Back from Hiatus

As most everyone else is heading off to their week of spring break, I've just returned from mine. I, along with 5 others, made the trek through bumpy backroads and awful heat to the South-Eastern corner of Senegal. Of the six of us travellers, there were 3 Wisconsinites and 1 Minnesotan, so the mid-western accents were RAGING all week. Awesome.

We arranged for a sept-place (basically a volkswagon grocery getter) to drive us to Tambacounda and then to Kedougou. When our driver rolled up Friday night 11:30pm we quickly realized it was not the driver we hired nor the comfy-looking car we spent an hour bargaining for...but it was headed our direction, so we piled in!

The drive down felt like being in a real life video game dodging potholes left and right. Before his own experience headed south, our French teacher was cautioned there were "bird nest" potholes along the road. But after seeing and feeling them for himself, he preferred to classify them as "elephant nest" potholes. I'd say his is an accurate interpretation. Yet somehow between the wild car ride, new level of discomfort in the deteriorating back seat, and Senegalese music blaring through the 7-hour drive through the night, I couldn't keep the big smile off my face. Again, somehow... this is EXACTLY how I wanted to be spending my spring break.

Our trip was marked by a series of rather fortunate events. While bumming around the market in Kedougou we happened upon one of my friend's college buddies (ALSO a Minnesotan! ...or at least went to school there) who is sixth months into her locally-stationed Peace Corps service.

Her random decision to bike through town led to our afternoon spent bumming around a local pool with a whole host of other Peace Corps volunteers, eating delicious warthog sandwiches (not a code word--literally, Pumba between bread) and listening to first-hand accounts of these Americans dropped into rural Africa for a couple years. We later spent the night (free!) at their headquarters cozily cuddled up three to a mosquito-net-adorned full-size bed... but only after a (I kid you not) non-stop 5 hour sing-a-long.

One of the guys on our trip brought his mandolin, a couple PCVs had their guitars...add an African drum, harmonica, wireless internet to look up chords and an infinite playlist of song requests, and that's how we found ourselves belting out tunes from 10 at night to 3 in the morning. Beatles were a crowd favorite. The boys actually extended their jam session an extra hour, but seriously regretted that decision three hours later when the 7am alarm went off for our full day of hiking.

The next few days were spent hiking along rivers, up mountains and through forests/jungles. So many times we stopped to pinch ourselves--"I can't believe this. We're hiking in Africa! Wait. Where ARE we?" The scenary was absolutely breathtaking. As was the heat. 108 degrees. In the shade. Luckily our guide had sense enough to realize this was not exactly ideal physical exertion weather, so we made a habit of hiking in the morn and eve, and otherwise spending most of the afternoon swimming and bathing in various waterfalls in Dande, Dindefelo and Segou. Fabulous sites, wonderful company.

The sweat factor was outrageous, though. Even though we bucket showered daily, we managed to roll into our campements (hostels) every night plastered in sweat and mango juice, caked in dirt and dust, straight up balls of nasty-ness. I have never been so hot and dirty for such an extended period of time (you can literally see the spring break section of my journal because there is a noticeable seam of dirt between the otherwise white stacked pages).

I may have gotten a little irritable most nights come 8pm. Too much heat! I now realize I am a true Minnesotan: gotta have my cold fix or I'm a crabbypants. Still, the experience was most definitely worth the discomfort.

Favorite moments also include a passionate group rendition of Titanic's "My Heart Will Go On" in the jeep ride between destinations, eating unhealthy amounts of ripe mangoes freshly picked from the trees, taking my first hot shower in almost 2 months at our first hotel, coming up with a long list of "famous last words" followed by hysterical laughter at the thought of possible contexts (mad with the heat? possibly...), tasting the local delicacy known as "funion" but being slightly disappointed at discovering something other than our fondly-known onion flavored chips, and finally, finding a live chicken under our bed one night.

The "direct" bus ride from Kedougou back to Dakar was a humbling end to our fun adventure of a week. At half the price of a sept-place, we got what we paid for. Cramped seats plus lovely neighbors who only spoke Wolof and insisted on shooting me glares with angry-sounding rants of which all I could understand was "tank! tank!" (legs)... I don't think they had much compassion for the long-legged when it came to sacrificing their own back discomfort.

In all fairness, the ride really wouldn't have been all bad if there had been air conditionning, it hadn't taken 15 hours, and we hadn't stopped 24 times (yes, I counted). Actually, I kept a log of all the times we stopped based on the chrono setting on my stopwatch. Here's a brief sampling from the first two hours of our trip:

two stops before this
0:15:30 stop
0:17:00 - 0:20:45 stop
0:29:02 senegalese music starts blasting
0:30:33 we get sprayed down with fabreeze
0:32:15 - 0:32:54 stop
0:48:18 - 0:51:16 stop, bathroom break
1:04:40 - 1:09:50 stop, water break
1:54:48 - 2:15:00 stop, 5pm prayer break

My other favorite was when someone decided to bring a cardboard box full of live chickens on board to join the fun. Just chilling in the aisle. Only you, Senegal.

Quite the trip. Spring Break 2010--definitely one for the books.