Day 32: To the villages

This entry is being written as I lie on my bed in a rural African village. The closest Americans to me are at least a mile away, and any modern facilities are about 100 times that distance from me.

Let me describe my surroundings: I am in a hut with a thatched roof and cement walls. I have a bed and a mosquito net. It’s extremely hot. It’s 9:17PM.

We departed Cresp at 7:00AM. Because of the length of this trip, we took two small private buses. Not all the Senegalese students came with because some had to take important exams this week in Dakar. So we left Cresp, and drove for a long, long time. I don’t even know how long. We got lunch at some restaurant at around 2pm, and bought some bananas and sodas.

The buses were somewhat comfortable, but not comfortable enough for me to sleep. Having woken up at 530, this was a very disappointing fact. The roads were horrible. (I’m not writing all this to complain, but merely to remind myself exactly what this trip was like when I look back on it in 10 years…) Imagine all the number of potholes you’ve seen in your entire life. Multiply that 4, and you’ve got something close to the number of potholes that we went through on the highway today. These were no interstates.

Our trip ended up being 13 hours long, and we arrived at this village, Medina Kouta, at around 8pm. It was dark, we were tired, and we couldn’t really see anything. Alexa and Mambui split us up and sent us with our families that we will be staying with for these two nights. I was taken to my house (or collection of huts) by the only French-speaking person in the family. After being introduced to everyone, I sat down in a chair they gave me, and did nothing while they stared at me (“they” being about 20 family members.) At some point, they asked me if I wanted to wash, (somehow I understood, even though I speak no Wolof) and I was led to a bucket with water. I took of all my clothes and managed to do some kind of washing.

After I returned to the communal area, I sat down again. They all just sat across from me and watched my every move. I was then given some cous cous like stuff, which tasted like sand, and I ate some of that. I’m still hungry.

A little while after that, I managed to signal to them that I wanted to sleep, so I was led to my hut, and now I’m here writing this. Hopefully, I’ll get some sleep in this heat.