this past weekend (cont.)

Woke up early Sunday morning in our little hotel. Its was similar to a french bread n' breakfast. Being that the country is francophone, our English, we soon discovered, would not get us far. None of the staff spoke english, so our collective knowledge of french and wolof was utilized constantly. Soon pictures will be put up that will go along with this blog to give you an idea of what I will be talking about. The island is small, you can walk from end to end in less then 30min. It has only one beach, and the rest of the island is rocky with a section of soaring cliffs at least 100ft high. Renee and I spent the first half of the day exploring the coastline of one side of the island. We walked on the rocks about half way around the island, sometimes scaling some sweet boulders and basically just "scrambling" for a few hours. After lunch, it was adventures with the locals. Walking around, using french and wolof to communicate with the local artists. I was surprised as to how much french i actually understood when locals talked to us. Everyone living on the island is used to tourists, mostly french speaking tourists though. I found that communication consisted of them talking to me in french and myself responding in wolof. Senegalese wolof is different from gambian wolof in that senegalese wolof is influenced by french whereas gambian wolof is influenced by english. Leads to a little confusion but we mostly got by. Monday was spent in a similar fashion, walking around the entire island, swimming a wee bit at the little beach and doing some touristy type activities (consisting of buying arts n' crafts for you kids back home). The trip home was a lot less stressful and even boring in fact.

past two weeks and this past weekend

for the past two weeks, a group of professors have been staying in the Gambia, half of which were staying in our home. They were brought over by Bill Roberts (the head honcho for the program), i guess in an effort to expand the faculty involved with the exchange program. They all taught lectures at UTG at least once, were able to travel up country and learned how the Gambian educated community interacted. I personally didnt see too much of them due to time conflicts, whereas most of the other students were able to go to the beach with them, my internship, which keeps me out of the home all afternoon didnt allow it. This was fine with me, but getting to know some new profs. would have been nice. This past weekend, all us students and the profs went on a trip to Dakar, senegal, from which they returned home. It started sat. morn, getting into the van around 6am in an attept to catch the 7am ferry across to the north bank. Of course, while picking up some of the profs from one of the hotels, i realized that the one thing i needed most, my passport, was still at home. So bill told me that i had to hire a taxi to take me back to the house and then to the port. they wouldnt wait for me if i missed the 7am ferry but would wait on the other side. Being that anyone can pretty much be bought here, i bribed a worker from the hotel 200dalasi (9$) to haul ass to the house and then to the ferry. Managed to make it just fine, and caught up with the group. Of course the port was packed already so we missed the 7am ferry...and the 8am ferry...but we caught the 9am! From there it was less then one hour to the gambia/senegal border. Then we find out that our driver, has forgotten his ID card, and wont be allowed to cross into senegal without it. We have to wait from 10am until 1pm at the border for his company to send someone with his ID card up to us. During this time i spent chatting with locals. I made a friend on the gambian side of customs and sat with him while he checked peoples bags coming into the country. i watched him take a few bribes, and deny a few people access to the entry. All in a days work apparently. Finally the ID card came and we were able to cross. From there it was only about 6hours to Dakar. We hit the city, on a saturday night around 7pm. massive traffic. Now none of us have had a real meal since 8am. Although i had been under the impression that we were staying in Dakar, it turns out we actually arent staying in the city at all, but on an island off the coast called Goree (gore-a) island. Although it was beautiful and picturesque and lots of interesting locals on the island. I was dissapointed because i was very interested in the city itself. All of the city that we saw was driving through it at 1030pm looking for the ferry port. Well anyway, when we get into the city, we go to the airport, to meet one of the professors friends, from college who now lives in Dakar. We are going to his house or something because the professors dont want to take their large luggage items to the island when they fly out monday morning. This guys house is phenomanally beautiful, amazing old art pieces, fantastic furniture and crazy sand art, and here we are, having been in a van for 12 hours looking disheveled and starving. Hes a perfect host, pulls out snacks (which we devour) and booze. The professors and some of the students have wine, gin&tonics, and cognac (which comes in a bottle shaped like the eiffel tower). There was no way i was about to start drinking with no food in my belly except for some peanuts and what looks a lot like chex mix (in Senegal?!?). Now im not writing online that the profs get drunk or anything, but they certainly got festive and into this whole party atmosphere created for us. There is light jazz playing in the background, wife is serving drinks and snacks, and i just want to pass out from traveling all day. Finally we all head out, the profs are boisterous on the van, and we drive into the thick of DKR looking for some port to goree island. Of course we get lost a few times but eventually make it to this ferry and board it, heading for parts unknown.
Apparently this island was a former trading post for slaves as well as a WWII outpost. So there is a bunch of interesting history. Its current role is home to many senegalese, most of which who are artists selling their wares to the flocks of tourists who arrive every year. Basically bill roberts has brought us to this island to be tourists and work on our wolof. This is fine with me, except i had been working under the impression we were going into Dakar to explore the city. Whatever, well its 8am now so ill finish this later

life is super busy

so my life has become really busy as of late. Ive started teaching computer skills lessons at CPA everyday from 230-4. thursdays are my busiest days. class at 830-10. class 1-230, teaching comp lessons 230-4 class 5-630. i enjoy all of it but now classiest are starting to actually assign work and its getting to be real busy. Exam and paper next week in Peace&conflict studies, Exam and paper in Urban&rural sociology, presentation in juvenile delinquency. now we are going to dinner at the Vice-chancellors of the Univ. of Gambia house. so im out!