Day 16: Long walk, and amazing sunset

For the most part, today was just an average day in Yoff. I woke up on time, went to Cresp, had French, listened to a lecture on African literature, and went home for lunch. Again, I was able to eat well, which was a major improvement. Then, back to Cresp at 1500 for a walk around Yoff, to see the “ecotourism circuit.” Now, at normal walking pace, this tour of 5 or 6 sites would have taken about an hour. Somehow, we ended up taking two and a half hours. Patience is definitely something I’m learning here…I guess I don’t really have any other choice.

A brief explanation of the ecotourism circuit: An ecotourism circuit is a number of sites linked together that can be visited by tourists. It’s pretty simple. So here, in Yoff, there isn’t officially a circuit yet, but that’s one of the reasons why we’re here. Anyway, we walked around to the sites, and received explanations on them, histories, etc. Basically, besides the Mausoleum where the supposed reincarnation of Mohammed is buried, most of the sites were full of trash. I don’t know if I’ve explained this before, but the sanitation here is virtually non-existent. People just throw trash wherever they feel like it. The result is trash…everywhere you look. Actually, I saw a garbage truck once; I have NO idea what it was doing, maybe it was doing something else. I don’t know.

So, back to the circuit: All of us living routes group people thought that if the sanitation were better, and there wasn’t trash everywhere, these sites would be PERFECT for tourism. It’s really a beautiful village, very peaceful etc, ideal for tourists staying in Dakar, for a day trip or something.

While I said earlier this was an average day, I was lying. Let me explain: After we got back to Cresp, we hung around for a while. At around 1900, the sun began to set, and so I decided to go upstairs to Marian’s and sit on her balcony. Marian and I had a nice chat about the major positive effects that trash cleanup could have on tourism, thus seriously boosting the economy in Senegal (which is nearly non-existent.) While we were talking, the sunset began to look quite lovely. I went downstairs to get a camera, and grabbed a couple kids as well. We went up to the balcony again, and I figured out a way to climb to the roof. So, there we sat, on the roof of a four or five story building (the tallest within a fifty mile radius) and watched an incredible sunset. After coming down, I talked to Sophie for a while, and then found that Rich had gotten sick, as well as Alison. It seems that we’re dropping like flies. I’m calling it “The two week wall” that we’re all hitting right now. Our environment is finally starting to affect our health.

Rich stayed at Cresp, and I went home for dinner. Dinner was okay, nothing special, which fit in with the rest of the day (besides the sunset.) After dinner, I was sitting upstairs on our floor, watching the ocean when three of my sisters came up with a dish of watermelon for me. I was overjoyed. You should have seen the smile on my face; ear to ear. Note: this may seem a little dramatic, but this was the first time that my family had given me fruit since I’ve gotten here. Its not like they’re trying not to feed me properly, it’s just not really their thing to eat a lot of fruits. Plenty of cooked vegetables, but no cold vegetables or fruit. Hopefully that will help you understand why this was so amazing. Plus, they took me totally by surprise, so it was even better.

I went downstairs to eat more watermelon, and found that our family had finished almost two whole watermelons. I went upstairs completely and utterly satisfied. No better way to describe it.

While the sunset and the watermelon were major contributors to my very (non-average) great day, there’s more to it than that. As someone who cares a lot about their relationships, it’s hard for me to feel comfortable in a place where I have no established connections, ie. Here. However, over the past few days, I have gotten a lot closer with people like Fatou Lo, Marian, the kids in my group, and definitely my family. Feeling these relationships start to grow is extremely comforting, and really contributes to me feeling more and more at home each day. By stepping back to say this, I think I can also say that I have gotten over about 90% of the culture shock. Now that this feels more like home to me, I’m sure that the time will fly by. But for now, I must sleep.