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!