Last weekend, I went to St. Louis...no, not St. Louis in the States (as my mom thought), but St. Louis Senegal. St. Louis is about a 5-6 hour bus trip from Dakar, but the ride to get there is SO beautiful. Since I’ve been here, I have been living in Dakar and only in Dakar, so I have not experienced the scenery of Senegal that many people think of as ‘traditional Africa’. I have been living in Dakar where the most interesting thing that I see on a day to day basis are the peanut sellers on the side of the street. But on the way photo of spooky chips with prof. Sene to St. Louis, ALL you could see was desert dotted by tiny shrubs and baobab trees. Along the way, we saw ‘real’ villages consisting of actual huts (sorry to disappoint you all, but I’m living in a house, not a hut). The entire scenery was GORGEOUS. 
Anyway, about half way to St. Louis, we realized that we HAD to pee. In Senegal, there are no continently placed rest stations on our one highway...however, there are plenty of bushes =) Picture this: a large tour bus is pulled over on a dirt road that is surrounded by desert as far as the eye can see. There are maybe a few Senegalese wondering about in said desert. Outside the bus, there’s a handful of people smoking. In the bus, a handful of Americans singing 90s pop songs. From the bus, out comes about seven or eight femme-bobs (white women), armed with a roll or two of pink toilet paper marching toward the nearest row of shrubs. Fortunately, most of us have had plenty of preparation for peeing in this kind of situation thanks to our squat toilets at home (although I still managed to pee on my foot...comme d’hab).
Back on the bus. For the rest of the trip, the MSU group sang 90s pop songs: NSYNC, Backstreet, Spice Girls, Britney, a bit of Aaron Carter...then switched to some 60s as we pulled into our ‘hotels’. We stayed at the residences of the University of St. Louis. They were quite deceiving. They look very nice on the outside and everyone’s first thought was “OH MY GOD, I’M GETTING A HOT SHOWER”. Wrong. Oh so wrong. There’s no water in either house except for the spigot on the outside....but more about that adventure later.
After lunch of Cheb-o-jen (I totally slaughtered that name, FYI), which is white rice and fish, our directors took us on THE most awkward tour that I have ever been on. Honestly, this tour was on a level of awkwardness all by itself. We went into the city of St. Louis and went directly from our large tour bus to horse carriages (picture the ones in Fmuth) to begin our tour. Yes. All thirty of us. It truly was a Toubob-parade.
Anyway, about half way to St. Louis, we realized that we HAD to pee. In Senegal, there are no continently placed rest stations on our one highway...however, there are plenty of bushes =) Picture this: a large tour bus is pulled over on a dirt road that is surrounded by desert as far as the eye can see. There are maybe a few Senegalese wondering about in said desert. Outside the bus, there’s a handful of people smoking. In the bus, a handful of Americans singing 90s pop songs. From the bus, out comes about seven or eight femme-bobs (white women), armed with a roll or two of pink toilet paper marching toward the nearest row of shrubs. Fortunately, most of us have had plenty of preparation for peeing in this kind of situation thanks to our squat toilets at home (although I still managed to pee on my foot...comme d’hab).
Back on the bus. For the rest of the trip, the MSU group sang 90s pop songs: NSYNC, Backstreet, Spice Girls, Britney, a bit of Aaron Carter...then switched to some 60s as we pulled into our ‘hotels’. We stayed at the residences of the University of St. Louis. They were quite deceiving. They look very nice on the outside and everyone’s first thought was “OH MY GOD, I’M GETTING A HOT SHOWER”. Wrong. Oh so wrong. There’s no water in either house except for the spigot on the outside....but more about that adventure later.
After lunch of Cheb-o-jen (I totally slaughtered that name, FYI), which is white rice and fish, our directors took us on THE most awkward tour that I have ever been on. Honestly, this tour was on a level of awkwardness all by itself. We went into the city of St. Louis and went directly from our large tour bus to horse carriages (picture the ones in Fmuth) to begin our tour. Yes. All thirty of us. It truly was a Toubob-parade.
Photo of the Toubob parade
The beginning of the tour wasn’t too awkward (borderline semi-comfortable even). We toured the downtown area of St. Louis. The architecture was colonial French. It was SO beautiful (I will eventually learn a new adjective to use and I’ll stop repeating the same one...eventually, but not now). THEN someone thought it would be a good idea to take us to the poorest part of the town. Okay, it’s NOT that I’m against going into this part of the city by any means-I did not feel in danger and I think it is important to see that the majority people in Senegal do NOT live the way our host-families live here. HOWEVER, imagine a parade of 4 horses all loaded with 6 Americans, all of whom have a purse and a camera, with nothing to do but LOOK at people. It just felt so wrong. It felt like someone took us there to “look at the poor Senegalese people”. A new level of awkwardness that I never experienced.
We also stopped in the local fish market. It was interesting and as much as it smelled of rotting fish, I tried to enjoy it because I figured that it was the last time in my entire life that I would be in that particular fish market, so I might as well enjoy it.
By the way, that’s the new attitude I’m trying to adopt here: I’ll never do this again in my life, so even if I don’t like it, I’m going to be positive about it.
On our get-away horses away from the fish market, some kids were attacking Katie and Alice with fish (they were on the edges while I was snuggly between them, so I was not attacked by fish).
After our tour, we were transported directly to our tour bus and were taken back to our houses. We were allowed to repose for about an hour. Then we were fed a nice big plate of LAMB and yaasa. I hate eating lamb because it’s A BABY SHEEP, but it’s SO good )= Yaasa, however, is another story. I absolutely LOVE yaasa. Yaasa is an onion sauce that the Senegalese put over rice and some kind of meat (chicken, fish or beef). After that, we were taken to a ‘cultural evening.’
This ‘cultural evening’ was actually really fun (I had my doubts, but I came to like it). Our group sat in a courtyard with about twenty other Senegalese while having others entertain us. They had dancers, sing
ers, actors and a FIRE EATER. The actors were from a theater group and they preformed a comedy skit that was HEAVILY dependent on the audience knowing Senegalese culture, of which nobody in our group knows. The skit was about some guy stealing another guys song, and then they sang their songs-which were in Wolof- to the audience. The Senegalese crowed LOVED it, but we weren’t that impressed, probably because we had to listen to Awa and Josephine quickly translate from Wolof to French for us, and the joke MUST have gotten lost in translation.
The coolest part was the fire eater though! He had two batons that were lit and he rubbed them on his skin and you could actually see is skin melting away from the fire. He rubbed it on his legs, his arms, his chest, ect. Then he ate the fire. It was pretty cool.
To be continued when I have proper internet...
We also stopped in the local fish market. It was interesting and as much as it smelled of rotting fish, I tried to enjoy it because I figured that it was the last time in my entire life that I would be in that particular fish market, so I might as well enjoy it.
By the way, that’s the new attitude I’m trying to adopt here: I’ll never do this again in my life, so even if I don’t like it, I’m going to be positive about it.
On our get-away horses away from the fish market, some kids were attacking Katie and Alice with fish (they were on the edges while I was snuggly between them, so I was not attacked by fish).
After our tour, we were transported directly to our tour bus and were taken back to our houses. We were allowed to repose for about an hour. Then we were fed a nice big plate of LAMB and yaasa. I hate eating lamb because it’s A BABY SHEEP, but it’s SO good )= Yaasa, however, is another story. I absolutely LOVE yaasa. Yaasa is an onion sauce that the Senegalese put over rice and some kind of meat (chicken, fish or beef). After that, we were taken to a ‘cultural evening.’
This ‘cultural evening’ was actually really fun (I had my doubts, but I came to like it). Our group sat in a courtyard with about twenty other Senegalese while having others entertain us. They had dancers, sing
ers, actors and a FIRE EATER. The actors were from a theater group and they preformed a comedy skit that was HEAVILY dependent on the audience knowing Senegalese culture, of which nobody in our group knows. The skit was about some guy stealing another guys song, and then they sang their songs-which were in Wolof- to the audience. The Senegalese crowed LOVED it, but we weren’t that impressed, probably because we had to listen to Awa and Josephine quickly translate from Wolof to French for us, and the joke MUST have gotten lost in translation.
The coolest part was the fire eater though! He had two batons that were lit and he rubbed them on his skin and you could actually see is skin melting away from the fire. He rubbed it on his legs, his arms, his chest, ect. Then he ate the fire. It was pretty cool.
To be continued when I have proper internet...
I'm glad you are having a positive outlook on everything...I couldn't imagine i would be able to...you always wanted to be in a parade, but i bet riding the horse carriages was fun. Baby sheep....no way could i have done that. The show with the fire eater sounds like fun except for the melting skin....i can't wait to hear more
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