Senegal

Ahh, so it has been a while since I have had a chance to update the blog. Now I am going to try to fill in some of the gaps. Here are a few photos from the couple of weeks that we spent in Senegal.

We crossed into Senegal with a group of volunteers who were on their 'Christmas booze run' from the alcohol free Mauritania. After a couple days enjoying the nice french colonial town of Saint Louis with this lively bunch of folks, we made our way to Dakar to get our visas for Cameroon. In Dakar we couchsurfed with a Gambian journalist, Sheriff, his friend Laye, and Layes family (picture below).

The bulk of our week and a half in Dakar was spent going to and from the Cameroonian embassy to try and get our visas. This required a whole bunch of paperwork (some that we had to create) and a whole lot of waiting, coming back and waiting. What was supposed to be a simple 24 hour process took 4 days of going to the embassy at noon, then being told to come back at 2, then to come back at 4, then 6, then the next day at noon. During this time in purgatory in downtown Dakar we managed to so some productive things. Aside from getting well acquainted with the area's kebab shops, we found out that my flight reservation got canceled. It turns out that the American based travel website through whom we bout our tickets did not like me. Sometime after they sent my confirmation and took my $600, they decided to cancel the ticket without informing me. After being told this by the folks at the Virgin Nigeria office, I was put on a waiting list, and was eventually able to buy the ticket in cash (turned out to be 20 buck cheaper than online) less than a week before we left. Essentially the whole week in Dakar was us getting more and more worried that I would not be on that flight (the last one to get us to Cameroon before Christmas (main point of the trip)) or that we would not get our visas in time, and thus be sent back to Dakar. Anyway, needless to say it all worked out. I got my ticket on Wednesday, and we got our visas on Thursday, and we left on Sunday at midnight.

So for the weekend after our ordeal in Dakar we decided to visit a friend of mine, Natalie, from school who is now in the Peace Corps in Senegal. We had her cell number, but because her village of Bane is so remote (no power) we were unable to get ahold of her while in Dakar. So, with the village name and the knowledge that there was a regional house in Kaolack, a couple hours from her village, we left on Friday the 19th for a quick adventure to try to her. So, we took a 4 hour bus to Kaolack, where we did not know anyone, but we were told by Peace Corps Volunteers in Mauritania that there was a regional house where someone could hopefully point us in the correct direction. So when we arrived we wento the center of town and asked around if anyone knew of the Peace Corps house. To our surprise in a decent sized town of at least 60000 people, the first moto driver we asked knew where it was, and dropped us off at the door, a brilliant stroke of luck. At the house we were greeted by a couple volunteers, who offered to let us spend the night and help us contact Natalie. While watching old westerns (damn they are long) they called a volunteer near to her village, who then called a person in Natalie's village to tell her to call the regional house. So, with the wonders of technology and a few helpful folks Natalie called back in about 10 minutes, and gave us direction to her place.

The journey to her village of Bane involved an hour bus ride, and another hour and a half on a donkey cart. So by Saturday afternoon we made it to her village, and her 15 X 15 foot grass roofed hut. This village was little more than 4-5 family compounds, for a grand total of about 50 people. We were able to spend only about 20 hours with her in village, as our flight left late on Sunday night/ Monday morning, and the visas took alot longer than they should have. In that time we got to have a decent look at the village and surrounding area.

Us with folks in Bane

Natalie with the local chillins

The Family we stayed with in Dakar (awesome folks), Sheriff back row one from the left, and Laye front right

Trying to be as cool as the guard in front of the president's palace.