of the first things we saw - that and the camel that ran by the roadside when we got out of the car lol.

This baboon was doing a very weird jumping jig so I didn't even get too close lol

Baboon aside, we walked out to the actual Lake. We changed into our swimsuits and dived in – kidding. The seashore was all shells, literally and you would have to walk carefully with the shells underfoot. We simply kept walking further and further in – and that’s when it started to burn. I had shaved my legs only that morning – It’s not that bad shaving your legs and going to the beach because it wears off after a while – but as the pink water swallowed my bottom half all that salt content got to work. Ouch!

Not looking too pink here, but those are the seashells and the green stuff is not grass but algae

I refused to let that deter me and I was soon doing my most favourite thing in the water – floating! And with such ease that it was hard to get my feet back on the ground after I was a little more away from shore.

Honestly, it was so cool – no matter how much I rolled around in the water, I was not sinking.

Floating for Beginners lol

However, Lac Rose is not somewhere you want to do too much splashing. I soon got salt water in my eye – and I was temporarily blind to say the least and was led by Malcolm and Henri to a nearby fresh water spring to regain my eyesight. So I might have been a bit dramatic – but it burnssss!

Henri and I after my 'blinded' incident. I can see!

That was enough salt water for me and we then went to the restaurant by Lac Rose. Amira was fasting but I had already given up on my fast with an apple on the way over – so I indulged in a large serving of chicken and fries.

Food took forever to come so we took pictures in the mean time of course!

We even had live entertainment with an old man playing this strange stringed instrument. The music was beautiful!

Here Malcolm steals the man's instrument to try it out haha - The guy was too kind to let him use it tho

We left Lac Rose and we were headed to some pool – I didn’t get what was going on actually because we left a pool right by Lac Rose. We first stopped at Henri’s country home to pick up some mangoes off his property. Next stop was another large property and we all got out this time. Turns out it was some neighbour of Henri’s and Malcolm’s (who also has a home outside of Dakar) and we were just using their private pool in their absence – you know, no big deal.

Amira and I - ALL Smiles

It was so much fun tho! I could still float altho it took more effort but nothing was burning this time.

After a great opportunity for swimming and some additional tanning, we decided to head back to Dakar. 

Pools are my fave. No salt lol

This time taking roads that weren’t threatening to leave us stuck in the mud – thank goodness.

Since it was time to break the fast while we were in the car (Amira’s fast anyway) she had a few dates and I invited her over to finish breaking the fast by my house since we would be there sooner. She joined with my family who – first time I was with them breaking the fast – were having breakfast foods! Different kinds of bread, turkey meat, hot chocolate, butter and jam were available. It turns out that my family has breakfast foods and then dinner foods too – because after the other table was set with the rice and shrimp (Which I don’t eat because I’m Adventist) and beef with peas (I just had beef with salad cause I ate tons of bread already as usual).

The family after they started to break their fast - Tata/Host Mom (left), Amira (middle) and Coumba (right)

I’m really glad I get to see another cultural aspect of the Senegalese people during Ramadan – altho last year it was during school time, I was completely clueless about what was going on – but now I have a real first-hand experience with my Muslim family. Oh lucky me, still learning new things in my last week here!

Over and out.

Second to Last - Bon Sabbat!

For my second to last week at church, I can’t believe how much I’ve settled in. I have my Sabbath school class which I understand some of the times (more than before lol) and move on to divine service.

Singing in French has officially become easier for me once I have the ‘Hymnes et Louanges’ to sing from (Singing words sound different than how you would say them sometimes to get the singsongy effect).

I got the sermon down pat – I think since I was referring to my English bible. We were talking about the whole rich entering heaven = camel going through eye of needle. I really forgot that the sermon was in French sometimes ;)

Niassa and me - A ton of ppl at church think we look alike. What say you?

After church, we were all just socialising a bit – and of course we lined up and everyone greeted everyone else in order of how we filed out of church.

Me, Lloyd and Niassa after church - Lloyd is the one who insists that I sing on the choir lol

For lunctime, I went to chez Lucas but was fasting for Ramadan. Yes, I am an Adventist Christian but I was trying something new to respect my host family – plus I have my own prayers in mind for my fasting too. Malcolm and Lucas thought it fit to tease me while they ate their food – but I stayed strong and drank – my fasting is with drink, Dakar is too hot for me to take chances to go without.

We went back to church in the afternoon – but it was a really rainy afternoon unfortunately – and that brings out all the bugs!

I ended up going to Amira’s house to hang out for the evening with her, her family and Malcolm (who happens to be a good friend of the family – irony of ironies when I found out). What I looked forward to was breaking my fast – the first day of Ramadan and I was with a Muslim family to break the fast. 

Amira's mom (left), Coumba - my host sister (middle) and Amira (right)

Ye ye old picture but I kinda forgot my camera in my handbag the whole evening while at their house

Traditionally, they have dates to break the fast – not sure why, but the demand for dates have definitely gone up in the streets and the supermarkets! I think I now have a thing for dates, especially after fasting.

Let’s just say all the good food made up for it. We drank a lot of Kenkeliba which was really good ( a tea we loaded up with sugar and milk) with bread and had curry goat and rice. Unlike at my host family’s the curry was on the meat and the rice was white instead of it being one dish of curried rice with meat inside. Maybe that's the American influence? Dunno. I ATE for three.

We made plans for Sunday for Lac Rose which were a bit iffy – in my upcoming Sunday post we’ll see how that went!

I also made a feeble attempt at playing COD at Amira’s before I left to go home – Cannot play to save my life. And that’s how the story ends…

The Days Fly By

Wednesday

Finally got a late morning in, slept till 8:30! Got up for French class – and of course we talked about Nelson Mandela (even more fitting being on the African continent and all).

After class, I had very little time to make my stop at the tailor’s. Went to Marche Sandaga (passed Nice-Cream and instantly started craving ice-cream) were we walked to a tailor’s shop. And yes he’s a tailor with many male outfits hanging in his store – but he made two beautiful dresses for my host sisters and I wanted one too in the same style, so I had bought the material to make it on Tuesday. Luckily for me, my dress will be ready by next week Monday – talk about efficiency!

I took a taxi to work so as to not lose any more time and was greeted by more heat than in the outdoor market. Each day is getting hotter and hotter!

I’ve come to the realisation that my baby Marc is no longer the silent little angel that he used to be. He’s still an angel but he cries a lot more now – I’d still adopt him if I could cause he’s too adorable :)

My baby Marc!

There were 3 new babies at work tho – boy twins and a little girl, all three younger than a month old. They are so young when they come to the orphanage and I still don’t understand exactly how the process works for them to get there – but they are too young to be without their mothers. I try my best to be as comforting to them as possible, but imagine these newborns and their tiny little hands and feet – makes me teary eyed sometimes. But I really can’t help loving my job – it’s been so amazing.

Since Ramadan is coming up, I’m still on my eat-all-the-street-food binge and bought some begne after leaving La Poupponiere.

My begne covered in sugar

 I took a car rapide home and was expecting to go walking with my host mom around 7 p.m. but she wasn’t home so I set out to walk to the Statue (the big fancy Monument one that I’ve already blogged about made under President Wade) myself - it's a good walk uphill!

Thursday

I was up before 7 and went to my host mom’s room but she was sleeping – I was so tempted to return to bed but I decided that I should at least ask her if she wanted to walk. She thanked me for waking her up and we did an hour’s walk – yay for the exercise cause we went up to the statue but geesh, I was so tired.

When I came back for class, we had a mini break because she had to go drop off her car at the mechanic. I was writing my CV in French in the meantime and doing some exercises, but was glad when she finally came back, albeit a little later than planned.

When class was over, I was expecting a friend to come over. It was actually Amira’s birthday and she had said she wanted to volunteer at La Poupponiere in the afternoon (Amira, who I met in Saly). I thought it only fitting to have lunch together at the house and my host mom had enough to feed us all (My host family, Amira and Coumba’s two friends as well) – some riz a viande/ cheb u yapp/rice with beef and chicken and beef balls in sauce plus pears and corassol (Jamaican sweetsop) for dessert. Yum!

After lunch together at the house, we took a car rapide to work.

I introduced Amira to Sister Justina as soon as I had the chance – and we worked with the babies who were so miserable in the heat till closing time. I have realised that I know like most of the songs they play at the orphanage – but only by tune, cause the words are all just that words, that I can’t really understand but can hum along too lol.

Friday

On Fridays I work in the morning just like Zhaoyi – I was so happy to see her because she wasn’t at La Poupponiere last Friday. We got a chance to catch up and we made a date to eat out during my last week in Dakar.

Prof Sidy

 After work, instead of going home for lunch as usual, I finally had my lunch rendez-vous with my Wolof Professor and Awa, as well as the other WARC staff. It was good timing too – Ramadan technically started for some people but for the Senegalese most were starting on Saturday because they had not sighted the moon as yet. It was cheb u yapp and they always serve lunch with attaya.

Cheb u yapp? Yum.

I was very glad to catch up with the WARC staff but eventually had to go for my afternoon French classes.

Me and the Wolof Prof - cheers!

Second to last week in Dakar? I think it went well, very well J

Must Have all the Senegalese Clothes & Food!

I started off the morning walking with my host mom and we walked much further than we’ve walked before. I jogged part of the way back and got ready for French class. In French class we ended up doing a lot of random vocabulary – with me learning the French words and even my host mom learning some new English words (sometimes I didn’t even know the English words).

Off to the market again! 

At midday I managed to get my butt to the Marche Sandaga to buy some cloth. I have two weeks left and I am determined to make one more outfit before I leave! It was quite a hassle picking out the cloth and when I did, I was pleased with my decision. As we were leaving the market what did I see but some coconuts. I had to have one – it’s been months. I drank it right then and there (no straw) and had the vendor chop up the jelly and a little ‘spoon’ for me to eat it with. It was heavenly and the jelly was nice and thick. Note to self: Must go have fresh coconuts in Jamaica.

My eating on the roadside didn’t stop there tho. Altho Coumba had a coconut too, she counselled me against buying other things on the road. But as I always say in Jamaica, “what don’t kill, fatten” – not that I want to be fattened but I still want to try stuff altho I really wouldn’t be so carefree buying on the road in Jamaica. I ate this cookie thing – it tasted coconut-y but it was kinda hard and hurt my mouth after chewing it all. Then I had this pastry that had a little fish inside – the lady wrapped it in some paper and gave it to me after dousing it with some good old sauce (Senegalese really love their sauce, any sauce). And lastly, I munched on some little coconut balls, those are my favourite now, next to those sugary balls of goodness that I can never remember the name of – (Someone just reminded me that it’s called begne – yummy begne).

Here was some begne that my host mom bought once

At La Poupponiere, I had a pleasant surprise. I had thought that Marie-Rose had already left for France, but it turns out that she was still in Dakar, just not at the orphanage. She came back with her adoptive parents to say goodbye – quite similar to the scene yesterday when Yacine and her adoptive parents were saying goodbye. 

When I returned home, I decided to exercise my lazy butt for an hour. As I pointed out to everyone at dinner after my workout – the net effect of my exercise and eating habits is weight maintenance – because I eat 3 times everyone else, LITERALLY. It was lamb and chicken and fries and mashed potato and salad for dinner. Plus mango for dessert. 

So this is not a pic of the dinner but lunch I had one day - and this was just for me (dessert and drink not till after the meal too)

Monday at the Fish Market

So my host mom told me that we had run out of fish – now this cannot happen to a Senegalese household! My morning French class was cancelled so that she could go to the fish market. I thought that I might as well join in and see what it was like there.

I must tell you that was the grossest thing I’ve done since being here. As soon as we stepped into the fish market I managed to avoid stepping on a bloody fish head lying on the floor. I soon realised it was impossible to avoid getting my feet wet in the dirty water littered with fish scales that covered the floor.

Really gross floor

My host mom was completely unperturbed so I put on my bravest smile and followed. We went around to a couple vendors all side by side with fish so huge that they were half my height. 

Don't know why he picked up his smallest fish when I asked to take a picture - but here is a vendor at his stall

There was fish of every size, colour and shape but it was the really big fish that got to me. My host mom was bargaining with a few vendors until she got the best price from one of them for a huge white-fleshed fish.

The first fish that my host mom bought!

She also bought a few other fish (what I would call normal sized) and put them in a bucket that she had carried. Actually there was a man helping us carry the fish from the vendors and I later realised that altho he sold no fish himself, he was very much a part of the market since he cleaned the fishes that people had just bought.

Where the fish was being cleaned

So we went to this man’s stall area to get the fish scaled, gutted and sliced. All very graphic. I managed to hold onto my breakfast and even somewhat smile for some pics.

I feel that this pic is so awkward - smiling altho I was freaking out inside still

Ha this is not a graphic pic, lovely slices of fish - what was gross was gutting the fish - this aint so bad

By this time the smell had so consumed my lungs that I had forgotten what fresh air smelt like, I just took a bunch of videos of the man cleaning the fish as a result of what I can only call incomprehensible fascination.

My host mother deciding to kill two birds with one stone, stopped at a market on the opposite side of the fish market to buy some mangoes for the house.

Me and the regular market in the background where we got some mangoes

When I reached home, I felt that I could not use enough soap to get the fishy smell off of me. The very smell had permeated my already destroyed sandals which have seen its last days thanks to all the walking I do in Dakar.

After a nap, I headed off to La Poupponiere by car rapide. I was taking care of my twins as usual when Yacine and her adoptive mother came by. She was saying goodbye as it was her last day at the orphanage. I couldn’t help but be happy that Yacine had gotten lucky. But as I stared down at my twins, I wondered if they would ever be adopted – the both of them, because they couldn’t just be separated but I’m sure being twins made them less likely candidates for most adoptive parents unfortunately.

  

I returned home utterly exhausted from my day – and in part from the weekend in which I had been running on minimum sleep. But it was certainly an interesting day – I laugh when I think of how my Auntie G would react if she had gone to that fish market in my place. Ha, the things I experience here!

My Weekend in Saly

My host family and I set out early in the morning for Saly – a nearby coastal town that has tons of hotels. It was for a retreat for all the English professors at the University that my host mom teaches at and every year my host mom and sisters go. Well I joined the party and altho Zhaoyi was to come – due a little misunderstanding and miscommunication she wasn’t able to make it.

When I said we set out early – it was after 9 because you know Senegalese people are never on time – and we all waited at the Ecole Normale to drive together.

I thought maybe I’d take in the view as we drove the 1.5 hr to Saly from Dakar – but I promptly fell asleep. When I awoke, we had stopped at a Pizzeria to grab lunch altho we were near the hotel.

I was attempting to spend a quiet day in but I couldn’t figure out how to get the AC to work. When I noticed that the pool was pretty empty, I thought what’s better than exercise in a private hotel pool? I just swam and then some floating around – all the while turning different shades of brown (have yet to tan to one colour).

This here is the pelican or guardian that always stayed nearby the pool lol

When it was time for dinner, I had no time to dry and style so I went with slicked back wet hair hidden behind a scarf lol. I was expecting to enjoy a good dinner but what I was not expecting was the 

entertainment.

The Entree for Dinner

Me and Coumba at dinner

When we arrived, there was drumming and I was thinking – oh nice, how Senegalese. But this man (I consider him an obeah man, but I’m not sure what his magic is called) came and did the most unbelievable things at dinner.

I have to make a separate post, detailing the show but just to let you know – he was sandwiched between tow beds of nails while people sat on him(including me), he walked on broken glass, rubbed himself with fire and he remained unharmed through it all. Sooo creepy!

Me beside one of the bed of nails that he used - I was also the first volunteer to walk on the nails - But no worries they held me while I walked across it and I was unharmed!

But dinner was still a great social event – giving me time to meet up with more English speakers. After all, English is my fave language lol

Finding Americans in Dakar! Amira (right) and her mom (left), me (middle)

After dinner and the show you’d think everyone would call it a night – but no. The adults all went to have attaya (tea) by the beach and us young people went for a midnight swim by the pool. I was told that these events were not supposed to involve much sleeping and it was so. By the time we returned to the room and I managed to dry my thick head of hair, it was very late indeed.

The next morning, I woke up early to wake along the beach with my host mom. We simply walked onto the beaches of other hotel properties (I was concerned, but apparently that’s totally legal) up to 30 minutes away before walking back. We got lovely seashells in the process!

Me and the host mom (altho this was at dinner, not in the morning)

Made it to breakfast and thought to eat to make up for my midnight hunger that was not met. There was this pastry that I could not get enough of – sooo good, yum.

After breakfast, I went by the pool but it wasn’t as sunny as the day before. It had rained in the middle of the night and brought out a bunch of bugs. I waited while the pool was cleaned (and helped too, don’t ask) while reading a book IN English that Niassa had lent me. After that, I enjoyed a nice swim, before it was lunch time.

By the pool

For lunch I had fried fish and tons of veggies plus cous-cous (Vegetables are nt very popular in this country so I was very glad to have three different types of salad on my plate!) And dessert was mangoes, melons and watermelons J

Unfortunately lunch meant the end of my time there. I packed everything up and soon we hit the road for what seemed like a never ending journey to Dakar. When I did reach home, I was so tired from the trip but I really had a great time in Saly!