Casamance and The Gambia

Hey again everyone!

I hope you all have been doing well! Laura and I have just gotten back from our latest trip to Casamance, the region in the South of Senegal, and the Gambia. It turns out that Casamance is pretty much the best part of Senegal, as they actually have trees there. Lots of them. We went down there with a group of five other people who are volunteers or students here and took the boat that goes in between Dakar and Ziguinchor, the main city in Casamance. The boat was an over night trip, but we had a cabin with bunk beds so it was lots of fun. That was also on the night before my birthday, and a lot of other people in the group had birthdays around the same time so we had a communal birthday cake to celebrate.

In Casamance we stayed the family of the best friend of the girl from Penn who was in Senegal last year. His name was Almamy and he was really great and showed us all around Ziguinchor. We stayed there for one night and after having a traditional Casamance dish at his house for lunch which all of our other friends were invited to as well, we headed to Cap Skirring, which is supposed to have some of the world's best beaches. Unsurprisingly, as it is Senegal, there are cows on the world's best beaches. We stayed there for two nights, then went to an island for one night, then to a little village where we were able to rent bikes. There was a French man named Claude who looked like Santa Clause who worked at our campement there and he met up with him to have oysters for lunch one day. They cut the roots of the mangroves that have the oysters on them and then they set fire to the whole pile and after a while you have oysters to eat. I tried a few, but I can't say I was a huge fan.

After that village Laura and I headed back to Ziguinchor with John, a british guy that we met in St. Louis who is travelling West Africa and kept appearing throughout the course of our trip. We went back to Almamy's house, and he convinced us to stay another day in Casamance with him instead of going on to Gambia the next day. That turned out to be a good thing, because the next day we heard from one of his friends in the military (Almamy is friends with everyone) that for the first time in over a year the separatist group in Casamace had fired at some military vehicles on the roads in the northern area. So then he decided that instead of us taking the road up to Gambia, he would put us on the military plane that his friend was the pilot of tomorrow and we would go to Dakar and approach Gambia from the other direction, so that was an adventure in and of itself.

We finally reached Gambia after a long drive and stayed for the most part in this touristy area along the coast that had amazing things like supermarkets. We stayed at the YMCA there, which we both found rather amusing. One night we did go to the South of the country to stay in a small village in a treehouse. The difficult thing about Gambia was that though it is an English speaking country, they are really bad at it. We have a much easier time communicating in French in Senegal than in English in Gambia. It was a nice place, but we are glad to be back in good old Senegal.

So now we are back at the University and going to spend most of the rest of our time here trying to get all the work done that we need to do before we leave in just about a month! Since most of our friends have already gone home, we'll have less distractions so hopefully we will manage to be productive. I think we might have a bit of trouble going back to Penn next semester where we actually have to do work, but I'm sure we'll manage.

I miss you all, but it would be very long till I see some of you!
Love,
Christiana

Bassari Country...again.

Hi everybody!

Sorry its been a long time since my last post; Laura and I have been rather busy. Remeber Bassari Country that I told you about last time? Well we went there again, except this time it was with a group of volunteers who teach English in St. Louis that we have made friends with. There were 14 of us, which was possibly a bit too big of a group for that sort of trip, but it was fun anyway. We spent this trip hiking and staying in the local villages, and we got to go back to the waterfall. We also got to hike to the cave at the top of it which was also very cool.

When we got back to Dakar from that trip we met Laura's sister who came to visit for a week. We stayed with the U.S. Ambassador in Dakar because she went to high school with Laura's aunt and uncle. Her house is amazing, and I was looking forward to a real hot shower, but of course the hot water wasn't working in the room we were staying in so I'll have to wait til I get home probably for that. I couldn't complain though, any shower, cold or not, beats the 1/3 of a bucket of water that we had to make do with in the little wicker enclosures in Bassari country. I'm not sure I have ever been that dirty in my life. We went with her and our friend Jonathan, who we teach English with sometimes, to Toubab Dialaw, a small town on the coast that Laura and I had already been to once before. It was a lot of fun and we got to go to Reserve de Bandia as well, where we saw all sorts of cool things: namely giraffes and rhinos. We even saw FIGHTING giraffes, which is rather silly looking as all they do is wrap their necks around each other and push. After that we went back to St. Louis and showed Marissa around there. We took a pirogue ride out to an island and had a picnic there with her and some of our friends. Having Marissa there made Laura and I realize how adapted we have become to Senegal. Neither of us were surprised to see the pile of goats tied to the roof of the bus, but I think Marissa found that a bit unusual.

Our volunteer friends are all starting to go home. Our best friend here, a Scottish girl named Frances, already left last weekend. We are really sad about it, but at least that will give us a bit of time to actually get some work done. We have actually started classes though! I switched my schedule around a bit because I really didn't like one of the classes I had originally signed up for, so now the ones I'm taking are decent to pretty good. We managed to arrange to only have class on Thursday and Friday though, so that makes travelling a bit easier for us.

Right now I'm in Dakar getting visas for our trips to The Gambia and Mali, but we are heading back to St. Louis tomorrow. I hope you all have been doing well and I hope to hear from you soon!

I miss everyone!
Love,
Christiana

Bassari Country

Hello everyone!

I just got back late last night from the trip we took with our program and the programs from University of Wisconsin and Hamlin. We left at 3 in the morning last Sunday for the 12 hour drive to Tambacounda. Because Senegalese people can't count (using your finger to point and count people is actually a taboo here, because it apparently brings bad luck) the 13 of us (there were originally going to be 14) left in 12 person bus, with one seat being taken up by a water cooler. That made for a fun ride. But we made it there at last. The next morning we drove for another couple of hours until we got to our next hotel that is in a national park. We went on a safari through the park when we got there, and saw lots and lots of monkeys, wart hogs, birds, gazelles, antelopes, some other weird deer things, and a leopard (though it was in a big cage because its mother was killed by hunters when it was a baby). Later in the day we went on a boat ride on the river, and that is when it got really exciting because there were HIPPOS! That was probably my favorite part, though there were also some crocodiles in the river as well. And of course more monkeys. The monkeys would run all over the hotel. At night we followed our guide from the morning into the woods to try to find the hippos at their feeding grounds, but they never came. He said he would come get us when they did, because every night he would sit out and wait for them because they were his favorite animal. So at one o clock we trekked back out because he said he had seen them but they still weren't there, though we heard them in the distance.

The next morning we got up bright and early again and after a couple more hours of driving, arrived in Kedougu, which is a town close to the border of Guinea. We left again right away to make it to this water fall in time. It was a 2-3 drive there but it was definitely worth it. We hiked to the water fall (the hiking was really exciting too, because this is the only part of Senegal with mountains, and the path there was also very green, which was a very nice change) and it was amazing. It was the most beautiful waterfall I'd ever seen. I believe it was 100 meters tall, and it had a pool at the bottom that we all went swimming in.

The next day, after some more hours in the bus, we went to a Bassari festival that we had been invited to. It was really amazing. They were celebrating the election of someone from the area to office, so there were all these tribes that came dressed up in different traditional outfits and did different dances. Sometimes they would pull us in and make us dance with them. We were really luckly to get a chance to see it.

The bus ride home took all day, but we made a stop in Touba, the holy city of the Mourides, a sect of Islam in Senegal to see the mosque, which is the biggest on in West Africa. It was really amazing. It was ginormous and covered in marble, and probably the only building in Senegal that gets any construction done in a reasonable amount of time.

But classes are starting Monday, inchallah, so that should be a change of pace. Hopefully they will go well, and someone will give us a course schedule before then.

I miss you all! Enjoy all of your warm showers for me!
Love,
Christiana

Back from our journeys...

Hello again everyone!

It's been a long time since the last time I've had a chance to write, so there is a lot to catch up on. I had malaria for a few days so I didn't really make it to the computer lab, but luckily I got it diagnosed and started taking the medicine which worked wonders! Laura and I just got back from two weeks of traveling, and we are about to take off again since the start of classes got pushed back. We traveled along the Petite Cote. We stayed in a couple towns along there that were pretty touristy but had some nice beaches. We met up with some people from the Baobab Center where we studied in Dakar at one of the stops, and went back with them to Dakar for the weekend, but before that we stopped at a place called AcroBaobab, where they had a ropes course and zip-lining between some huge baobab trees, which was amazing.

After leaving Dakar again we went farther South into the Sine Saloum Delta, where we met up with two Danish boys, which I was excited about, since it gave me a chance to practice trying to understand the language. We went on a pirogue trip through the mangroves with them and a French couple, which was really cool. In the next place we stayed though we got to kayak through the mangroves, which was even better. When the tied went out and they were pretty much all dry we also had a walking tour through them. We saw some monkeys in the Baobab trees there too, and Laura saw a mongoose. Overall it was a really good trip, though the ride back took a whole day and was not too pleasant.

We should be striking out again soon though, probably to Southeast Senegal, which is supposedly the coolest part of the country, and a bit of the Gambia. I miss you all and hope you are doing well!

Love,
Christiana

Le Lac Rose and other adventures.

Hello again everyone!

Lots of fun and exciting things have been happening since the last time I wrote, and tomorrow we are leaving Dakar to go to St. Louis, where we will be attending the university. Laura and I are both kind of sad to be leaving since we have been having a good time with our families and the people here. However, hopefully it will give us a chance to get to know more Senegalese people our own age.

Today we went to Ile de Ngor with two of Laura's host brothers. It was really beautiful and, thankfully, it had only a couple tourists and people trying to sell us necklaces. When we went to Ile de Goree last weekend, which is a historic landmark because of the slave trade that went through there, it was over run by toubabs (foreigners, though that includes us) and there were people trying to sell us things everywhere. But back to today, we took a little pirogue over to the island after walking around on the beach for a bit, where we found some really huge seashells that never would have been left on the beach in the U.S. and saw a man washing his sheep in the ocean, which was fairly amusing. We wandered around the island for a good while and after lunch we played in the water, and saw a dead eel which was over five feet long. It was really incredible and kind of scary.

We also went to the Lac Rose last weekend, which is literally a pink lake. It has a really high salt concentration so there are microorganisms in the lake that have a pinkish pigment that somehow counteracts the salt. We went with four military guys who are also taking classes at the baobab center and rode around the lake on a dune buggy sort of thing. The only bad part was when we got out by the lake and were swarmed by people trying to sell us things and accidentally bought a necklace that I didn't want in the first place for way more than it should have cost,but oh well. We also stopped at a Pulaar village that they gave us a little tour of, which was really interesting. I waved at a little girl so then we were friends and she held my hand for a while. We also got to stop at the beach which is really close to the lake and very pretty. After lunch Laura and I got to pet camels and ride ATVs around on the sand dunes and along the beach, so overall it was a really good day.

This week we have had some pretty funny dinners happening in my house. My host mom was sick so she wasn't cooking and the two other girls weren't doing anything at first and when they did cook it was always very late. So one night I was called up to my parents' room and loaves of bread were flying in through the window over the balcony, along with other food. We had a secret dinner in their bed room with just my host parents and little brother and sister, and they told me I had to tell everyone I wasn't hungry and wasn't eating and that it was a big secret. I was very amused by the whole thing.

I miss you all and hope you are doing well! Laura and I just got our finished traditional African boubous from the tailors today, so be on the look out for pictures of us wearing them to come up soon!

Love,
Christiana

Ca va

Hello again everybody!

Things had been going pretty well here since my last post. The weather here is really nice. A little chilly in the shade but definitely MUCH warmer than Philadelphia would be right now. Unfortunately, Laura (the other Penn student who is with me that I was friends with beforehand from environmental group) has been feeling a bit sick the last few days. Hopefully she will feel better soon. We are going out to eat tonight to find some good, bland, Americanish food because Senegalese food is pretty spicy and that is not helping her right now. Luckily, I haven't had any problems with my stomach...so far. My host mom is a very good cook, but I do miss pasta and salad. We don't really eat anything that is green here. And real milk. All the milk here is powdered, which is going to take some getting used to.

Back to the subject of sheep...I forgot to mention last time that there are two who live on my roof. That is pretty awesome, I think. However I have discovered a cute little mouse in my room that I sometimes chase around in an attempt to catch.

We have made a couple trips downtown since I last wrote. It is more like I imagined Dakar would be there. The markets are pretty hectic though and kind of stress me out because everyone comes up to me and my blond hair and wants me to buy things and I feel bad having to say no to everyone because I know they need the money. And I'm not very good at bargaining either. It just makes me feel bad.

We also went to Adama's women's artisan group's place with two girls who are here on a rotary scholarship and learned how to make batik. We all got to make our own and afterwards she sewed the edges and put a tie on it so we could wear it as a skirt. That was pretty exciting.

Other than that things are pretty relaxed. I still haven't really figured out what to do with my free time. Though, my host sister did give me cornrows yesterday so that is pretty interesting. Those won't last too long though. My little sister, Coumbis, also is very entertaining. She keeps asking me for my "tanga" (candy in Wolof), but I keep having to say no because they are actually cough drops, but she won't believe me when I tell her they are medicine.

I hope you all are doing well and I miss you all!
Love,
Christiana

Le voyage a commence

1/13/09

Bonjour a tous!

Today is my third day in Dakar and I thought I would start sending out updates from Senegal. If you don't want them or know someone else who would like me to email them, just send me an email.

After a series of really awful issues with planes, Laura and I made it to Dakar at 6 in the morning. We were picked up at the airport and driven to a hotel/apartment type thing (we're still not sure exactly what it was) where we had an apartment to stay in for the next two nights. Apparently that day we were supposed to rest, so we sat there with nothing to do trying not to fall asleep so we could fix our sleep schedule. Not the most exciting start and we didn't manage to stay awake. People came in our room and brought us food every so often. The first Senegalese food we had was some spicy chicken and rice which was pretty good... the weird cold pea and lamb stuff that came later was less appetizing and we wished we had saved the million loaves of bread they brought us in the morning.

The next day was our first real day. A man named Pape Samba came from the Baobab Center where we are taking classes to bring us there. It was sort of difficult for me to understand him, but by now I am doing a lot better understanding French. After a brief orientation a lady gave us a tour of the surrounding area. It is all very interesting. The city is very nice though they could do with picking up their trash. There are also lots of sheep in the streets. Our guide showed us how to eat with our fingers like real Senegalese people. Even though it had been a really long day, we went with Pape Samba to see Youssou N'Dour, the most popular musician in Senegal, at a fancy restaurant called Just4U.

Today we had our first lesson in Wolof, the other language besides French that is common in Senegal. Then we moved in with the families that we will be staying in for the rest of our three weeks in Dakar. My family is very nice. At first it was a bit awkward because they were just watching TV and speaking wolof and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do, but then Alejandra, the other American who is staying with them and Coumba, the 7 year old granddaughter came in and I got to know them. Coumba is very cute and asks if she can have everything I own. I met some of Alejandra's Senegalese friends and Mohamed, Coumba's dad, showed me lots of pictures that other students who stayed with them had taken. Luckily, there is wireless somewhere around here that we can pick up to the house, so I have all the internet connection I could want. I will hopefully be in touch again soon!

I hope things are well over in les Etats Unis!
Love,
Christiana