Spring Break: Part II

The second day I went to the UN protected national bird park. It’s considered the third best bird watching spot in the world. It’s about an hour drive from St. Louis so Joanna, Raph, Jean-Pierre and I plus an older French couple split a sept-place (a seven place car) down there. We bargained a price for the whole day - $24 per person. This included the taxi there and back, the park fee, and the boat guided tour through the park. Not bad, I must say. We took a small boat around the park. We saw birds, mainly pelicans, crocodiles, a python, and warthogs. It was fun, but there wasn’t actually that much to see. It was the same four bird types over and over again.

When we got back to St. Louis, Joanna and I decided to explore the city. We went to the coastline to watch the fishermen come in from their work but were informed by a local that it wasn’t fishing season. He offered to take us around. He showed us the rows of huge hollowed out wooden boats that Senegalese fishers use. Some were 10 feet tall and could hold 42 people. He showed us a tied up pelican, which is huge when it is standing next to you, about half my size. Apparently the fishermen use pelicans to fish. They tie a rope around the pelicans throats, take them out to sea, then have the pelicans catch the fish. But the pelican can’t swallow them because of the rope so when they get back to shore, they spit out the fish for the waiting fisherman.

It was evident from our walk that St. Louis people were much nicer than the people in Dakar. Everywhere we went we were received with smiles and greetings. But I shouldn’t have let my guard down. Our guide asked if we would pay for sugar and coffee for his family. Joanna, being a nice person, agreed without asking questions. So we walked to the nearest store, but it was out of sugar. He had the store owner write out the price on a piece of paper for us to just give him the money. My jaw dropped when I saw the price – 4,500 CFA, which is about $9. That’s a lot for coffee and sugar here. We figured out later that he was trying to stock up and buy a liter of coffee and a liter of sugar. I told Joanna I would say something to him if she wanted but she said she would just pay it. However, she only had 4,000 CFA. The guy turned to me to pay the other 500 and I refused to pay it. He got angry and called me rude for not helping my friend pay. Then he told me that the $1 I was withholding from him is not that much. Maybe not in and of itself, but in addition to the $8 he has already taken from us, it is. I got mad and said that a $1 is a lot, that what he pulled was rude, and that coffee and sugar shouldn’t cost that much. Joanna and I walked away and the guy followed to shake our hand and say thanks anyway. That sort of thing happens a lot here. They think that because we’re Americans that $10 is nothing to us and they forget that we’re students living off our parents just like the Senegalese our age.

That night the four of us went to a Moroccan restaurant, my first taste of Moroccan food. And I ate the best lamb of my life. Oh my gosh, was it amazing. Then we went to this club where we played pool, Europeans versus Americans. Raph was the only one who was any good but Joanna and I managed to sabotage the European shots enough that the game lasted surprisingly long. They were only two balls ahead of us! And might I mention, I made all but one of the shots on my team. Then we just relaxed in comfy chairs and discussed the politics of our respective countries and the differences between northern and southern US.

The next day we just walked around St. Louis, visited a “museum” that took us 30 minutes to go through, and then got a sept-place back to Dakar. This time we knew this was the better transportation to take and expected the ride to take 3 hours. And it would have if we hadn’t gotten into Dakar at rush hour. Ohmygosh, worst traffic I have ever seen in my life. We were stuck in it for 2 hours before we got to a place to get into our respective taxis to go home.

The next day, Thursday, we just relaxed and decided what we were going to do for the weekend. Then Friday, we went to N’Gor, an island off the coast of Dakar. Of course, on my way to meet friends there, I took the wrong transportation, spent an hour trying to find my way back before giving up and getting a taxi. N’Gor is known as the surfing beach with strong waves and soft sand. Both were true, but we didn’t see any surfers. Or anything to get excited about. Because of the rocks, there were only two spots to swim and they were populated by tourists. So we swam for a little in the freezing water and then went back to the mainland to get a late lunch. In the evening Joanna, our friend Rebecca, and I went to this modern African dance event. It was awesome! The strength, the pounding drums, the beautiful choreography. Afterwards, we went to a fast food place, got some gelato, hung out with our Senegalese friends, and finalized our plans for the weekend.

Next Up: A pink lake, a village of turtles, and the worst transportation catastrophe of my life.