Note Taking

The Latest:

Me + CIEE to the Sine Saloum Islands for one final hurrah weekend together before we all part ways in T-minus 2 weeks. These islands are located about 3 hours south of Dakar in the middle of a giant salty river that feeds into the ocean.

We travelled:

At first by bus. Originally we were told to BE SURE to eat an early lunch on Friday and be at school by 2:15pm because we were leaving at 2:30pm sharp. I started the 20-minute walk to school at approximately 2:13pm and foolishly spent money on a taxi thinking I’d be late and worse—get left behind! Even after 3.5 months here, I still haven’t learned. For at approximately 3:20pm, our program directors finally rolled onto campus. No apologies, just explanations that they “had a late lunch.”

Next, by boat. We learned on the drive over we were actually staying on an island that was about a 15-minute pirogue (these massive brightly-painted canoes) ride away from mainland. Unfortunately our untimely departure synced perfectly with first Dakar rush hour, and then second the mainland village’s power outage, so we were left splashing and hurdling into pirogues, baggage in tow, in the pitch black. A few students were slightly uneasy about what turned out to be a 35-minute pirogue ride through the dark and rushing water with no life jackets on board (hard to imagine why?), but we all finally made it to our island, no casualties. Alxamdulilay.

For fun, we:

Attended a traditional Senegalese wrestling match…beginning around midnight after a late dinner and our long day of travel. The gathering of minimally-clothed Senegalese men parading around a circle to the beats of some local drumming and chanting was a bit overwhelming and repetitive after the first hour, but then the wrestling finally commenced and some of us were able to shake off our head-bobbing and droopy eyelids. A few of us toubabs were even given the opportunity to wrestle each other as a kind of “half-time show” before the big semi-final and championship rounds. That certainly roused our spirits and we were able to last the rest of the night until our long moonlit walk back to our bungalows. And no, I did not wrestle.

Decided to get naked. With only two weeks to go and streaking Senegal still unchecked on my To Do list, I was starting to get a little anxious. So given our mostly-rural surroundings, my roommates and I decided to go for a quick jaunt around our campement and then for a surprisingly warm (skinny) dip in the river. Upon arrival at the waterfront, we found half of our program had had the same idea! And after only some slight hesitation, we made our grand entrance down the dock stairs and into the water to join them. Splashed around a bit at a safe distance from each other, then scampered back to bed. With jammies.

Took tours by land and sea. In the morning, we willingly embarked in the White People Parade as we took a fleet of horse-drawn carts through the multiple island villages, looking at the mosques, churches, schools, and incredible trees along the way. In the evening, we reassembled in our friends, the pirogues, to ride through the mangroves and have a wide array of tropical wetland birds pointed out to us.

Had a bonfire. The last night we gathered around the flames for a sing-a-long of some African tunes led by one of our students from Kenya. Beautiful. But somehow that evolved into my friend Jonah and myself racking our brains for stupid group games we’ve played as camp counselors. We managed to coerce many of our peers to join in on Bunny Bunny, Snort, Screaming Toes, and the Ninja Game. Hard to beat good times like these.

We talked:

A lot about our upcoming departure. With only one real weekend left for most of us, we milled over how unbelievably fast this semester has gone but how wonderful it’s been. It’s hard to wrap our minds around being back in the States in a matter of days now. Of course there are things we’re all looking forward to, but ultimately the consensus (at least among my group of friends) is “Oh wow, this is gonna be rough.” So many good friends, both Senegalese and American—we’ve been together for almost 4 months and then one day soon everyone we’ve spent our days living and learning with will go…and just like that, none of us will be together anymore. Back to the people we love who have no real idea of the world we’ve been living in for the past semester. I’ve been weirdly anxious the past two weeks and I’m sure it will continue… sad to leave, but kind of excited to go home, but scared of what it will be like, but actually really wanting to stay here longer—I’ve reached a new level of inner-conflict I’ve never experienced before. It’s a lot.

We now have:

Massive finals and re-entry seminars ahead of us. Relaxing was a little hard to do this weekend for long before our minds began to wander to those 2 finals we have tomorrow, and the 4 other papers still to write before we leave. Not to mention gifts to get for our families and friends at home, final clothing runs to the tailor, quality time spent with people here, last bites of our favorite delicacies, etc, etc.

Essentially, me for the next two weeks: chicken with her head cut off.

But safe to say, I think a nice weekend and fun time was had by all.