Spring break continued

So I left off the story of my spring break adventures when we found our cute little apartments. After getting rid of our luggage, and my poor decisions in shoving too much junk into a duffle bag until the straps broke, we ventured out into the main part of town to see what was happening. As it turns out, the town of Saly where we stayed the next few days is incredibly touristy, and by touristy I mean that it caters to French tourists who come for an experience similar to that which we would have in Mexico I think. For example, as we meandered down the street and learned that Senegalese men refer to young women as "gazelles" to tell them they are attractive (more like to get them to buy something) we ran into a strip mall. It was like someone cut this thing out of France and pasted it onto a plot of land in Senegal. Included in this strip mall was a coffee shop, grass, and a carousel. At that moment I felt a little confused because this is not the Senegal I know and love, but some Senegal in some strange dimension. I know that tourism is good for the country because it brings in money and jobs and encourages growth in infrastructure, but sometimes it feels like the Senegalese have to sell their souls to get the tourists to come. That might be over dramatic because I don't really know what an all out tourist experience is, it could be infused with elements of Senegalese culture.

Wednesday we decided to venture off to a bird lagoon located in one of the nearby towns. When we arrived at the lagoon we realized that it was really just a pretty little inlet alongside the coast with a few birds and a overcrowded population of lagoon guides. As usual we avoided all of the guides because they're a little on the pushy side, and we walked up to the mouth of the lagoon, which featured some very chill and cute little shacks with some hammocks and menus arranged in the sand. After deciding that that was the place to spend the day, we had to figure out to cross the little bit of water with all our stuff. Fortunately, a man with a kayak appeared at the right moment to escort us across to his little restaurant. The day at the lagoon turned out really great, we had lunch with fresh prawns, swam, and I got to go ocean kayaking. Oh, and a fun side note, the name of our restaurant getaway was the vitamin, hahaha, I think it was implying that it is good for your health to spend time there, not really sure. That evening we enjoyed some great, relatively home cooked meals courtesy of an awesome local grocery store and Elise's mother who has sent her probably 40 bags of instant pasta dinners.

Thursday we followed the advice of the guidebook and visited a nearby island town about an hour and a half away from our apartment. The guidebook described the town as being made entirely out of shells, full of character, and home to the only shared Muslim and Christian cemetery in Senegal. Upon arrival we realized that made of shells was more of a metaphor for having shells on the ground, but the cemetery was interesting in kind of a morbid way. An hour later we had walked completely around the island and decided that there really wasn't that much to do, so we might as well head back to our lagoon. Fortunately, on the way out I caught a glimpse of a faded sign directing you to the hotel home to the dancing pelicans. Since we hadn't eaten lunch yet we decided to head over to the hotel restaurant and try and catch a matinee performance. When we walked in the owner informed us that "our generation" had freed the Pelicans and they had flown the coop. Apparently, the Pelicans were kept in cages, and I'm not sure how they were made to dance. (Random fact: I've heard tell of a Pelican named Akon who lives in Dakar and can be seen hanging out near a group of seafood restaurants showing off his extensive bling bling jewelry collection that he proudly wears on his feathers?) Since we were at the restaurant, we decided to have some ceebujen and support the owner who seemed to have fewer guests since the departure of the Pelicans. Lunch turned into a fiasco when the patron brought us one plate of ceebujen and two plates of yassa and then got really mad when we reminded him we had ordered ceebujen for three. I was planning on eating the yassa anyways when he grabbed the pan from us and proceeded to shove the food in his mouth at a table in the corner. He later rejected my tip. All in all, lunch was really a weird experience; I think there was a mix of cultural mixups and hurt pride. After lunch we returned to the lagoon for some more kayaking! and other fun. It turned out that the men there thought we would be spending the night at the lagoon with them... definitely not! Friday we left via taxi to Dakar to finish up our trip and spend some time with the host families.

The weekend with my host family was great. I wish Saint-Louis was closer to Dakar so I could visit more often, but those sept place rides to Dakar are just not fun if you're only staying for a weekend. Everyone was around: Nathalie, Isaa, Habib (Isaa's dad), my host mom, and my host dad. My host mom was mad at me because I don't call enough, which is legit since I don't like talking on the phone in French, it's hard to understand. On the other hand, she never calls me so yeah... Isaa has gotten bigger and pretty much speaks coherently. He mostly talks in Wolof, but it's hilarious to hear him use phrases that only adults say. Friday evening I snuck away for a few hours to hear some Americans who live and work in Senegal speak about what it's like having careers abroad. It was pretty cool to hear what they had to say, and we got to hear from the U.S. ambassador to Senegal who is an awesome lady. Saturday I spent the morning watching the Senegalese Independence day parade on T.V. with my host family. It was almost more entertaining listening to their commentary about the parade than actually watching the parade because they knew so much about each group that marched by and were extremely critical about the synchronization of the marchers. For some reason a whole bunch of schools in Dakar were featured in the parade, and the students were forced to march with their arms swinging in unison. It was kind of an unorthodox marching style and reminded me of another similar marching style... Saturday evening I hung out with some other Americans in the more upscale part of Dakar where we enjoyed a nice ocean side table and seafood featuring muscles and live urchins. Just so you know, I did not order the urchins, and their living condition was too much for all of us to handle. Sunday I returned to Saint-Louis to start my second semester classes and get things in order for my visitors arriving Friday morning!

In my next post I'll share about my adventures with my mom and sister and their trip to Senegal, we had a blast, but I am still wiped out, or it could be the heat, wow!