Senegal adventure. Day 9. The dolphins show.

We decided to go to another island near the sea, so a lot of different fish could be found there. We started our trip around 10 am. A small motor boat came to pick us up. After 15 min or so of traveling we started seeing dolphins jumping our from the water. The driver turned off the motor so the dolphins came closer. We saw like 4 of them very close to the shore of the island. It is an amazing experience to see wild dolphins so close. I have seen them in shows in aquariums, and once in the sea, but never that close.

After some time we reached the island and we realized why the dolphins were so close to the shore. The island was full of fishermen that cleaned the fish, threw their insides to the sea and put them to dry. So it was easy food for the dolphins. When we arrived at the island we had to show our passports as usual. I still don't understand why Senegal has all these military checkpoints. Then we started walking in the seashore. A horrible smell from the dead fish was all over and a lot of fish residues were being carried by the waves. We saw many different kinds of sea animals. After walking some time, we reached a very nice and isolated beach and spent some time there.

When going back we saw again more dolphins; and now closer. One of them started to swim just besides our boat and another swam below it, from one side to.the other. We were so impressed that we didn't have time to get our cameras.

We went back to Caraban and went fishing. I'd never fished with a nice fishing stick before. I always though it was boring and I was right. We spent two hours under the sun, burning ourselves, without fishing anything. None of us could catch something, just some branches.

We went back to the hotel, frustrated, hungry and worried; since we had tell the chef that we would eat what we fish and in this case we had nothing. But as if they knew that we weren't going to catch a thing, they had everything prepares for dinner.

Senegal adventure. Day 6.

At three am the storm started again. It was refreshing. For.the first time in some days I slept like a baby, without waking up every hour because it is so warm. I slept so well that finally I woke up almost at 9. We went to buy bread for breakfast, which was surprisingly cheap. We bought 2 baguettes for less than a euro. Coming back we found to buys that told is that the match was set for the afternoon. Apparently, Claudio had asked someone to arrange a football match. So it was set.

We ate breakfast and started working. Some masons came to build the pillars in which we will place the panels. it was interesting that they use seashells, instead of rocks to make concrete. We worked slowly, we were tired and the sun was too strong. We ate all together in big plates, each with our own spoon. And as usual, mangos for dessert! =)

In the afternoon, William and me went to Zinguachor to the hardware store to buy the things we were missing. It was interesting to see that they even sell pots and coolers there. The other three went for the football match.

When we came back, we tried to plug the batteries to cook dinner, but something went wrong and we had some sparks and flames. Nothing serious; nevertheless we had to find out what was the problem. Most of us were tired and just wanted to have dinner and William wanted to fix it as soon as possible. This brought a small discussion in the group. Even though, when you work with friends is so easy to overcome small differences and these teammates of mine are so easy going that everything was ok in a few moments. We went to cook dinner where the nuns live. I cooked the most awful pasta of my life, but we Foivos said: it was just because I didn't have the means. After dinner we went for some gazelles. We didn't find gazelles, nor Flags. So we tried now 33 exp. We stay there talking about life and then a little of nonsense things.

While going back we enjoyed the stars and they saw some shooting stars. I didn't see any. Nevertheless, I made a wish.

Senegal Adventure. Day 4. The hard work is almost starting.

So we woke up early, as usual. We had breakfast and then rest a little, since we had to find a minivan to get all the equipment to the school.  At 11, we put all the equipment in the minivan and start the trip. We are staying in Bignona and the school is in Brin, like 40 km of distance. On the way we saw a lot of Mango sales. I don’t understand how all the people here sell mangos, if all of them sell mangos, who is going to buy them?

After less than an hour we arrived at Brin.  The school was nice, is a big building with a huge free area.  We started taking some measurements to see where to put the panels, and spent some time discussing where was the north, since none of the five Engineers thought about bringing a compass.

We went to the house of the nuns; they were going to cook for us the next days. We went into the town. Did some shopping and then come back to Bignona to work.  We did some shadow simulations and start planning the work for the next days.  

Senegal adventure. Day 5.

We woke up earlier than usual and we drove to Brin. This time the way seemed extra long. We will stay here the next three days.

The idea was to live without electricity and internet. But apparently we will still have all these "supplies". With all the technology now we have electricity in batteries and a portable internet USB stick. Why we don't dare to live three days without these "necessities"? For me it sounded like a terrific idea; be unplugged for some days and have at least a closer feeling of how these people live. I still don't understand in which moment these commodities turn into needs. Sometimes I think it will be great to spend some time in a remote place with access to any of these; maybe being disconnected from the outside world we can connect with ourselves. I want to enjoy more the nature, the people, the life, me. At the end at least we didn't use computers or internet. Just cellphones to play some music and flashlights.

So; we started building the system. We still don't know where to place the panels to have the right location and avoid shadows. We already plugged the batteries. While doing it I touches the positive and negative poles of the saw battery and a huge spark came out of it. It wasn't that bad, but I got q little scared. We also build the supports of the panels. I know my father would be proud of me, since I know how to use the tools. He always said knowing that would be useful sometime , but I never truly believed it.

We share lunch in huge plastic plates. As Alberto -one of the future priests- told me, Senegalese people eat rice in every meal. So again, we had rice for lunch.

We kept on working. But after lunch and with that temperature, it was almost impossible.

At the end of the day we decided to go for some gazelles. Nevertheless, in the bar next to our place there were no gazelles so we tried some flags. We came back and made a bonfire to cook some potatoes. We enjoyed a terrific dinner of potatoes and shrimps, while having Flags and watching a beautiful sky full of stars. I haven't seen such a nice sky in years.

Just when the lights of the city are off you can enjoy the lights of the sky.

Senegal adventure. Day 8. The relax.

We woke up to enjoy the sunrise. We walked from our hotel to another beach; crossing the island. We saw small huts made from wood and branches. A lot of homeless dogs barking at us and an old almost-fallen church. We reached the beach and saw near the horizon some fishing boats. We couldn't appreciate to much the sunrise since it was cloudy. But we enjoyed the dance of the violinist crabs. These crabs.were like making a ritual to the sunrise, shaking their clamps in an almost uniform way. Beautiful. After some time we came back. Is very nice to be in this small towns. All the people says hi and ask how you are.with a big smile all the time, as if you had met them before. And some of them even shake your hand.

Back at the hotel we had breakfast. Bread with jam again. As Albert, one of the priest has said, this was not the usual Senegalese breakfast; since bread was so expensive, just wealthy people had bread and the usual was eating rice in the three meals.

We rested in the hamacs, swam in the sea and had a delicious lunch. We went for a walk along the seaside. We walked for some kilometers. We saw some souvenirs shops and in one of them the owner offer us a weird tea that tasted very good. 

There were little houses and a lot of wreckage on the beach. In one of the ruins William felt suddenly and cut himself with a rock. Luckily, Foivos was prepared, as always, and had brought his medical kit. Nevertheless, our work as doctors was not so good and the bandages looked like a mess. We kept on walking until we couldn't anymore because we had to cross a river and we went back to the hotel.

 

Senegal Adventure. Day 3. More dancing.

Since I woke up, I was tired.  I have been gone to bed at almost 5 am and I decided to attend mass at 10.  So I woke up like at 9, took a shower and breakfast and went to mass. William and Claudio came with me.  I think is an interesting thing that every time I have an opportunity like this, one way or another, I spend my days in a religious circumstances.  I think I have to take advantage of the opportunity, so if I have a church at 50 m from my bed, why not attending mass? I have a lot of things to be thankful to God!  Specially this opportunity. The mass was amazing. I don’t understand French perfectly, but the choir was amusing! This gospel-caribean music was one of a kind and I enjoyed it a lot! After the mass all the attendants came to the seminar for the closing of the dancing festival.  More dancing.

After the typical dances, with the hairy character, some women start dancing. It is amazing how fast they move their feet.  I tried to do it, and I think that I manage to do it quite well.  The children of the village were also dancing. It is astonishing how they all can dance, even if they are very young. It was amusing to see a little girl, shaking her but as a professional dancer.  We dance a lot of music, including the original version of Waka Waka!  All the kids know it. It was so nice to see the five of us graving the hands of the children and dancing until the sunset. I was destroyed and went to bed. 

Senegal adventure. Day 7.

Today we woke up even earlier. A friend of a friend, or I don't know who, invited is to his hotel in caravan, an island near Brin. So to be ready at the right hour we worked faster. Before midday, one of the nuns that cook for us came and invited us to cook with her to learn to prepare the delicious shrimpswe had tried to nights before.
So I went with her, and it was the perfect experience to learn about cooking and learn French. Since she just spoke French, it was a little difficult to understand each other, but at the same time that forced me to speak French.
After lunch a small van came to pick us up and took us to the port. There we saw a dwell and two girls, one of approximately 12 and the other maybe 6. The older one was helping the young one to get water and then put it on her small head. They went and come back several times. This seemed just like a routine.

We took a boat and enjoyed a beautiful landscape until the island of Caraban. It was a nice island with small waves and a sea with warm water, which was something amazing for my European friends who were used to cold water in the sea.  We stay in the sea for a while and then had dinner.  For dessert we had something called Coconut Roche (Rocks of coconut) that is very similar, or the same, of what we call in Guatemala Cocadas.

Day 1. The 14 hours trip to travel 400 km

     We arrived at the airport at 2 am in the morning. Senegal is very different from Morocco, as they say, that part of Africa is more related to the Arabic countries and culture.  We slept the first night in a seminar. We woke up at 630 and a small minivan came to pick us up, with the Minister of Youth.  Foivos, William and me went to pick up the solar panels and all the equipment.  It was amazing how 300 kg of batteries and much more kilos of solar panels, plus 5 people, fit on a 7 people minivan. 

     We started our travel at 8 am.  Claudio and Luis had told us that they spent 12 hours to travel the 400 km between Dakar and Bignona.  I didn’t believe it, but apparently it was not an overestimation.  I didn’t know if the best idea was to sleep and relax or stay awake and be aware of everything, since our driver was a little bit crazy. The city looked like a mess, very unorganized. For me was very interesting that they still have horses and donkeys to travel inside the city. They have some small cafe mobile shops that appear interesting. 

     After leaving the city, the view become amazing, the land was completely dried, and just some plants stand the weather.  Groups of about 5 huts where surrounded with bamboo or other plants, as making small villages. Some black circles in the soil appear interesting to me, as if they burn something creating circles.  We asked the driver and it turned out that they burn a seed to get the oil from it.

     Since the boat that could take us directly to Zinguachor is not working at this time of the year, we had to cross the border, to Gambia, and then enter again in Senegal.  Our driver turned out to be an expert in all the migration issues, and everything went well easy. Since Luis had already passed the border, and had had some trouble, they already knew that a Guatemalan girl was coming, so I was known since the beginning.  We cross the border to Gambia and drove for some hours until we had to stop.  We got out of the car and realize that there was a huge line of cars in front of us.  That was the queue for the ferry.  

     We know we have to wait for some hours, we say a lot of trucks and apparently they wait for days. We walk until the riverbank and my real Africa experience started, I had to find a bathroom. I ask to the Minister and he took me to the bathrooms, it took me 2 minutes to decide if I was going to use it or not.  It was just a whole on the ground, no toilette. At the beginning I thought I would wait, but then I said to myself: “if you are in Africa, enjoy Africa!”.  

     We spend there more than five hours waiting.  I ate a delicious mango.  I hadn’t had a good mango since Guatemala, so it was a terrific experience for me.  Then we eat bread with sausage and onion, and they give it in a piece of newspaper.  After five hours it was hour time to get on the ferry.  It was amazing how you have to wait 5 hours to cross a 400 meters river. And if luck was not in our side, the ferry before us got stuck on the peer and even took us more than usual to reach the other side. The driver was a little bit worried, since when it gets dark, they close the road because of the conflicts with the rebels of Casamance. 

     So, he drove as fast as possible, we crossed the border back to Senegal and after some time, we had to stop because the border was closed. At first, I didn’t know want to think since it was already dark and they say it this conflict is very violent. But, since we were with the minister, he made some calls and after some minutes we were back on the road.  Like at 10 pm, we were already in Bignona. Amazing trip! We arrived here and everyone was glad to see us and warmly welcomed us. We went to the music festival and saw some typical dances, with a hairy character that’s turns very fast and looks amazing. 

Day 0. The Africa Adventure starts

I was waiting for this day for months; maybe not just for months, maybe I’ve dreamt about it for years. I still can’t believe is really happening. I never thought I was going to be here.  Or at least not now; and not under these circumstances. I love it! I have this feeling that somehow this dream that I had when I was sixteen and I had forgotten is coming back and is becoming true.  I am in the airport of Casablanca, Morocco; waiting for the last flight of the day to get to Dakar.

I had never written blog or something, but I think this experience is worth to be remembered forever.  I feel glad, that life put me here. 

“Man finds his destiny in the road he takes to avoid it”.