So today is Saturday and usually on Saturdays in the U.S. I would be sleeping in a watching TV. Now that we are in Senegal, we usually have to get up at 8, but today we got to sleep in because we didn’t have to meet until 10. Becca and I arrived at the Baobob Center, also known as the ACI Center. It is our main meeting place where get organized to start our day. Today, we were all excited to see the magical air-conditioned bus that would drive us around the city for the day. Today we drove around Dakar while Oussman and Babacar pointed out the main attractions. We drove on one of the main highways in Dakar and we passed some new apartment complexes that were being built for lower income families. We also saw street sweepers who were sweeping the sand off of the roads in order to make them cleaner. On our city tour, we saw the main stadium which holds 60,000 people and is used for big events such as wrestling matches that have recently become very popular in Senegal. We passed a beautiful mosque that is affiliated with one of the Islamic Brotherhoods and we saw people preparing for a religious ceremony that will happen in a few weeks. On our way to our next destination we saw a street dancer who danced in front of our bus on stilts. We all cheered for him as he “dougied” on stilts in the street. Pretty impressive!
Our next destination was the best thing ever, the bakery. Oussaman, Babacar, Señora Brown, and Mr. Moreau bought us all chocolate croissants, which were absolutely delicious. Our next stop was a mystery to us all because Oussman would not tell us where we were going. As we passed the new American Embassy that the Senegal group next year will get to visit, we wondered where in the world our leaders were taking us. Our mystery destination was the King Fahd Palace Hotel, which is owned by the president of Saudi Arabia. The hotel was extremely nice and we all got to walk along the beach and climb on the rocks. We saw a group of Senegalese boys dancing and playing on the rocks. Some of the boys were very violent though because they were just killing the sea urchins without any purpose whatsoever. Later we found out that those boys were training to be wrestlers. Many of us amused ourselves by walking on the rocks out to the sea. Although it was very difficult not to fall, every one of us made it back to the beach without getting hurt.
Our next stop was the Senegalese YMCA. We arrived at the YMCA and the director presented what the YMCA does in Senegal. It was very interesting to find that many of the YMCA workers were Muslims. Even though the YMCA is a Christian organization, we are learning that Christians and Muslims work together all the time in Senegal for the betterment of the community. After the presentation, we had a short tour of the facility and then we were led into a room and we all sat in a circle. We learned Senegalese dances and songs and we played a common Senegalese game. We also taught the YMCA leaders an American game. The dancing was intense because afterwards, my legs were sore. My favorite part of the day was when we went to the beach. There were lots of people at the beach, and it was really nice just being able to sit and relax in the sand on a Sunday afternoon. I walked along the beach with Austin and Antoinette, and everywhere we turned we saw young boys and men exercising. The most interesting part of my day was the neighborhood block party that many of us attended. It was in Danette and Austin’s neighborhood so everyone met up at their house and we walked to court where tents were set up. Inside the tent the chairs were arranged in the circle, the drummers were near the front of the tent, and they were selling sodas and other drinks in the back of the tent. We came relatively early (at 10 p.m.) not knowing that a Senegalese party does not start until after 12 a.m. The drummers played music and men and women would get up and dance for a few minutes in the middle of the circle. We all danced a little bit, but none of us were able to move the way the Senegalese women were dancing. It’s been a long fun Saturday! Well, it’s 12:30 a.m. and I am extremely tired. I’m going to let the lullaby of my local sheep lure me to sleep. We are all so happy to be here and we can’t wait for the many adventures that lay ahead of us tomorrow in Saint Louis.
-Malaika
