Endless Summer Tiny World

So today is a day that when I said yes, I really had no idea what I’m getting myself into! I was all ready to head to Dakar in a sept place today and just needed a ride to the bus stop. So the owner of the hotel said he would take me, but on the way he said he would take me to Dakar for free, in a non squishy hot car, if I didn’t mind going a little later and visiting his grandfather with him. So i said sure, thinking this definitely was a better deal for my money! Haha! Well turns out when I said yes, I didn’t realize the full extent of what yes meant and what “later” meant as well!

So we headed out for his grandfathers, made a stop along the way and I soon found out his grandfathers was 80 km away! Also, we got stopped at the normal roadstops by the police and they wanted a bribe which my buddy wouldn’t give, so we had to go back into town and go to the police station. All was fine and got figured out and we were on our way again. While on the drive there I found out that his grandfather was a traditional doctor and I was going to have to bath. I still wasn’t sure what this meant but I figured I was in Africa what the heck! While driving up to the “household” I found out his grandfather was 104 yrs old and had 13 wives and over 60 children and a lot of them live at this homestead. Also, a lot of women go to him for fertility and men for sexual problems as well as with medical problems.

We got there and found his grandfather sitting on a bed out in the open with a roof over it and then to my left was an area that was fenced in with some tin and in the middle you could see a lot of spice pounders sticking out of the ground, almost like te tops of bowling pins in a circle all buried together! So when it was my turn I held my hands out palm up to his grandfather and he asked my full name, where I was from and then he said some stuff to me I didn’t understand. He then mumbled and gurgled on some seeds, I’m assuming he said some prayers, and the seeds were brought along with me behind the circular fence where the buried bowling pins were. Some water was poured in a bowl, the seeds added and then I bathed with the water. Yes I stood naked ( don’t worry I was by myself) in this strange little area and poured water with seeds all over myself. I then dressed went back out and he did the gurgle thing again onto more seeds which I then got given to take home and use to wash my face and hands everytime before I leave the house, the rest of my life! I was told that his grandfather said I will be rich in the future, and that now that I have done this bathing I am protected and will have men in love with me following me around everywhere – duh! I’m in Senegal! Haha! I also am not sure but may be really fertile now! Haha!

So before we left I snapped a couple pics of the kids – they lov getting their pics taken- and then we did something I never thought I would see, we loaded a goat into the trunk of the car!! Haha! We then had to drive back to drop off the goat, which I was told is a protector of my buddy. We stopped in a sketchy restaurant on the way and had the national dish, fish an rice. When we got back to drop off the goat we had to wait for his friend to show up. This probably took two hours, but I got to play with an adorable 4 yr old girl so it was ok! They pick things up so quick, I had her saying english terms even though she didn’t totally understand them!

So now it is almost 9 pm and I am right back where I started this morning! I am waiting – forever! – for my buddy to pack his bags and I’m ready to be in Dakar in my hotel and I’m getting impatient, but I guess it’s ok because it was a pretty cool experience today. I guess I just haven’t adjusted to the fact that in Senegalese time “later” could mean midnight!!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 8th, 2011 at 2:49 pm and is filed under 1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.