4th of July Aventure!

Sorry I have not updated in a while, it has been a surprisingly hectic couple of months, trying to get things ready before the rains started. Most people’s main source of food and income in Senegal is agriculture and the planting season begins soon after the first the rains, so I have been trying to get as much work done as possible before there is a mass exodus into the fields. I have been occupied finishing up the applications and interviews for a Middle School Girls Scholarship that aims at keeping girls at school. In early June there was also an artisanal exposition in Dakar, and one of my work partners, the Fatick Handicapped Center, makes baby slings out of African fabric that are a big hit with ex-pats. The exposition, although poorly attended, was a great learning experience for the people from the center on product placement, packaging and overall marketing.

It was a busy month leading up to a big adventure for the 4th of July! A group of Volunteers planned a trip down to the south of Senegal, the region of Kedougou, on bikes! The region, unlike the rest of Senegal, is hilly, green, and filled with beautiful natural sights.

June 28th-30th: Tambacounda – Kedougou

On June 28th, we loaded up our bikes in the city of Tambacounda and headed off on a 3 day, 230 km trip to Kedougou. The first day was around 90 km. The trip was pleasantly broken up. We had breakfast in the town of Missira, and enjpyed our packed lunch on the banks of the Gambia river in the town of Ouassadou where we also saw hippos swimming in the water. The trip ended up taking a full day and in the evening we stopped to see a few minutes of the first half of the USA-Brazil game, which put us in a great mood. Good thing we did not watch the second half. We arrived that evening to Dar Salaam, which has a Peace Corps Volunteer and is the official entrance to the Niokolo Koba national park, the largest park in West Africa. 50 years ago, the aprk had elephants, giraffes, and lions, nowadays the only sites are antelope, warthogs and baboons.

The second day was a planned 120 km trip through the park. I was extremely exhausted from the day before and there was no food or water in the park so I decided to skip that leg of the trip and head straight for Kedougou. That morning we hitched a ride on a pick-up truck and drove through the park. Our driver was really nice and he even slowed down for us to see the baboons and the warthogs we spotted on the side of the road. One pack of baboons was very unhappy to see us, and barked and hissed at us until we left. I was very happy to not be on my bike. We arrived at the regional house that afternoon and we fell a little ill and spent the next full day recovering.

July 1st-3rd: Dindefello

Once we had all recovered from the bike trip we decided to head out to Dindefello, which is the site of Senegal’s tallest year-round waterfall. Once again, we packed up our bikes and started out the 35 km to the village at the base of the falls. We left with plenty of time before nightfall but one person in our group got a flat, and by the time we fixed it we had lost a couple hours of valuable daytime. We then sped through the path until we were caught in a huge deluge. The rainstorm was knocking us off our bikes so we stopped to wait it out, and nightfall caught up with us. Biking at night on a paved road is dangerous enough, and we were biking on a small rocky mud path in the middle of the forest. It was hazardous to say the least. It took us 2 hours to go the last 7 km of the trip and we arrived 6 and a half hours later caked in mud and entirely exhausted. Luckily we were greeted by the friendly staff at the encampment/hotel and had a nice dinner and slept really soundly.

The next day we hiked up to the waterfall, which was jaw dropping and spent the morning swimming and we enjoyed our lunch by the falls. That afternoon we hiked up to the top of the waterfall, which is the high-altitude plateau that is the border with Guinea. From the top of the cliff we could see the high mountains of Guinea and the flat savannah that is Senegal. It was a great and beautiful view.

The next day we biked back and realized how not treacherous the path is when you can see where you are going. We arrived to Kedougou that morning after just a couple of hours and spent the afternoon relaxing by the pool eating warthog sandwiches.

July 4th: Party!

The volunteers in the region of Kedougou put together a big party for almost all of the volunteers in Senegal and it was a lot of fun! We spent the day playing fun games, talking, drinking, and eating a lot of good food, courtesy of our grill masters. It was a really fun party, and they even had some fireworks go off. It was also nice to meet other volunteers from regions I never go to.
July 5th: Floating down the Gambia River

The day after the party we decided to do something calm and relaxing, so in the evening we took some intertubes and floated down the Gambia River through some small rapids. The trip resembled the lazy rivers at water parks. It was a lot of fun and we got to see some cool birds along the riverbank. We got on the intertubes at the regional house and floated all the way down to the hotel with the pool. Very relaxing!

July 6th: Bandafassi

We had planned on going on a hike with a chimp researcher to spend some time with a chimp colony about 15 km away from the house. Unfortunately we did not see any chimps but we did hike to the top of one of the tallest hills in the area, which was beautiful all the same. The area around the hill is also home to a unique ethnic group, called the Bediks, that do not speak any of the other predominant languages and have a unique culture of their own. There was town at the top of the hill that was very picturesque but we realized how difficult life must be since we also saw women bringing water up the hill from the well at the base.

July 7th-9th: Tambacounda

After spending a good amount of time in Kedougou, we headed back to Tamba and we had planned on going all the way home, but I decided to visit a volunteer’s 80 person village. Going to the village was a great learning experience and I got to be an Agriculture volunteer for the day! I was also impressed by how small the village was and because it was a Mandinke village, the fact that I spoke Wolof was funny and different, which is never the case in Senegal. I spent the night in the village and the next day received a distressed call from another SED volunteer in Tamba, that the goats in her compound had eaten her presentation on costing she was supposed to give. So I helped her on the chalkboard while she gave her class.

After all this I finally made it back home to Fatick, which was nice. Sleeping in my bed and seeing my host family is always nice. Not to mention that everyone speaks Wolof again!