New start: New Delhi

Delhi's airport

I arrived at Delhi's airport at noon, with the sadness of a lost, the fear to the unknown and the hope of finding something new. At least this time, I didn't have to make a two-hour queue to go through the migration process. I had in mind that the first thing to do was to get my luggage, the one that was left in Miami and was supposed to arrive at this airport. It took me some time to fight against the bureaucracy of the Indian security officers, until I could arrive at the airline desktop to ask for my bag. 

They made me wait for more than an hour and I left without my luggage and without a clue of where it was. I was super hungry and went to a small kiosk just outside the airport, where my first "What am I doing here?" came to my mind. Everything on that kiosk was vegetarian, or vegetarian and spicy. It took me sometime to find something that looked like a hamburger and it turned out, that it was potato, not meat. Disappointed, I called for a taxi. It was a small (the smallest I've ever seen) van, super narrow. I get on it, and the second "what am I doing here?" pop into my mind, accompanied by a " I'm going to die".  The old man drove like crazy, with that narrow car, he was getting between two other cars, making four lines in a three lanes street. He was accelerating and hitting the brakes every 10 seconds. After five minutes, I decided just to calm down and trust on him, I thought that that should be the way they drive here, so he should know better. 

The monkey on my balcony

I felt it was a long drive, and I was just waiting for the landscape to change, from the small apartment buildings that were almost falling apart, to nice big buildings. It never happened and when I noticed, we were stopping in a super crowded street, with small, old, dirty houses.  The third "What am I doing here?" came to my mind, this was my block.  I walked slowly towards the entry of the gated community. I saw some ladies, wearing their saris, kids playing on a dry dirty park. I started looking for the number of the house, when I saw three monkeys jumping from one house to the other. It was outrageous! I even had monkeys on my block! Finally I found the house and the apartment, it wasn't as nice as I have pictured it. It was messy and dirty and with a continuous dripping from the shower that was driving me crazy. I put my things on place and went to buy some food.  

The market was just in front of my block. It had mostly restaurants, a lot of food that I have never seen in my life. I managed to find some food and decided to get a SIM card. I needed a copy of my passport, some pictures and to give the number of a reference person, as if I was applying for another visa. I went to get the copy of my passport and the old man who attended me didn't have change for my 10 rupees note, and he told me "bring it later!".  I was impressed, he didn't even know me, that was something that hadn't happened for me in a while. I managed to get my SIM card, the man on the store filled all the forms for me. Then I wanted to pay the man for the photocopies, but still didn't have change, so I asked someone on a store. He told me "I don't have change, but I can get it for you". So the man left his store and went to a near restaurant to get me the change. 

Riding the rickshaw

I went back home, met my new flatmate (an awesome, super friendly guy) and went to sleep. Before sleeping I was thinking on how lucky I was to have found a flat so close to the place I am working on and with so nice people, how lucky i was to get a SIM card activated on the same day, while it usually takes two, even for the locals. The next day I woke up with a renewed attitude, went to work on a rickshaw and realized that without knowing, I chose the perfect place to work on, doing exactly what I love. I have been here just for a few days, but I am starting to understand why am I here: I am here for the thrill, for the adventure; I am here for the smiles, for the kindness: I am here to challenge myself: I am here for something different, to see that the world is much more than what I am used to. I still don't know the whole reason, but at the moment I just feel is just right. I am just in the place I am supposed to be, that's why everything has worked out so perfectly. 

Safari at Sweetwaters

       We were ready for a three days trip outside the city visiting some solar projects and working.  At the last moment, on Thursday night, our contact person for visiting the sites told us that we couldn’t go.  So, we decided to visit more of the country and travel anyway.  The next morning, we woke up and spent some time deciding what to do.  Finally, we decided to go to Nanyuki and go on Safari.  I was super excited.  I didn’t imagine I would have the opportunity to do it. So we boarded a bus to the city centre and there we would find a matatu that would take us to Nanyuki. 

   A matatu is a small bus, a minivan of approximately 12 seats that makes long trips to different cities inside the country.  They are all parked in a spot in the city center, waiting to be filled.  You have to try to find a matatu that is almost full, because otherwise you will wait like 4 hours until it is full and departs.  When we arrived in the city center, we came down the bus and we just saw many people walking towards us, covering their faces. We didn’t pay attention and keep on walking, when suddenly a horrible smell, like if someone was frying onions came to us.  That’s when we realize that we were walking in tear gas.  Apparently the police wanted to move some vendors from the street and they use the teargas to move them.  We took another route and reach the matatu station. There were a lot of matatus, and a lot of people asking us where we were going and trying to make us chose their matatu, but we wanted and almost full one. Finally, we found one and started our journey to Nanyuki. 

     It took us like 6 hours to get to Nanyuki, it was a small city with mall in the middle. We found something to eat and then we looked for a hostel. At night we went to the supermarket and in the surroundings we found an English man that start talking to us and end up helping us to find a car and a guide for the Safari. The next morning, at 6 am, we were ready for Safari. But, our Kenyan driver wasn’t there.  We were worried, because they say that you can spot more animals in the morning that is when they go for food, at midday they try to hide from the sun. Our driver arrived 30 minutes late and we started our trip. 

    We arrived at Sweet waters park at 7 am and start our Safari.

  The first animal we say where zebras, apparently they are very common and you see them everywhere. Then we saw some Baboons, they were so nice passing in front of our car.  I loved to see the moms carrying the small babies on their backs.   Impalas are also very common and we saw a lot of them.  But we were looking for the “big five”.  The “big five” are animals that are rare and Kenyan people were always trying to find and hunt since they are very precious and they are very difficult to spot on foot.  

     We kept on driving and we saw some giraffes, I was so excited, since I like them a lot. Sadly, we just saw them from far. But, suddenly, we saw our first one of the “big five”: a buffalo.  

     We saw it from far, they are huge animals and very dangerous, so we tried to stay far. We went to a Chimpanzee rescue center.  Chimpanzees are not original from Kenya, but they have been brought here, since in their native countries they are captivated and sold. So in this place, they try to simulate their normal environment and keep them safe.  Chimpanzees are the most similar animals to humans, our DNA is 98% the same, so it was very interesting to see them.  We heard many sad stories of how they were treated before they got there; some of them cannot even stand properly since they had been for years inside in small cages.   

      After the rescue center we saw our second one of the “big five”: an elephant. This was an interesting elephant, since they are usually in group, and this one was alone.  They say he was expelled from the group and since then they always see him alone. Elephants are very territorial, and while we were taking pictures of it, unexpectedly we saw it coming towards us. It was quite scary to see such a huge animal walking towards us.  So we just moved from its territory and it calm down. 

     We saw another one of the “big five” on a protected site, the rhino. Rhinos are now endangered, so they are in special areas, with many guards taking care of them. Since their horns are very well pay, many villagers try to catch the rhinos and kill them to get their horns. This rhino was called Baraka and was half blind, that’s why it was very calmed and we could even fed him.                       We also saw some cheetahs playing among them and resting.  It was interesting how the Safari works, when one of the drivers sees one of the “big five” or other rare animal, he calls his friends, so in some minutes there are a lot of cars with people taking pictures. This was a little disappointing for me, because it kills the excitement of going in the wild and finding animals or tracing them. So, when we were looking at the cheetahs, our driver got a call announcing that there was a lion close by. So immediately we went to try to look for it. Sadly we didn’t. On the way we think we saw a leopard, three of us saw a shadow in the woods and told the driver, so we drove towards it.  Apparently it was really a leopard, since there were a lot of baboons nearby and all of them seem alert as is a predator was close.  We stay there for some more minutes, waiting for the leopard but we never saw it again.  At the end, we saw, for sure three of the “big five”, we think we saw four, and for sure we miss one: the lion.

     Other interesting fact of this park is that it is extended over the equator, so you cross the equator many times, to the north and to the south hemisphere while you are driving around.

    I liked the experience a lot. Nevertheless, I was expecting something wilder. I don’t know if it still exists on Earth a virgin place, where these wild animals have never had contact with human beings. The animals in this reserve seem very used to people, with turns it into a show more than a real experience.  

Kenya Experience. First week.

     And back to Africa! After some refreshing holidays in France, is time to go back to work. Now the project is totally different and with different people. This is not about delivering a technical solution but more of a field study. The rest of the team: Till and Judith from Germany, Iliana from Greece and Simone from Italy, came to Nairobi ten days ago, and they have been having different meetings with people from NGO’s and Kenya Power.

     I came on Friday, Till and Iliana went to pick me up at the airport. This is very similar to Dakar, but at the same time very different. It is also kind of dry, the city doesn’t have much infrastructure, there are traffic jams everywhere, and the weather is warm. Nevertheless, here there are no donkeys on the streets and, since Kenya was an English colony, everybody speaks English which makes communication and human relations easier for me. It took us almost 2 hours to get from the airport to our place, what usually takes 15 minutes; the traffic jams are astonishing! I got to the house and I was a little impressed. I’ve been in Senegal in the countryside, so I wasn’t expecting nice houses; but here, we were in the city and we were paying quite some money for this house and it is spacious, but is empty and bad maintained. We stayed there the whole afternoon, I was trying to answer emails and enjoy communication to the world again.

     We live in a so-called Estate, these are groups of houses that look the same, are enclosed and have a group of security people at the entrance. In Guatemala, we called them “Residenciales”, and the fact of being enclosed and having the same house as everybody, impressed my European friends. In front of our Estate there is a market. One of the tailors of the market, Zircali, is our friend; so he called us in the night to go out for a beer. We went to a bar near the market, very small and it looked like the bars in the countryside in Senegal, with wooden and plastic chairs. The music reminded me that I was back to Africa. Zircali calls himself “The government” and tells everybody to call him this way; he knows a lot of people, all of them say that they have a lot of money, show off their cell phones and brag about their houses. After sometimes, the girls and I went to sleep and the boys keep on partying with Zircali and his friends.

     The next day I decided to stay in home and to keep catching up with my work. The girls went hiking and the boys slept until late.  I did my laundry, by hand again; this time I was expecting to have a laundry machine, but no, so it was very disappointing. Then, when I tried to work, there was no internet, so I couldn’t work the whole day. In the afternoon, we went with the boys to look for a swimming pool. The only one we found was in the golf club, but we needed to be members, so we came back. The day went by without internet and not many news; and during the night we had to pack our things, since Till, Judith and me were coming to Lodwar. 

     We had to wake up very early on Sunday to take our plane to Lodwar. I couldn’t sleep very well since our landowner was moving out and went away until 2 am. This time it took us just 15 minutes to reach the airport, so we got earlier than we expected. At the desk of Fly 540, the ladies told us that since we had come early, we could take the first airplane that was supposed to leave at 7 am (by that time it was already 730 am).

 So we were happy, maybe we could gain some time. We were in the waiting room and a girl approached to all the people that were supposed to take our flight and told us that the plane was already there, but it was getting fuel. One hour after, we started boarding. So at the end, the first plane that was supposed to be 2 hours before ours, took off just at the time we were supposed to take off: 9 am. It was a scary flight, a small plane that shook a lot.  From the sky we could see how we were approaching the deserted north of Kenya.

After one and a half hours, we arrived in Lodwar. Henry, the manager of the off-grid stations of Kenya Power had arranged our stay, so a Taxi driver went to pick us up and left us in our hotel or, as they call it, guest house. Lodwar is a city, that as Till says, can be much nicer if it was paved. So, it is very dry, dusty and warm. Is like we are in the middle of nowhere. There are just some business, like grocery stores, restaurants, cell phone services and other guest houses. 

There is no much to see or do here, but is interesting to see how other people live. We can see that they eat a lot of meat, especially goat. And they have a lot of food very similar to Guatemalan food: Chapati, that seems a tortilla, Ugali, that is like tamal and they also eat a lot of beans. I enjoy a lot the food here! =)

     On Monday, we decided to go to Elisey Springs, near Turkana Lake.  According to our tourist guide book, there was nothing very interesting to do, but it was a nice place to see.  Our driver picked us up at 8 and we drove for 2 hours. The way was very interesting, just after we left the “city center”, there was nothing, but some trees and dust. Once in a while, we came to see small huts and then everything was a big savanna, just like in The Lion King movie.  We also saw a lot of goats and some people walking. These people were Turkanas, they are the tribu that lives near Turkana Lake, they wear just a piece of cloth to cover their main body and the ladies wear many necklaces that stretch their necks. According to our guidebook, they don’t like to be photographed, so that’s why I don’t have nice pictures of them, even I met some of them. I met a lady, called Maria, she was very nice to me. Most of these people speak English, but is very difficult to understand them, and I think for them is very difficult to understand me, because sometimes they answer something different to what I’m asking. 

     At some point of our trip we found camels! That was amazing, it was the first time in my  life that I saw a camel! And in wildlife! Our driver told us that mainly they exchange them for women. =/

After 2 hours, we got to the place. It was beautiful, it was a lake, but since it was windy it had small waves. Beautiful!

     Even it was a nice beach; we couldn’t got in the water: the guidebook said there are crocodiles. I don’t know if reading that guidebook was a good idea, it made me afraid of doing a lot of things that maybe could have been fun.

I decided to go for a walk. I saw a lot of beautiful birds, but every time I approached to take a picture, they flew away. I met a fisherman that was very nice to me, and told me to not be afraid of the crocodiles, since they just went out during the night. On my way I also met Maria, the Turkana lady and some kids that were asking me to take them some pictures. I really don’t understand if they wanted money for them after that, since just one of them spoke English and not very well. Anyway, I didn’t have money with me, but they didn’t get mad. 

      Then we had swam in a small swimming pool of the resort, had lunch and came back home. The driver was hurry or something, and for a moment I thought we were going to crash. The road is awful, sandy at the beginning and then is full of holes. First, we got stuck in the sand, and then we got a flat tire. The driver changed the tire fast and we continued our way. We got back to Lodwar and Henry came to pick us up to go to the first generation plant I was going to visit. It was a hybrid solar and diesel off-grid power plant that was serving the habitants of Lodwar. We visited the plant, got the specifications of it. It was very interesting that they had tracking and no-tracking systems; they are actually testing them to see what is more cost effective to implement it in their next project, which is way bigger. It is interesting to see that some houses near the power plant are not connected to the grid. Henry said that it was because they can’t afford the connection fee or because they are afraid of having electricity because they thing their huts are going to burn.  It is interesting to see these huts, as the ones we saw in our way to Turkana. The question is: do these people really want electricity? 

They look so peaceful, and like they don’t need anything. Henry says that for these cases, they mostly want to provide lighting; the use of other home appliances is not urgency.  I wonder if not giving them electricity is hinder their development and prevent them from the “luxury” of it, or is just ruining their peace. After my month in Senegal, I realize that being without electricity can be quite fun and you enjoy many things of nature that you are not used to: like the stars.  It can be messy, you are fixing a problem, but maybe you are bringing others. I agree that electricity is needed for development, but in this extreme cases, of these people living so far from this material world, why dragging them? It gave me something to think of.

  

 

Dakar and the end of the Senegal adventure

I already had a small impression of Dakar before going to Casamance. Nevertheless, I thought I needed to see more, since I’ve just had seen some dusty roads. We arrived at the port and decided to go to the Gorée. It was a beautiful island very close to Dakar, that where slaves were concentrated and commercialized some centuries before. So it was full of old buildings and history.

 They also had a lot of beautiful handicrafts. It was interesting to be on this island, and learn about the slavery situation back then. Sometimes is hard to believe that that was true, men being killed for wanting freedom, separated families, young children put away from their mothers.  In one of the houses, they still have the cells where the slaves were kept while waiting for the next boat to come. There is a door, called the “door of no return”, since after crossing that door, the slaves got into the boats and they would never returned home.

After the island we went back to Dakar, to the most western point of Africa.  It is striking that this part of the continent is owed by a fancy hotel. We sneaked in and took some pictures before they kicked us out. Then we went for lunch at the seashore before going back to the seminar.  Dakar is a big city, with a lot of cars and thereby, a lot of traffic jams. People drive in a very stressed manner and is interesting that you can even see small cars pulled by donkeys going on the way.  

Senegal is a nice country. I wasn’t that much in the city, so I can’t say if I like it. But, regarding the countryside, it was beautiful, I loved it. People is warm, the landscapes are beautiful. So, I take a great impression from my first visit to Africa.

When I was younger, I thought that I will go to an African country and save the world. Now that I’m going back home, I realize that this time I got much more than what I gave.  We built a solar PV system that provides electricity to an educational building and we hope to increase the impact of the association with this.  Nevertheless, the life experience and what I learned was amazing.

At the beginning it sounds difficult to live without electricity, mobile phone or internet, but when you doing it, help me to realize that all this things are not really a need.  Of course, if you have to run a business and study this are useful resources, but sometimes they prevent us to enjoy other things that can be more valuable, like watching the stars and having a nice conversation with friends while having dinner.  I realized that it was a long time since I didn’t pay attention to the sky and the stars, and I have forgotten how amazing and entertaining it can be.  When I got to the ferry, I also realized I hadn’t had a mirror for some time, and before I was used to see myself in a mirror every day. Sometimes we worry about so many things that can be meaningless, these people can have less than us, but they are way friendlier and seem happier, always smiling.

I was impressed of the religious tolerance that exists in Casamance, even most of the population is Muslim, Christians and Muslims realize together different activities, for example the dance festival. There is also a lot of trust between them; it was striking to see free goats everywhere and I was always wondering how they know of whom are the goats. 

I also learn to not prejudge people. When I got to Senegal it was shocking that all the stores and all the people stop working at noon and continue after 4 pm.  After some time, I realize that it is impossible to work at that time, because of the heat.  I wanted to take naps and stay in the shadow during those hours. Besides, at the beginning I didn’t like all my teammates, but after some days I realize that they are very nice guys, committed to the work and we develop a very nice friendship. Time went so fast, and I have the impression that our impact was not too big. Nevertheless, I know that at this time I came to observe and learn how they live and what they do. For a next time, I hope I can use all the knowledge I’ve gain to help these people or other people somewhere else.

The Senegal Adventure. Cap Skirring

  On Sunday afternoon, after finishing connecting all the panels properly, we took a Taxi to Cap Skirring.  They say is one of the most beautiful touristic attractions of Casamance. We arrived almost at 4 and try to find accommodation.  We realized that the “city center” was quite small and there were just a few bars and restaurants. So, the only options were the so-called camp –sites: small huts inside a wall and one or a few rooms inside each hut.  We ask for prices in some of these camps and we found many new friends on the way. All of them greet you nicely and tried to offer one of their services, like restaurants or fishing tours. At the end, we decided to stay at The Paradise, which was a perfect name for the place.  

     It was a beautiful white-sand beach with a lot of palm trees; something totally different from what we had seen before.  From the restaurant of the camp-site we had a nice view to the horizon. We were very hungry and ordered something for lunch. After living two weeks in Senegal, this was the first time we ate at a local restaurant and we had a lot to learn about it. We already knew that Senegalese time is always late, but we didn’t know that it was even worse for food. We waited almost one and a half hour to get our food.  At Brin we used to eat all together from the same plate, each of us had a spoon and grab the food from a big plate at the center of the table. I thought it was to avoid washing the dishes, but apparently this is the way Senegalese people eats, since we saw a lot of people eating like this at the restaurant. 

     After lunch we went for a walk in the beach. It was full with young people playing and dancing, there was even a wrestling competition. Something very bizarre for us was that there were many cows along the beach, resting. 

     We found a nice spot without cows and went for a swim; the waves and the water temperature were perfect and we stayed there until the sunset.  We decided to go down town for dinner, and on our way we realize we didn’t have any cash and in Senegal, I haven’t find a place where they take your credit or debit card.  So we got in the first restaurant we found and bargained until we got the price we wanted to be able to have dinner. I have heard that African people live just for the day, and we witnessed it.  At the moment we asked for the food, the woman went out to buy the potatoes and the vegetables to prepare our meal. So as usual, we waited more than one hour for the food. We ate and went back to the camp-site without any party or beers for the night. 

The next day we woke up very late, we had been very tired. We had lunch again in the camp-site, but this time we ordered the food one and a half hours before lunch time.  Then we went down town to look for some souvenirs and some traditional clothes. It took us like two hours to make the deal, but we found a good tailor and a good price. 

 We went back to the hotel and had asked one of the guys we met the day before to prepare dinner for us, so at night we went to a restaurant at the beach.  We ate literally under the stars, at the light of two candles and hearing some African music. Amazing night! It seemed like it was a paradise just for us. 

     We ate grilled fish with rice and then we got some beach chairs and stayed at the beach watching the stars for some time that felt like years.  The sky was clear and beautiful and the sound of the waves created the perfect scene. After a while we decided to go back home, not without taking our midnight bath.  The water was warm. Even though the waves were not that high, the loud sound they made and the darkness, made me feel scared after a while. It was frightening to be the only ones in that big sea. 

     Since we had enjoyed the dinner so much, we made a deal with the guy who prepared it (who I will name John because I don’t remember his name and I don’t want to remember) to have a tour the next day to visit some islands. As a typical Senegalese he arrived late to pick us up, they he took us to his pirogue and we started the trip. We had paid already half, since as is usual in Senegal, he needed some money to buy the fuel and other things for the trip, and on the first 20 minutes of the trip he asked for the rest of the money because he said he needed to buy more fuel. 

      The first island we visited was Tom Tom Telephonique.  They say it is special because of its drums that were used to communicate between the islands. As soon as we arrived, a group of kids approached us. It was wonderful! All of them coming to great us. It seemed like they were having a party on the middle of the island, since they had music and were all dancing together. But in fact, that is their everyday life.  Dancing. Senegalese people love to dance and it is incredible how even small children enjoy the music and can dance, is as they have rhythm in the blood. 

     As we walked along the island, more and more kids approached. All of them asking our names and where we were from, trying to grab our hands. We saw the famous drums that are not that interesting as they said. We visited the village; there were a lot of small huts and a small school of two rooms. Incredibly, most of the huts and the school had PV panels on top. That was very interesting for us, since it is related to our careers.  At the school we stayed some time talking with the boys and what they wanted to be when they grew up; most of them said they wanted to be football players and just one of them said he wanted to be the president of Senegal. They were very proud of the African football players and knew the name of all of them and what are they doing. It was fascinating to see what are the interests of the kids and what are they aiming from.

    At this island we learned more about the lifestyle of the people than about Tom Tom Telephonique. It was nice to see a little bit more detailed how people live and what they do.

     Then we went to the Crocodile Island, were they told us we could see crocodiles walking everywhere.  Again, it was an exaggeration.  We just saw three crocodiles and inside some walls. We were quite disappointed and we were waiting for the third island: the bird island. We got back into the pirogue and start our travel. When we were passing some mangles, John said: “This is the bird island; the problem is that since it is noon the birds are eating and that is why you can’t see them”.  At this moment we realized we have been tricked. We were waiting just for the last promise: a good meal and we clearly stated we didn’t want Tiebudien. Tiebudien is one of the typical foods of Casamance, it is rice with fried fish and vegetables, and it is very good, but we have been eaten that for the last two weeks, so we wanted something different. We had asked for some Mafe. Mafe is another typical food from Casamance that someone had recommended us and it is made with a peanut sauce, since it sounds like Mafer, we were very keen about trying it.   Saddly,  we had Tiebudien for lunch, again. We were very mad at the guy, but he didn’t care, he said that he had given a good price and it wasn’t his fault that the only thing available was it.  We learned that even Senegalese people have been very nice to us; one has to be always careful. 

    When we came back to Cap Skirring we went to pick up our typical clothes. I have asked for a dressed, when I saw it I was impressed of how beautiful it was. After a little of disappointment and a lot of good impressions, we left Cap Skirring and went back to Bignona.

Senegal adventure. Second week

     This week we worked  a lot. The Monday seemed eternal. We had a lot to do and a lot of pressure to finish. At the middle of the day a huge snake (huge for me, but like 50 cm long) appeared just in the middle if the field while we were working. We freaked out and the masons doing the pilars rapidly came to try to kill it throwing rocks at it. Finally, one of the masons hit it with a stick and killed it. Apparently it wasn't dangerous, but it scared us.

     I went to mass in the afternoon. I remember I got mad with my mom because she wanted to hear the mass in Notre Dame de Paris even if it was in French; but after that I understood that even if there are somethings I don't understand, the ritual is the same so the language doesn't matter. At the end if the day I wanted to go to Bignona, back to the seminar since there was going to be a mass for my grandfather in the morning. It took us a long to get there since we did many stops. We first stopped at a nice hotel and drink something at the shore of the river, watching how piroles (small wooden motor boats) come and go. Then we went to the hospital of Zinguachor,  I don't know why. They told us about the poor conditions of the hospital buy we couldn't get in.  There was just one nurse for 300 patients and the families of the sick people should cook and feed them because they didn't have this service. After three hours we reached Bignona.

     The next day we went to mass, it was the last mass of the school year for the primary school kids so all of them were there. It was a very nice experience and very comfortable to hear happy songs as if heaven was welcoming my grandfather. After the mass we drove back to Brin.

     The week went by fast. We had a lot of new problems and solutions for the system. First of all, the pillars were not at the position the required them, so the structure holding the panels didn't fit. Nevertheless, we locate the panels for a while at the floor and started charging the batteries. On Wednesday afternoon we already had electricity for the building, which we of course celebrated with some Gazelles. It was an amazing feeling of success even the work hadn't been finished. That night we made a fire to cook the dinner, as usual, and for the first time I went to the store by myself and ask for some tomato sauce in French. It was impressive to get into the small store and realize that there was no light and when I asked for the sauce, the guy just turned on a small flash light and looked for it. This reminded me when I was young and there were a lot of blackouts at my grandparents place in the Guatemalan countryside.

On Thursday we went to a crocodile farm, they had crocodiles of all ages and a lot of fruits and nice flowers. It was a nice visit. 

That night, when we were going to sleep I found a huge spider in the wall of my room.  It freaked all of us out, since we had never seen a spider that big. William killed it with a piece of wood, but even after that  I was so scared that was thinking to even sleep outside in the garden and not in my room. 

Even we had already connected the panels and were having electricity, they were not fixed on the pillars yet, since the pillars weren't finished and we had the problem of the distance between them.  We had asked for a certain distance between the panels and we just assumed that the masons were going to build them with the required specifications.  But, we assumed wrong and then we had a huge problem since the structure didn't fit on the pillars. After a lot of different ideas and some tries, we decided to rebuild the structure to make it fit on the pillars.  Then a smith came to make the angles to support the structure on the pillars. On Saturday afternoon, the masons, the smith and us work as hard and fast as we could and by the end of the day the panels were on top and fixed on the pillars. The next morning we just finished some connections and the system was almost finished so we decided to take some vacations. 

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.