Amazing Senegal Weekend

What an amazing weekend. I feel as though it perfectly captured a typical Senegalese weekend, if that is possible.

To start with I invited the group of guys I’ve been hanging out with to the French Cultural Center for a concert on Friday night. The FCC is kind of pretentious with all of the Europeans who frequent it, but they sure know good music. The group playing was three brothers, supposedly playing a mix of hip-hop and traditional African music, which really just meant that it was mbalax. At first I was a little apprehensive bringing them to the concert because I wasn’t sure if they would be into the group (the last time I went to a concert there it was mostly the middle aged crowd), but as soon as we sat down my friend Babs told me that he had the group’s music on his computer. Apparently the group is super popular in Senegal and last year they visited the campus. I loved the music. I feel so privileged to have all these music opportunities at my fingertips. There is definitely a difference in music here; everyone-the musicians, the audience-puts their whole being into the music, it’s almost tangible. It’s a crazy feeling being so involved; I know that I have already developed a much greater appreciation for their music. So everyone had a good time and afterwards we returned back to campus to hang out and, surprise, surprise…make ataaya.

Saturday morning dawned and Annie, Maren, and I just spent it lazing around. It is awesome how close the three of us have gotten. While I am excited about having Senegalese friends, I appreciate having some other American [girls] around to relate to. We all have been having similar experiences and so it is so essential to talk to someone else about the problems, situations, and adventures we have been facing. After lunch we then headed over to the beach for some quality time in the sun. The beach is such a great time, but there are some downfalls to it. For one, as a white person you are automatically targeted by all of the walking vendors. It gets pretty annoying to have to get rid of these guys trying to sell you stuff all the time. Thankfully if we start using Wolof and then explain that we are students for the year they will back off, but every once and a while you get really persistent ones. Also, you get a lot of guys who ask you to join them in their little tiki huts on the beach for tea. So far we’ve been able to deflect their requests. There have been some creepy situations though that reminds us of why we won’t go to the beach at night without a few male Senegalese companions. Other than those few annoyances, the beach is amazing. It is enormous as it is the huge peninsula that connects with Mauritania to the north.

We then went back to campus for a delicious dinner at “the resto”. It was a hard boiled egg, french fries, onion sauce, sardines, and a piece of bread…SANDWICH NIGHT!!!! Sounds so gross, but seriously, this is my favorite meal at the resto. I’ve decided that I’ll probably be making them frequently when I return to the US. After that it was back to town where we (Annie, Maren, and I) went to Amadou’s house and sat around and made tea. Amadou lives in a typical (or not typical, depending on how you look at it) Senegalese family set up. He lives with his five young girl cousins, younger brother, aunt, and grandmother. It was a super calm, relaxed night, which I was all about. I played with his youngest cousin, Xady (the equivalent of Katie in Wolof) who can’t be more than 4 years old. She was actually the cutest little girl ever; I am starting to compile a list of small children that I am going to take back to the US with me and she is right up there.

Sunday was spent in town again, although this time at Tamsir’s house (Amadou and Tamsir are best friends). We went to the market beforehand to check out fabric (bassin) for our Tabaski outfits but only Maren found what she wanted. Tuesday I bought some for myself and brought it to the tailor. I went all out and am having it made totally Senegalese style with all the embroidery and such. I’m super excited to see how it turns out. Afterwards we went to Tamsir’s so that Annie could get her hair braided, “tressed”. Before they started, Annie and I went with Xadia to a boutique to get the fake hair that Xadia was going to add in to the braids, Senegalese style. While Annie was getting her hair braided the rest of us just hung out with the rest of the family, friends, and neighbors that were constantly coming in and out of the house. Mariam, Tamsir’s sister prepared the dinner all day, so when I showed interest in learning how she made everything, she showed me all of the steps that she went through. The grandma loved the fact that I was interested in cooking and so would look in with approval on how things were going. It was such an amazing feeling how comfortable everyone was with everyone else. I keep talking about Terenga, but the four of us Americans all remarked on how accepted we were and unreal our experience was at the time. No one treated us as anything other than a normal visitor; it was like a huge party the whole day. We talked about how different things would be in the US if there were four black girls over for a regular Sunday afternoon and evening. Everyone was talking in a mix of Wolof, French, and English. And everyone was helping each other with the other language they didn’t know. This is why I love Senegal. The family also went all out on the dinner for us, their special guests. There is no end to their graciousness. We got home by midnight; not surprising seeing as how we didn’t eat until 10 pm.

I’m still kind of riding on the high of the weekend. It serves as testament to all of the good things Senegal represents. And tomorrow all of us girls are going over to an American professor’s house to celebrate Thanksgiving. I can’t wait to make the family dish for everyone, it is potluck style. Happy Thanksgiving all!