My "rural" visit

Ok, so it wasn't too terribly rural, but it was still a lot of fun. And very hot. And very unlike Dakar. On Monday Kayleigh and I left for Foundiougne (sounds sorta like foon-doon) by way of Kaolak and Passi. It took a little bit longer than we expected but still wasn't too bad. Clearly it was going to be a very hot and sweaty week though. We arrived at the site around 5pm, where our Peace Corps Volunteer host Shannon met up with us. We bought water right away and then headed to her place. Unsure of what to expect, we were pleasantly surprised to find that she had a really nice set-up for herself, in a two-room place (nicer than a hut) with electricity, a good bathroom and a big bed for Kayleigh and I to share.
After setting down our things and drinking some water we headed out to explore the town. Foundiougne is an ecotourism site for Shannon since it is situated right on the Sine-Saloum Delta, and Shannon's work is to develop the tourism there. What she had done so far was to help the locals who wanted to become guides to become certified, which was a huge achievement. While we were there she didn't have much work to do because of recent holidays and a lot of people were out of town.
After wandering around (not too terribly much to see) we went back to her place and had dinner with the family. We ate with just one other woman and a few kids. Shannon's host father is getting old and ill and well over 2/3 of the family was still out of town, so it was very quiet (except for the goats and roosters and chickens). A pretty bland meal, but we were told not to expect very much. In the evening we went out to check out a lutte (wrestling match). It was expensive to get in (1000cfa!) but had high hopes for a good match. Unfortunately, there had been some false advertising saying that the winner would get 200,000cfa, when in fact the prize was 100,000. No good when you have a bunch of pumped up wrestlers. Unsure if the match would happen or not, we decided to call it a night. The best parts of the lutte tend to be the parading around anyways, and I was terribly exhausted, so I didn't mind too much leaving.

Tuesday morning we got up and headed straight for the market! It was the weekly market called the Loouma, full of great vegetables to buy. We bought a ton so that we could make ourselves a delicious salad- we found good carrots (bought 2kilos as a present for her host family), peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, beans and probably more. Kayleigh and I were also both really excited to buy some fabric! At a small market like this the prices are far better, so I was really happy about that and picked up three great fabrics- I'm excited to do some fun stuff with them! We also bought dried bissap flowers to make some juice as well as fresh, hot beignets for breakfast!
We headed back, scarfed down some beignets (with maple syrup from the US!- Shannon gets great care packages from the US) and decided to get started on our veggies. Here you have to clean the veggies in bleach water if you want to eat them, and they need time to sit. So we set about doing that as well as making some bissap juice from the dried flowers we had bought. Taste-wise, it reminds me of cranberry juice (only sorta) and is a very popular and delicious beverage here. I'm going to try to bring some back to the US to make bissap there!
Not long after lunch was brought to us and we had ceebu rouge (red rice and fish). Since I was only in the presence of Shannon and Kayleigh, I decided to brave it and eat with my hands. I don't get much practice because I usually eat with a spoon in Dakar. And my oh my is it messy and hard! But I did it nonetheless and it was pretty good.
For an afternoon activity we took out a kayak (well, rented one) and explored the delta a bit. The current was strong so it took a lot of effort, but we worked our way out to an old shipwreck. Apparently the ship grounded during transport, and instead of spending the money to get the ship out, they left it and came back for the cargo (peanuts). So now the ship just sits there as a home for birds and as a tourist visit. Very Senegalese of them to just leave the boat instead of taking care of the problem.
Came back, took a good shower and got to work on the salad! It was really delicious and nice to eat just a bunch of veggies, nothing fried on top or anything like that. We had also started our Gillmore Girls watching. Shannon has multiple seasons on DVD, so we dove into Season 2 and proceeded to watch hours and hours. Like I said, not quite the rural visit you would expect, but it's what she does.
Ok, more on my week in another post!