For our final group excursion of the semester, we took a visit to St. Louis, the historic colonial base of the French, about four hours north of Dakar. There was a lot of beautiful colonial architecture (my camera broke, so I only have pictures due to Carlee; thank you!) and some outrageous tourist-y shops (I saw a French woman purchase a shirt for 12,000 Fcfa, so I guess now I understand why they start so high-- because they can often get away with it). Overall, it was an interesting trip, though I felt like such a tourist the whole time, although I managed not to get too ripped-off.
Basically, our tour consisted of a horse-cart roundtrip of the colonial island, featuring bad jokes by the guide which really aren't translatable. For example:
Q: What is the most common tree in a cemetery?
A: The orangier, because you have to ranger les os [collect the bones].
Among other highlights, we crossed the rickety old bridge, which is currently being reconstructed, piece by piece, a few feet away:
Q: Why is it called the Faidherbe Bridge?
A: Because it's fait d'herbe [made of grass].
We also saw the fish market, which smelled absolutely gross, but gave way to the beautiful ocean, where I stood for as long as possible before diving back into the overwhelming, fly-ridden piles of fish (not literally-- that would be disgusting).
I have to admit, one of my favorite parts of visiting St. Louis was the fact that the hotel had hot showers... It was a wonderful dream. I don't know if you're aware of this, but my house has cold water only (as is normal in a Senegalese household-- I don't know anyone in the program who has hot water), and so I hadn't had a hot shower in several months. So, being able to stand under the high-pressure hot water for 10 or 15 minutes was heavenly.
Our second day in St. Louis, we visited the bird sanctuary, which was full of pelicans, who apparently hunt in packs. They get around a fish and then dive together. It's kind of fascinating-- they're like the hyenas of the water, or something like that.
Last but not least, we discovered the true Senegalese club experience. We arrived around midnight-- not really sure why, since even I know that clubs don't get lively until a few hours after that-- and, sure enough, there was absolutely no one there except our group. Around 1 or 1:30, people started arriving and getting jiggy on the dance floor. Interestingly, we were some of the few girls who weren't watching ourselves in the mirror. Most of the Senegalese girls were gazing at themselves in the mirrors around the edge of the dance floor, and checking their own booties out. It was kind of hilarious.
That concluded the St. Louis trip. I'm glad that I was able to at least see St. Louis, if not truly experience and explore it. St. Louis is quite different from Dakar, in a lot of ways, from my brief encounter with it-- primarily because it was the capital during colonial times, and thus has quite a bit of French colonial architecture that I haven't noticed in Dakar. Of course, I'd have to visit St. Louis more extensively to really get a feel for it, but that will have to wait until a different trip.
We also saw the fish market, which smelled absolutely gross, but gave way to the beautiful ocean, where I stood for as long as possible before diving back into the overwhelming, fly-ridden piles of fish (not literally-- that would be disgusting).I have to admit, one of my favorite parts of visiting St. Louis was the fact that the hotel had hot showers... It was a wonderful dream. I don't know if you're aware of this, but my house has cold water only (as is normal in a Senegalese household-- I don't know anyone in the program who has hot water), and so I hadn't had a hot shower in several months. So, being able to stand under the high-pressure hot water for 10 or 15 minutes was heavenly.
Our second day in St. Louis, we visited the bird sanctuary, which was full of pelicans, who apparently hunt in packs. They get around a fish and then dive together. It's kind of fascinating-- they're like the hyenas of the water, or something like that.
Last but not least, we discovered the true Senegalese club experience. We arrived around midnight-- not really sure why, since even I know that clubs don't get lively until a few hours after that-- and, sure enough, there was absolutely no one there except our group. Around 1 or 1:30, people started arriving and getting jiggy on the dance floor. Interestingly, we were some of the few girls who weren't watching ourselves in the mirror. Most of the Senegalese girls were gazing at themselves in the mirrors around the edge of the dance floor, and checking their own booties out. It was kind of hilarious.That concluded the St. Louis trip. I'm glad that I was able to at least see St. Louis, if not truly experience and explore it. St. Louis is quite different from Dakar, in a lot of ways, from my brief encounter with it-- primarily because it was the capital during colonial times, and thus has quite a bit of French colonial architecture that I haven't noticed in Dakar. Of course, I'd have to visit St. Louis more extensively to really get a feel for it, but that will have to wait until a different trip.
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