Endless Summer Tiny World

So last night the guys who work at my private hotel ( I say private because I’m the only one staying here so it is like 5 star service) invited me to go to the local disco. At first I said no as I am fighting an ear infection right now (don’t worry I have medicine). But since it was Saturday night and it may be my only chance I figured I may as suck it up and go for it! We left at midnight and no one was there. Apparently since this disco is out of the city a little ways it’s the one people go to when the ones in town close. So we played a little pool to pass the time and then when it got a little busier we headed into the disco part of the bar.
There are a few things different about Senegalese disco than american clubs or bars. The first and biggest thing I noticed was that the men were the first ones dancing and many times were the ones out dancing by themselves!! This you would almost never see in US. Also the disco is less about drinking like many places in the US, most of the people I saw had one soda if anything. This maybe has to do with the fact that they are better dancers and don’t need the liquid courage like many of us do! I think after watching the few white people with all the black people that generally white people can’t dance, myself included as I think I scared several people when I danced to a couple songs and looked more like fish flopping around out of water! Needless to say it was a really great time!

After the 5am bedtime my private tour of the town was over but I might try to get one out of these guys later this week! One of the big challenges with these guys is making sure their intentions are right as I’ve had to repeat several tines that I’m engaged (or at least that’s what they think!) but with a good sense of humor and the friendly reminders it’s all fine!

That says my French is very bad!! Anyone here never would believe that I had a French minor in college! Not that I was so good at speaking it then eithe, but after 6 years it’s even worse!! But I can uphold franglais (French and English) conversations pretty well!!

After leaving Dakar I went and stayed on the ile de goree, the little island about 20 min ferry ride from Dakar. Most people doNt stay on the island as it is so small but it is famous for being the last stop before the Americas during the slave trade. It is small but I definitely prefered staying there to the big city! I spent my time there relaxing, seeing the memorial and also the couple museums on the island. Everything is in French so it’s a good thing I read French much better than I speak it!

When lonely planet says that Senegalese love to make conversation with you they were not kidding! I was sitting on a dock one day when a guy sat down and we were talking in franglais. I ended up following this guy around the entire island and had to feel bad when I turned down every artist and vendor he walked me by! But he took me to some very cool places on the island and I got an awesome private drum session, so I guess it’s ok! Haha!
The next day when I was at the fort/museum relaxing the worker came and told me he wanted to make me tea, so I ended up sitting in his office with some other guys drinking tea. But that’s the short boring story, this tea party took about two hours! The office is more like a small room with a sort of twin mattress on the floor, a desk, a tv playing really bad Senegalese music videos or really old American ones, and two chairs. The tea is a mint tea but with tons and tons of sugar in it. He had three little glasses on a tray and here there is a big production made out of pouring the tea back and forth several times between 2-3 of the glasses. And you can’t just pour them you must put them up high and pour them! It really was quite entertaining! And all Senegalese are super nice! Except the cab drivers when you bargain with them because they rip off all tourists!

I have also found that every person in Senegal knows or is related to someone living in the us and they want to go to the US. I have given away my email to many people and they are never happy when I don’t know my phone number!!

My second morning on goree I was all set to leave when I found out the ferry to casamance went the next day and ten would stop running for 10 days for repairs, so I would have to fly back or even fly there. Casamance is te region in the south with lots of animals and some really nice beaches! Well after looking how much flights cost I decided it’s an area I’ll have to come back to later! So I headed up to saint Louis instead, saint Louis is the first French settlement town in Senegal. The ride up to saint Louis was interesting. Our bus/van (really an 8 passenger van by US standards holding 15 people) only broke down completely once and then the last hour we had two men arguing in the front, though I think if I could understand Wolof I would have found it humorous as apparently the others thought it was.

Now I am in a hotel on the beach right near saint Louis. The people here are very nice and I might be headed to a discotheque tonight, though I will not be doing any dancing, and tomorrow I think I have a private tour guide around town! I find that my French improves some while here but because it is so bad I also tend to keep to myself a lot! So I think I’ll be happy by the time I head to morocco and more europeans/Americans! Sorry if there are spelling errors but i did all this on my phone!

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