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.