Emma Comes to Senegal

Emma finally made it to Senegal on December 30th after a 2-day flight delay. On her first day here, we left Dakar and headed up to the Lompoul Desert, where we rode camels and slept in Mauritanian tents.









The next day, we went up to the Saint-Louis beach for a lovely New Year's celebration. Akon played a free concert in the town center (I can now confirm that he actually does kind of speak Wolof). Then we danced to drumming at a bar until the wee hours of the morning. Emma met a kitty at the hotel whom she fell in love with.






On the 2nd we headed down to Linguere, where we took it easy and enjoyed the slower pace of life for a minute or two. We biked to Barkedji for lunch on the 3rd. It took twice as long as it normally would, because of some crazy wind. Once we got there, Diama, my amazing sister, treated us like royalty, cooking a ceebuyapp (rice and meat) feast. She used meat from the goat that Ann Marie's brother, who is also visiting right now with his girlfriend, helped slaughter. Emma and I of course didn't sample the fruits of his labor, but we appreciated the effort. After lunch we played Quirkle with the kids before biking back to Linguere with a much-deserved tailwind. We got back in the dark and slept soundly.

The next day, we relaxed, ran errands and ate a beautiful, delicious sloppy joe dinner with the missionary family in Linguere. Dirk's parents are also visiting, so it was nice for Emma to be able to compare impressions with some fellow visitors. Dirk and Sarah also explained the Senegalese caste system to Emma with far greater detail and accuracy than I could have ever managed.





Now we're in Tambacounda, waiting for the bus to take us down to Kedougou, where we'll bike to waterfalls and enjoy the color green.

We're having a great time so far. It's crazy how many different experiences it's possible to have here in less than a week. Here are some of Emma's observations from her first, crazy week in Senegal: camels, dirty feet, sun, noise, Akon, bike ride into a hot wind tunnel, Diama's yummy cooking, long car rides, beach in January, sugar--lots and lots of it, sand/dust/dirt EVERYWHERE, drumming.

Stay tuned for the next installment of Emma's Adventures in Senegalland.