In the Sine Saloum Delta

Good Monday everyone, hope the week went well.

Once again, I am recovering from a long but fruitful voyage this weekend. This time we went south to a very pretty, green delta called Sine Saloum.

Sorry if my blogs seem like a list of activities, it has kind of become that way since our schedule has been jam packed! I don't have a lot of time to reflect on the things we have done, but at least I can give you an idea of all the amazing things that I get to do with my time abroad.

Good news everyone, my leave of absence request from LC got approved this week so I am officially authorized to take next fall off and do my volunteer work in Ghana!

Anyway, Monday we had 3 hours of French followed by a quick lunch, 2 hours of Wolof and a pretty fun 3 hour music class. We have moved on to some new instruments like the Balaphone (like a wooden xylaphone with gourds underneath) and the Calabasse (which is a huge hollow gourd that is used mostly for percussion accompaniment.) We are working on songs that we will perform at the end of the semester for all of the ACI staff and our host families.

Tuesday was another morning at the SOS Village where I volunteered with 30 cute but rowdy 4 year olds. Then I had Mafe (pronounced mah-fay) at this cute little restaurant by school. It is my favorite Senegalese dish by far and it is so wonderful, I can hardly explain it! It has a thick, creamy sauce with tomato paste and peanut butter and it is poured over sweet potatoes, carrots, potatoes, beef and rice. So epic. Seminar discussion class in the afternoon and 2 hours of History of Islam. We visited a small school where they teach kids the Koran and also a big mosque right on the ocean. We weren't allowed to go in but we took pictures from outside.

Wednesday we had two hours of Senegalese literature, it is an interesting class and we are still reading stories by C.C. Sow. In the coming weeks, the author himself will be coming to class to discuss his work with us which is so awesome! Two more hours of History of Islam.

Thursday was exhausting by any standards. We had 8 hours of class. That is more than I sleep most nights. We had two hours of Wolof and then a visit to an Art Colony that was set up by the Senegalese gouvernment a long time ago that now functions more or less independently. Artists from all over Senegal and Africa (and sometimes elsewhere) come to live there and work. We saw painting, ceramics, photography and other art forms. It was cool. We had about 45 minutes to scrounge up lunch, very hard in Senegal. After that we had two hours of our Continuity and Change class which is super interesting and then two hours of History of Islam. Whew. Home to pack and crash!

Friday we left Dakar at 7 am to head south and a little bit inland, to the Sine Saloum Delta. We stopped in Kaolack on the way to get breakfast and learn about an organization called 10,000 girls that works for girls' education, especially in rural areas. The whole point of the trip is to learn about organizations that are active in Senegal, particularly poorer, rural villages. We will all choose a certain interest and then go back to a small village on our own in two weeks. Part of the goal is research for a final paper and the other part is so that we get to see firsthand the difficulties of travelling in Senegal. It is easy to get around with a private, air-conditioned bus and a hired driver but we will really get to live like the Senegalese do when we try to take bush taxis inland in two weeks. We got off the bus in Toubacouta and took a pirogue (a long skinny boat used for fishing) across the river toward another part of the delta. Then there was a 30 minute walk to Keur Bamboung which is a small eco-village. We spent the night there, got to swim in the river and, after a wonderful meal, a local group performed traditional Senegalese music, dance, drumming and fire eating. It was pretty cool.

Saturday morning after breakfast (bright and early!) we went for a walk through the mangroves to learn more about the ecosystem in the delta. We had to do it early because around 11, the tide starts coming in and it gets harder to walk around. It was very interesting, we saw monkeys (at a distance) plus lots of cool birds, including huge pelicans. We also saw hyena and jackal tracks. After the tide came in a little we kayaked around the other side of the delta. It was fun to go through the mangroves and we got some good experience working as a team since each kayak had 3 or 4 people (except Sean because he is a lone wolf.) We walked back to the village, took a pirogue back to Toubacouta and left our baggage at Africa Strike, our hotel for the night. Then we had another cool pirogue outing the other direction in the delta where we saw a huge island made entirely of sea-shells! The local people deposited their seashells there between the 8th and the 15th centuries and it built up gradually into an island of several hectares that is 12 meters high at its highest point (39 feet). So cool. We also visited this mystical stand of mangroves where all the birds in the area come to rest every night. There were tons of birds and I counted at least 5 or 6 different species. No one knows why, out of all the mangroves, they chose this one little area, but seeing them all fly in to roost at sunset was pretty impressive. Dinner and we swam in the hotel's pool, which was fun.

Sunday was another adventure, what else, right? We took our van inland, away from the green of the delta, to a small village called Passy. There is a women's organization there that makes pottery to export all over, especially to Europe. So, we spent the afternoon with the women, we visited the site where they collect their clay, we helped them dig a little and carry it. We were a little spoiled though, we went in the van and didn't have to carry it back by hand (which is what the women usually do several times a week.) Then we saw how they mixed the clay and molded it and formed it into pottery. We also got a small demonstration of them firing the pots. It was all done traditionally and the women's group has brought a lot of money into the community. All the women spoke Wolof to us, which is hard because our Wolof is still very remedial. But a fun day. It took us about 6 hours to drive back to Dakar because of the epic traffic jams that plague the one small highway that serves as the only artery between Dakar and the rest of Senegal.

Whew, so that was my week. Today has started off with a bang and this week will be much the same thing. Next weekend we are off to Saint Louis! I hope everyone has an enjoyable week. Thank you all for your posts (especially you, Pat, I am glad that you are enjoying my blog.) It is nice to know that I am not sending my thoughts off into cyberspace for nothing.
Peace!