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.