Holidays in Senegal

I've been my summer holidays now, went on a little trip to Senegal with a couple of the other volunteers.

Started in class, after the journey that is, by staying with some rather top ranking American Embassy staff (one of the other volunteers was with Peace Corps). It was quite a culture shock to be in their house, fully air conditioned (obviously), African artifacts collected from years of travel, two staircases! a washing machine and tumble dyer! ensuite bathroom! Hot water! A bath! A swimming pool! Slept with the air conditioning on full blast so blankets were required – even got a bit chilly which was nice. They had got a proper catered dinner for us since they are diplomats entertaining, it was quite something although I'm not sure I'm used to such posh surroundings. Not sure the diplomatic life would be for me either, its a great life style I'm sure but maybe slightly removed from real life! I think I maybe now more accustomed to landing in a room (or outside) sharing my food from a big bowl with everybody else, eating with spoons or hands and getting all the banter that comes with it.

Anyway this house we stayed at was placed very close to the most westerly point of Africa just outside Dakar, so I went and had a look at that, there was sea, there was rocks, what else can I say. From here we traveled up to St Louis, right in the north of Senegal. St Louis is a funny little place, a bit run down although their doing it up, it was formerly very important to the French in colonial times but it's a small island at the north of the country so I don't think it's in a very commanding position of modern Senegal. Its now a UNESCO Hertiage site. Half of the town is relatively touristy, it was quiet not too much happening, then crossing the bridge to the other half there was a hub of industry, this is a major fishing town , and everything was very busy.

We were to spend a couple of days here before I headed back to Dakar to see the sites and then go back to me work and the others were heading up into Mauritania to travel to Spain by land (and boat) before flying home – teachers and their long holidays! But my tummy went very funny so in the end I stayed in St Louis a bit extra and then traveled from there back to the Gambia – which is far.

The traveling was good though, I didn't go in the Gelligelly – transport that I described that took me up-country, long time ago – instead it is in sept-place, which is a Peugeot estate car (what the Americans call station wagons), the big boot is made small by putting an extra layer of seats in here so that 7 passengers can fit in the car, its a very good idea. They have nice roads in Senegal, although it does make you wonder since the cars can drive fast there are no twin airbag safety systems or the like! When I was traveling from St Louis I had to spend a couple of hours waiting at one of the garages and at this point I really noticed the number of Almuldos around. Almuldos are little boys who are sent to the Marabout – a type of Islamic teacher (but not the Islamic teaching that is part of the state system). But the Marabout doesn't give the boys much teachings or maybe he does but only after they have spent most of the day begging on the streets. This system exists in the Gambia as well but in no where near the numbers there are in Senegal. I'm not good with children's ages but I'd say they are start at about 5 upwards, it's very sad and they are left in such a vulnerable position. One little boy was playing with a bag of sugar someone had given him and it seemed to really show the situation, the boy was probably 5 so he should have been playing with his friends, and generally running about his compound but instead he was ambling around the cars in search of some coins.

So that's my chat on Senegal.

PS. The nurse took the maggot out the Monday after I wrote about it, it was small.