In sickness and in health

Over two weeks have passed since I arrived in Senegal, and I'm doing pretty well. Although, I seem to have caught kind of a nasty cold/flu bug and i've been feeling pretty icky since saturday. It just goes to show that even in extreme heat you can still get a cold (and for those of you who now think i believe that colds from cold weather, I realize they are unrelated). Unfortunately, my bout of flu kept me pretty subdued this weekend.

Saturday we went to a different beach called Goree. Goree is an island off of the coast of Dakar that has a bit of historical significance related to the slave trade in west Africa. To get to the island, you take a fairly large ferry for about fiteen minutes. While I was on the ferry, I made several new friends who all happened to be women with shops on the island and decided that as their new "copine" = friend I would be venturing out to their shops to throw all of my unlimited tubab resources at them. It is an interesting marketing strategy because at the end of the day you feel bad that you didn't go visit your "copine's" shop and buy her necklaces even though you don't even want a necklace. As a side note, the aggressive merchandise sales techniques that are prevalent in Dakar are really frustrating. I would love to be able to support all of these people and when they start telling me about their 500 kids who are starving I feel horrible, but at the same time, the more they hastle me the more reluctant I am to buy any of their products. Understandably, living in a country with a 40% unemployment rate, people are desperate to make money however they can, but it really is a sad testament of the lack of government involvement in the situation as well as the inability of the government to make a difference.

Back to Goree, the island is fairly small but beautiful. It has a much different architecture style because it was mainly home to Europeens from Portugal, France, and the Netherlands during the periods of mercantilism and the slave trade. With the island's location so near to land it was perfect for trade and yet gave foreigners the ability to maintain their own security. On the island are several restaurants, museums, and the historical markers. One of places we vistied was the "slave house," the house is a representation of the conditions that slaves were kept in right before they departed on the horrible ships set out for the Americas. It was an intense experience seeing the tiny rooms where many many people were kept, hearing about how families were split up, and then seeing the door that led them out to the ships. As I stood in the doorway I tried to imagine what it would be like if that was the last time I saw the continent that I was born on, grew up on, lived on with my family and was now being led away in chains to a ship. One of the curators of the museum gave a speech explaining about the house and he tried to lighten up the atmosphere a little by explaining that African American athletes in the U.S. are the best in the world because the slaves brought there were the biggest, fastest, and smartest people the traders could find.

It was a moving experience, and after visiting a few other spots, I spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out on the beach. Sunday I felt pretty sick and just stayed home. In general, being sick here really isn't different than at home, but I feel like my family is judging me because I want to just lie down on my bed in my room. That's pretty normal I think? So I don't really feel bad, but it would be nice if they were a little more understanding. All in all, it was a relaxing weekend and I hope I get better soon.

Oh, and I did laundry on sunday. That was quite an ordeal as I did the wash by hand, which meant scrubbing my clothes in soapy water, rinsing them in "cleaner water," ringing them out and hanging them up to dry. It's not that bad, but everything is more awkward at my homestay because no one explains things to you, so you just kind of figure out what to do by trial and error.