Day 38: Hiking/Sightseeing

After finishing my journal entry last night, I ended up staying up really late. The late-night events were basically just having a good time with Alison and Lindsay, going in to people’s rooms with a video camera and doing the best Ali G impressions that we could do…

We went to bed at around 2, and by 6am, I had been woken up and harassed a little bit (by those whose rooms we had visited the night before.) It was all in good fun though, and everyone set off for the waterfalls in a good mood.

Accompanying us on our hike was our guide Sedou, who pretty much refused to tell us anything about where we were going or how long it would take. We ended up hiking to the top of the mountain, walking around for a long, long time, visiting a village and its chief, and finally hiking down the mountain to walk to the waterfalls. The hike was about 4.5 hours. By the time we finally reached the waterfalls, it was nearly lunchtime, but the fact that we were hungry and tired couldn’t distract us from the beauty of the falls. The water was coming from the top of a cliff that was a few hundred feet up; you couldn’t capture the whole thing with one camera shot.

After returning from the falls, those of us who weren’t fasting ate lunch. Four of the Americans and all of the Senegalese except for one were fasting. I’m starting to get used to eating alone…it’s not so bad.

After lunch, we walked to the chief’s hut in Dindefelo and gave him medical supplies. He was very appreciative, and he let us take limes from his lime tree. The medicines we gave them were just basic first aid supplies, some anti-malaria kits, and other medical supplies that the villagers could prescribe and administer themselves.

We then piled in the 4x4s and drove 30 minutes to Segou, a village where we would stay the night. Kristin, Lindsay, Eric, and I were all put with the same family, and we had a fun night hanging out. Our family spoke Pulaar, of which we know none of, so there wasn’t much communication. However, they were very nice and left us to our own business.

Though the boys and girls each had their own hut in the compound, I decided to let Eric have the whole twin bed in our hut, and I slept outside on a straw mat. I had a sleeping bag to keep the bugs away, I was really hot for pretty much the whole night. I didn’t get much sleep, but sleeping outside under the stars in a rural African village is definitely something I will never forget.