I take cool field trips . . .

This weekend our program took us down to the Sine-Saloum Delta area, which was an awesome excursion to take! When we go on trips on our own, those are fun, but everything isn't all prepaid, and we tend to stay at nice places. Which is always amazing! We took about a 4-5 hour busride down from Dakar to the Sine Saloum and hopped on some pirouges (canoe like boats that are the main transport here- I don't think I've even seen any other kind of boat) and took a tour of the area. I've never been to the Florida everglades, but someone said that the area reminded them of it. I personally felt like I was at a lake up in Minnesota (which is what someone else said), but either way it was lovely taking a relaxing sunset tour of the 'marsh' area. Nobody fell in and it wasn't cold, which usually makes for a great time.
After a bit they dropped us off at our hotel, which was quite a lot like the one we stayed at in Toubab Dialow in that they were a bunch of little huts all set up, and these ones had adorable front porches!!! We split into houses of 4 and set our stuff down. Right away, we all moved out to our porches for some reading time (I personally had just started 'The English Patient'- and am almost done with it). My porch faced right out onto the water, so I got to look out to a nice pink/purple sunset and read while I waited for dinner!
Oh dinner, so very lovely and wonderful! As I said, we always get very well set-up on our trips, and this was certainly no exception. Gradually we all wandered over to the eating area, and ordered some drinks (these we had to pay for ourselves). Dinner was a three course meal, which was great! We had some fresh shrimp, and then rice and fish (delicious) followed by a 5-star mini-chocolate cake. I was totally stuffed and content, and ready for some sleep! We all
hung out for a bit longer, did some porch reading by gas-lamp and then turned in (underneath mosquito nets, of course).
In the morning we got to get up gradually and have breakfast between 8ish and 9ish. Back in Dakar the bread is a pretty standard white bread, and I usually have it with margarine or a chocolate spread. This place was the same, although it was nice, hot, fresh bread with some heartiness to it, and some tasty locally made bissap-jam! The only thing that was missing was my Kinkeliba tea, which is a locally made tea from leaves that I have every morning and that is great for your system.
Once everyone had pulled themselves together- not everyone is an early riser- we hopped onto horse drawn carts. I smartly chose one with a cover-top to it. As much as I love a tan, I could tell that this was going to be one hot ride. We had a relatively young driver named Francisco, who was probably about 15. They took us for a tour of the nearby town, which was interesting to see, but I have very mixed feelings about. Once we got to the village we stopped and our director bought candy to hand out to the local children. While this seems like a nice idea, it really bothered me and the other people in my cart- so we gave our candy to another cart to give out. I have been told in other areas to not give out candy, so I was surprised that this had happened. My reasoning is that it is very bad what happens to the kids when you start giving candy out. A) They begin to expect it from tourists, b) it is not good for their diet c) most importantly it turns them into beggars. Sitting up on this cart you have children clammoring around you, trying so hard to get some candy and it is behavior that is just not something good to encourage. It was very unsettling to see, and I didn't enjoy it in the least bit.
Otherwise the ride was fine, and all feeling very hot, we went back to our lodgings to literally chill out before lunch. And what a fine lunch! This time it was a little salad with peanuts and rasins and other good stuff, and then a fish-kabob, grilled to perfection, with rice and a tasty sauce, and a fruit cup to finish! The senegalese really can make good food- sometimes I forget that with my frustration of sitting around the bowl at home and eating with everyone. After lunch was total free time, so we all headed down to the water and frolicked and jumped off a pirouge and had an overall awesome time.
I really enjoy our group trips since we don't always all spend time together. When I studied abroad before I was living with all of my friends and got to know everyone in the group pretty well. So I get psyched for these trips when the whole group has bonding time. It was a lot of fun to just chill out by the water (especially since there were no vendors trying to come up and make friends with us like they do everywhere else).
I showered off all of the sand and got ready for dinner (wearing one of my new tailor-made dresses!). We had to have an earlier dinner because we were attending something later in the evening- it was so wierd to eat so early- at 7 o'clock! Before dinner I perused one of the vendors that had set-up shop at the hotel. I had been eyeing his items all day long. He was a jewlery maker, who did phenomenal bracelets and rings made out of very good quality silver. It was frustrating though because his prices were high and he refused to bargain, because he wasn't Senegalese and had very set prices. I talked it over with Victoria, the assistant-director, who has lived in Senegal for a long time and has bought jewlery before. The decision was made that his work was high quality and meritied the price and that I would most likely not find something in Dakar at a much better price. So I went for it and got myself a gorgeous silver bracelet, which I am very happy with!
Dinner was another great meal of couscous and meat (with some eggplant for starter) and Flan for dessert. Yummy! We then set out in the dark to walk over to the town where we were going to watch a wrestling match. Here, la lutte, as it's called, is a very popular sport and a form of very traditional wrestling. It is very hard to follow since a) everyone is in the ring at once, strutting around like peacocks and getting pumped up b) there are multiple fights going on at once c) the fights don't last for very long d) it's all foreign, which always makes things hard. Nonetheless it was cool and even a few of our boys got into the ring to lutte (I'm sure they let the American's win, haha). Exhausted from a day in the sun a bunch of us got escorted home- and I passed out right away!
Sadly, on Sunday morning we had to pack up and have one last breakfast. We loaded ourselves into the pirouge and took the ride back to where the buses were. It was a nice slow pirouge ride though, so it was a good prolonged goodbye. Back at the buses we got in as quickly as possible since all of the vendors had shown up, hoping for some buisness! Some of us bought peaunuts, but we left as quick as could be. About an hour into the ride we stopped off at the 'sacred baobaob tree'. The baoboab tree is like a symbol of Senegal, a very gnarly looking tree that they say is upside down because it looks like the roots are coming out of the top (I have a bunch of pictures of them). At this one HUGE baobaob we could actually climb through a hole and go inside! I did this, got a little claustorphobic because of the stale air and then worked myself out. Still cool, just not for too long.
The unfortunate part was that this sacred tree has been turned into a tourist spot, so there are a ton of wood sculpture vendors hanging around, ALL trying to be your friend, and getting a little too touchy, trying to get you to come over to look at their stuff. If they weren't so agressive I might have, but it was just a total turnoff. After about 30minutes we headed out, some people having picked up souvenirs, and arrived back in Dakar by about 3pm. A fun weekend, but just too short!