Day 87

I am starting my last week here in Senegal. It has been good, but there is still much to be done. For instance, I will be visiting the nearby dump later this week just to see what it's like. I want to visit it for two reasons. The first is because it is known as the largest garbage dump in West Africa. They've been dumping there since the 1960s. The second reason is because it is literally a stone's throw away from the Daara. It's just right there. When we take a cab from Dakar or wherever back to the Daara, in order to convey to the taxi driver which part of Malika the Daara is in, we say it is at the dump.

Above is the satellite image of what I was writing about. I added the red and yellow lines. The yellow lines surround the Daara grounds, the red lines surround the dump. I should include a scale of some sort, but i haven't. I guess a decent enough scale could be the fact that it takes us about an hour to walk from the Daara to the nearby beach known as Malika beach.

Malika beach

Above is a picture of me playing with a kid named Amadou at the Malika beach. He is 2 years old. he came up to us because we may have been the first white people he had ever seen. This means that I was in a position to potentially decide how this kid would perceive of white people for the rest of his life. so we played some games for a bit. He's has since more than likely forgotten about me. Notice in the background that nobody is swimming in the ocean. That is because its has been ruled unsafe to swim at Malika beach due to... quicksand. They use the sand for construction purposes in Senegal, and for decades they have extracted sand from the Malika beach to use elsewhere. Apparently this isn't good for the sand, and now it is quick sand. The locals assure me that it has been well over a year since anyone has been killed by the quicksand though, so that's good.

to be continued... internet here sucks

Last week, we went to the Bandia National park. It really doesn't compare at all to the Safari experience in the Masai Mara region of Kenya, but anytime you get to see a couple of rhynos, giraffes, monkeys, and giant turtles frolicking around, it is good times.

picture of us in front of some giraffes.

We were in a 4x4 truck, this picture only makes it seem like we were taking a careless stroll through the park.

Day 72

I have reached a milestone of sorts. Today, whilst exercising, a bead of sweat was running down my nose. As a long haired man I’ve almost always had the ability to blow air from my mouth to move a strand of hair out of my face, and the same goes for sweat on the tip of my nose. But, today, I could not accomplish this previously simple task. Why? Because I am now officially a moustached man. The moustache is so thick that no air can pass upwards from my mouth. They said I would ‘just know’ when I was officially a moustached man, but I was sceptical. Now I understand, and I know.

And I approve.

We took all of the Daara kids and volunteers, packed them on a bus, and went out to a beach about an hour or so away, south of Dakar in the town of Sendou. It went really well and it was a great way to spend the first weekend of summer vacation for the kids, since they had finished school for the summer earlier that week. We didn’t realise though that a few days later all the kids would be leaving. Most of them left July 5^th, then the rest gradually left, and now about 10 kids are here. The 7 high school kids are staying for the another month or so, but otherwise its going to be pretty boring around here without the kids. But its fine, I’ll make the most of it, and one way of doing that is by seeing some of Senegal.

This past weekend the other volunteers and I went to the city (town?) of Saint Louis. It’s a really interesting place. It’s an island, and it has a colonial history. I think it was the first French colony in Senegal, way back at some point in the past. Because of its French colonial routes, it is also a little more Christian than most of the other towns, which means they actually have bars worth frequenting in the night. I partook in some of that both the Friday and Saturday night, and it was fun. One thing in particular that was interesting and actually quite hilarious was the insistence the bars had on having mirrors and having the mirrors strategically placed. At first, you think, ‘’ok, this makes sense, its a small place, the mirror makes it look bigger, cool.’’ But the reason or logic behind installing the mirror doesn’t actually matter, what matters is how the locals use the mirror. No word of a lie, they all, every single one of them, will dance facing the mirror, staring at themselves, and some of them will get within inches of the mirror. So, I had some drinks, was in a foreign city within a foreign land in which i knew only my one coworker who came to the bar with me, and I decided to have some fun mocking the locals. I tore the dancefloor up with my sweet moves, all whilst staring at the mirror, only an inch separated me from the reflection of myself. And when I wanted to just laugh at how ridiculous it all was, I had to stay serious, because there was a local to my right and to my left and they were all doing the same as ridiculous mirror dancing as me (though with way worse dance moves than mine),and they were doing it with straight faces. It was probably some of the most fun I’ve ever had at a club-type of bar.

Did not take any pictures at the bar, though. In Senegal, you have to get peoples' permission in order to take a picture with them in it, even if theyre just in the background, or they will get very upset and overreact and try to fight me.

A picture of a part of Saint Louis, the city (town).

We also spent time at the beach and explored the island. It was a good weekend.

Day 62

Unfortunately the desert was the only excursion we went on in the month of June, but July promises to be much better in that regard, as we’ve already planned a weekend in Saint Louis and a weekend in Mbour. It’s been a great summer so far. Next week is the last week of school, and after that a lot of the kids will likely leave for the rest of the summer. Hopefully a good number of them stick around so as to make things more interesting around here. It rained last week – only once, and for less than an hour – but it still rained. It was the first time since I arrived here that it has rained, which is pretty cool. The people around here, adults and children alike, kind of freak out a bit when its raining, which was pretty amusing to witness. They’re just not used to it.

Heres a picture of all of the kids.

Another thing they aren’t used to is white people with beards. I’ve been asked on two different occasions why I colour (dye) my beard. I wasn’t asked whether I coloured my beard, because that, to them, is obviously the case. I just told them it’s natural. I wonder if they think I colour my eyes blue. Maybe I’ll tell them I do.

On the topic of things that people are and are not used to. This marks the first time in my life (I’m pretty sure) that I’m living in an area that had an army-enforced Curfew in place. Its a 9 0’clock kerfew, and its been going on since June 23^rd. This is because last week the president tried to change the constitution to allow him to stay on as president with only 25% of the vote in next year’s election. The Senegalese responded by burning cars and protesting, so the President said ‘’nevermind.’’ But a couple of days later more protests broke out. A jehovas witness church was burned down by hundreds of protesters, and also the Senelec building in Dakar was burned down. Senelec is the Electrical company. The protests were a response to the fact that in Senegal the electricity is only working for about 5 hours a day. Since then the electricity

has been pretty good. Cool. Hopefully things cool down now and people stop burning cars and buildings. I’m still sceptical about the motivation behind the protests though, I don’t think it’s merely a coincidence that these protests occur only a week after the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup. The day of seventh game of the finals, I heard more car horns being honked on the street than usual, and I’m pretty sure it was in anticipation of the big game.

So despite the Curfew, my coworkers and I actually went out the past two nights. We got invited to a wedding on Wednesday night. The connection is that the bride did the hair of one of the women I work with. So we went. It was cool to experience a Senegalese wedding reception, though we didn’t attend the actual ceremony. Last night we went to a nearby bar thats literally 64 meters away from the Daara. I had no idea it existed until we had two new volunteers come to the Daara that had been here the year before and said ‘’hey, lets go to the bar that’s 64 meters away.’’ or something like that. So we went and it was cheap and it was good times.

here's a picture with the bride. I do not know her.

Tomorrow we’re taking all the Daara kids out to Sendhou beach, which is outside of Dakar. It’s to celebrate the end of the school year. Should be a fun time for everyone and a good celebration for the end of the school year. These two kids, we'll call them Cheikh and Fallou, will probably be pretty excoted about it.