Back In Dakar

Posted by Emily

First, yes I did get into grad school at Minnesota for those of you who were confused. I also just got an email saying that I have been accepted to the University of Washington.

After two weeks of trucking around all over the place, I am finally back in Dakar and very happy to be here! I've always heard Senegalese people brag about their country and I thought they were just doing that because that's what people do but now I actually think they are right. Dakar is a really great city with a lot going on and I appreciate that more now.

From Cape Coast in Ghana, Anne and I took a day trip to Kakum National Park where we did a canopy walk. Before seeing what we would be walking on, I was a little apprehensive but there were very sturdy boards with rope fencing up to the armpits. You'd have to really try to fall! Plus, it was made by Canadians so of course it had to be good! :) We spent the morning walking around in the treetops and it was very lovely. In the afternoon, we hopped into a lorry (the mass transit bus type things in Ghana) and took it to the little beach town of Kokrobite, which seems to have changed a lot since the time that our guide book was written. It sounded like it would be a sleepy little town but it was full of white people! Kind of annoying but it turned out to be okay. We stayed at this crazy place that had the feel of a hippie commune and a tourist resort combined. Very strange and it took a little getting used to because there was kind of a weird vibe about the place. However, it was right on a beautiful beach so we spent a few days playing in the waves. I'm not usually much for swimming in the ocean, and actually it usually scares me, but the water was the perfect temperature and the waves/undertow weren't too strong.

From Kokrobite we took a taxi to Accra, Ghana and immediately went to the bus station to buy our tickets back to Ouaga. Neither of us were too keen on going back but I had a plane that I needed to catch. Since the bus that we had taken down to Kumasi was not air-conditioned, we were very encouraged by the sign that said the bus to Ouaga was "luxury". We spent most of the day walking around different areas and markets. Anne was quite overwhelmed by the size and bustle of the city! We didn't have a lot of time to spend in the city so I couldn't really get a good feel for it. I still think Dakar wins, especially for a port city :)

The bus we took back to Ouaga WAS luxury, at least by our current standards. There was air-conditioning, curtains on the windows (to block out the blazing sun) and even strange Nigerian movies to watch, the first of which was titled "100% Husband". That should give you an idea of the quality of the movie. The border crossing back into Burkina was DEPRESSING. The air was full of dust, so much so that it looked like a fog was covering the countryside. Nope, just too many dust particles in the air. I have never seen anything like it and can imagine that it causes many respiratory problems in the people there! Basically it was just a picture of desolation and scrubby brushland. Not a very inviting image.

After about 25 hours, we finally made it back to Ouaga, found a hotel and went to sleep on the BED. We spent the last night eating good food and listing to live music with a South African woman we had met on the bus to Ouaga. She had been traveling for about 3 months through Mali, Burkina, Niger and Ghana and is now, strangely enough, in Dakar to do an internship at the place where Anna (one of the girls that I live with) is doing a little side translating work. Sometimes the people you meet are just so random! She's looking for a place to stay and maybe ever take over my room when I leave.

Since coming back, I've pretty much been visiting people, my host family and Vieux's family mainly. And of course, Nicki arrived last night so we have been exploring Dakar a little. We had lunch at Vieux's wife's mom's restaurant (got that??) where Nicki tried ceeb bu jen, the Senegalese national dish. She claims to have liked it.

That's about all for now. More to follow!