Safari time

Whew, sorry it's been a long time since my last post but I've had some awesome adventures recently. For a while my posts have been a little dreary sounding, and to be honest with you that's how i've been feeling. Here in Saint-Louis life just kind flows along, but when classes are unstable we don't have too much to keep ourselves occuppied with. First semester is wrapping up, kind of; some of my classes have finished while those in the poli sci department are about two weeks longer than other departments. This makes for tricky scheduling because I'm not sure what poli sci will offer but the second semester for geography and sociology and other departments begins tomorrow...But back to the struggles of life on campus, as my classes end I'm trying to take care papers and final exams so that I will receive grades for my classes, obviously. There have been a few dips in the road though, like when we showed up for an exam and the professor told us to come back two days later, but things seem to be ok now. That exam was for a class that has kinda been a thorn in my side all semester, and when the exam actually happened my professor gave me five minutes to answer the question, "what is the economy?" not exactly my idea of a fair test. Thats an example of small elements of life we can't seem to get right here, and they were starting to weigh all of the Americans down. When you're already frustrated, it seems alot harder to bounce back from the little bouts of racism, homesickness, or professors asking you out on dates that happen everyday here. Consequently, when I found out two weeks ago we were going to voyage to southern Senegal I felt an overwhelming sense of excitement.

Less than a week after Baydallaye told us we were going to be traveling we ventured off to explore southern Senegal. The trip began Saturday evening at 3 am when we loaded up a 12 person Nissan van with luggage, a cooler of water, and 13 people. Unfortunately the cooler was lovingly given one of the seats, so the 11 students crammed into the seats and blocked out the discomfort with images of safari animals. Sunday evening around 6pm we rolled into our first hotel in Tambacounda to enjoy some needed rest in a pool and bed. During the drive Dr. Barry, the professor who accompanied us, recieved a fun little ticket for not wearing his seat belt so we spent a little extra time trying to pay that off. I think the ticket was the officer's revenge because Barry wouldn't pay him off to let us continue. Additionally, much of the road wasnt paved so we had a bumpy and incredibly dusty few hours. Upon arrival at the hotel I slipped into my makeshift bathing suit (I apparently missed the memo on the swimsuits) and proceeded to jump into the pool and smash my face into the bottom. All in all, that was not the best decision I've made in a long time, and when I surfaced Carlie went camp counselor on me and forced me out of the pool so I wouldnt bleed everywhere. As I headed into our hotel room to clean up after begging ice from the restaurant, I found Ariel locked in the bathroom and Carlie perched on the divider between the bath and bedrooms. It took three hotel workers to break the door open and then Carlie broke the chair in our room when she descended from the ledge. Hence, we broke in the first leg of our trip with a messed up room and face.

Monday morning we left the hotel at 6am to head out to Nokolokoba national park home to wildlife and poachers. It was a lengthy drive but well worth the damage done to our car, poor driver. After we got settled in our hotel inside the park, we headed out on a safari. The park is home to a fair amount of wildlife including wharthogs, antelope, gazelle, monkeys, leopards, and hippopatamus. On our safari we saw a few different rivers that cross the park, lots of animals, a frightening suspension bridge, and alot of burned landscape. Depressingly, the park struggles with loads of poachers who burn the forest to scare out the animals. Later that day we got to go out in a boat on the gambia river to some hippopatomus. In total I think we saw 7 hippopotamus, which was so cool, although understandably they were pretty wary of us. Plus, the landscape around the river was incredbly lush and beautiful, like something out of a movie. After dinner our safari guide led us to a little spot where you can supposedly see the hippotamus out of the water when they come to feed, but it was too dark to see anything. Plus, after I went to bed the other kids claim that the guide seemed kinda sketchy, like he was on drugs...

Tuesday we left the park to go to Kedougou another incredibly hot city in southern Senegal. When we arrived at the hotel we learned that we were staying at a hunting lodge housing several french man with ridiculously large guns and a dead wharthog in the back of their truck. It's funny how we all judge tourists as if we are native Senegalese and these guys come in and shoot up our wild life. Immediately after arriving we jumped into a car rapide vehicle = really uncomfortable for a three hour drive down a bumpy, dusty road to see a waterfall. We stopped at a small village for lunch and then continued on foot through the woods until we got to the awesome waterfall. I'd estimate that the fall was 5 stories tall slipping down beautiful rock and filling into a small little pool. Definitely the highlight of the trip was climbing around the rock ledge and jumping into the pool from under the falls. Plus the water was ridiculously cold, so refreshing! After some photos and swimming and hanging out with some goofball kids swimming there as well we hiked back the car and drove 3 hours home. I think all of the traveling was well worth it because of the awesome sights and just the really fun group of people we were with.

Wednesday was a crazy foray into the nearby hills to a village who was celebrating the election of a new governmental official. During the clebration we saw several local village dance groups perfom, including the Basaryi tribe who are one of the only tribes in Senegal who have remain untouched from Islam and Christianity and still follow their animist beliefs. After the ceremony we had a fun traditional Senegalese lunch and then we visited the market to buy some fabric died with Indigo that comes from Guinea. After the markets we walked home and got ready to return to Saint-Louis at 5 the next morning.