After work, I left with the girls for lunch and then to the bus station on route to Baila, a nearby small village. Things being as they are, we bought our bus ticket and waited TWO hours for the bleeping bus to fill up. The transit to Baila was a mere 50 minute ride. Very frustrating, but not much you can do about it.

(Image right: Baila pose; my invention; the fleuve in the background)

When we got there, we quickly understood that there was absolutely nothing to do. The campement we stayed in (the only on in the village) was justly named: Campement du Village. It is run by the village itself and they rotate managers at regular intervals. Our host/manager, Landing, was very welcoming. Since there wasn’t much to do, I asked Landing what the people from the village do; he said that these days, they harvest rice and fish. I therefore asked him if it would be possible to learn how to harvest rice and he acquiesced, adding that it would also be possible to have a tour in a pirogue boat + visit a home he was currently building. Very exciting plans for a day, no?

(Image left: MC, myself and our guide out on the very easy-to-tip pirogue)

We had a delicious supper after making our Saturday plans. We ended up going to bed rather early since there wasn’t anything else to do. For the first time during the trip, the three of us concluded that we should have packed a deck of cards… The weather in Senegal is changing quickly and that night, we froze! My usual instant Nescafe never felt so good on Saturday morning. After breakfast, our delightful hosts boarded us onto the grand pirogue (carved directly from the trunk of a fromager tree) and paddled us to the rice fields where we shadowed an

(Image right: me working the fields)

elderly lady harvesting rice. I even tried it myself and must admit, it is hard work.

(Image left: rice on its stalk, rice in its shell, rice de-shelled/how we eat it; all in my hand)

Once our pirogue/rice expedition was over, we ***halt!: I’m typing this blog in my room and just saw a mouse; I’ve gotten so used to seeing various critters that I didn’t even jump or react***

(Image right: me with bushels of rice)

packed up our bags and headed through town to the place where the house was being built. It was pretty neat to see a rather big house being constructed out of red mud!

Landing served us cony fruit from the renier tree (the tree looks like a palm tree but has fan like leaves – the fruit looks like a coconut but has three chambers instead of one; each chamber contains the gelatinous comestible portion of the fruit). See image left.

Our next stop was home: Ziguinchor. Landing (my African dad) is on a long trip to Europe, Russia and Finland and Astou was home (Bignona) for Tabaski so I was alone. The sheer excitement of having the house to myself reminded me of teenage hood. I took advantage of this rare and solitary occasion to cook a meal and have people over. Thus, me and the girls prepared shrimps in a white wine sauce in crepes. Yum! While making supper, we treated ourselves to home made sangria. The Senegalais people (Lucien – colleague, Daouda – my friend and Malick – Claudine’s friend) I invited enjoyed the meal but perhaps not to the same extent as us girls. Towards 11:45 p.m., we headed out to Ziguinchor’s hippest night clubs: The Bombalong.

(Image right: the delicious supper!)

I felt 100% (not like the last time when I had a stomach ache) and had a blast dancing; or should I say learning how to dance like an African! It was nice to have keys to my home and not have to wake anybody in the middle of the night to unlock the door for me. Lucien escorted me up the dark stairs and made sure I was safe and sound :)

(Image left: Lucien and Daouda - ready to dance dance dance!)

I spent Sunday on my own, thrilled with the peace and quiet of my solitude. I slept in, treated myself to left over crepes from the night before with chocolate and banana. Went to internet café to speak with Phil, who is arriving shortly, and to blog. Phil informed me that he got a job he thinks he’ll love. Congratulations! Towards the end of the day, I had the pleasure of going for a bike ride with Lucien’s bike (which he lent me for a week or so). I went two villages away from Ziguinchor and thoroughly enjoyed the scenery and fresh air.

After work on Monday, I headed out to Bignona (small town 30 km away from Zig) on my own. MC and Claudine spent Tabaski in Claudine’s family; I celebrated it in Astou’s family.

(Image left: dead lamb; sacrifice to Allah)

It was a thrill to see where Astou was born and raised + her siblings. The home was typical and so was the family: rudimentary infrastructure and finishings, many people, many young. For supper I had a warm cereal I had never tried before made of peanuts and rice. I like my fundai (corn cereal) better!

(Image right: deader lamb; being butchered)

Tuesday was official Tabaski day. I witnessed lamb getting killed and butchered first thing after waking up. I must admit, I had to devote a lot of attention on not being sick to the stomach. As I had previously mentioned, Tabaski is the biggest Muselman holiday.

(Image left: Astou`s family: El Hadj, her mother, Nabu, Astou herself taken the night before Tabaski)

It had much of the familial celebratory spirit feeling Christmas has in my family. The activities were obviously very different though. All day, the family cooperated in butchering the lamb which is an enormous amount of work. The men kill, skin, triage and chop the lamb. The women take the pieces of chopped lamb and cut them further and cook it. It pretty much took the entire day and everybody seemed happy. The highlight of their day was eating the prepared lamb as a meal together and drinking soda pop.

(Image right: Astou`s family enjoying Tabaski)

This is how Muselman’s celebrate; it is their idea of fun. Although I enjoyed myself as well, I can’t say it felt much like a holiday/party and I must admit that I don’t like the taste of lamb meat so I didn’t fully appreciate the meal… I still ate too much because they prepared “beignets” – highly addictive doughnut holes.

(Image left: me with my braided hair and dressed in my new boubou for Tabaski)

I was really happy to have gone there on my own because it forced me to participate in the festivities. Had MC or Claudine came with me, I’m pretty sure we would have isolated ourselves in a corner and observed from further away. As it happens, I circulated between Nabu’s family and Astou’s (they are neighbours) socializing and participating in the preparations. I also took advantage of being the outsider who doesn’t speak the language to sleep and relax a lot.

(Image right: the main meal of Tabaski)

On Wednesday, I made it back to Ziguinchor for a bicycle date with my friend Daouda. Indeed, I wanted to take advantage of being in possession of a bicycle. ** I don’t think I’ve talked about Daouda before… I’ve known him for quite some time now and he is slowly becoming a good friend. I say this because making friends here is really hard – everyone pretends to be your friend but has an ulterior motive. After many deceptions in befriending people, I had given up the idea of making friends in Senegal. Daouda might be an exception! I truly hope so!**

When I called him to say I had arrived, he excitedly proposed a motorcycle ride instead. How could I refuse? He took me out of Ziguinchor in a direction I had never been before and I very much enjoyed the ride. When we got back, it was still early and people were still celebrating Tabaski (kind of like December 25 and 26 – Xmas is pretty much over but it still lingers in the air).

(Image left: Daouda and the motorcycle)

Wearing my Tabaski boubou (to show it off to Daouda), we visited multiple members of his family and his friends as is the Tabaski spirit. We walked all around Ziguichor with not much to do other than to meet and greet people. I’m not usually a sociable person, but I really enjoyed this. It made me feel like I had thoroughly and successfully celebrated Tabaski to the greatest extent possible. While walking, we even went to the airport. I made sure it was still standing for Phil’s arrival in a number of days!!!!! So exciting!!! When dinner time came around, I invited Daouda to a restaurant I’d never tried and treated myself to gaspacho + shared a banana split with him. He had never tasted a banana split and I had been craving one so it was a very memorable experience.

(Image right: riding with Daouda -artistic photography, no?)

Getting back to work on Thursday was quite depressing. Most of the staff was absent and the department felt empty = not very motivating circumstances to work. Claudine was sick with the flu so was absent on Friday as well. MC was having a little down (it happens to all of us here every now and then) so we finished work early and did what’s best to do when you’re feeling a little blue: cook, eat and drink! I had talked to her about my delicious spaghetti and persuaded her into remaking it with me.

(Image left: me visiting Zig with Daouda; holding his niece in my arms. She is SO adorable!)

By the time we bought everything we needed, prepared and ate it and enjoyed the bottle of red wine, the afternoon had flown by. As on every Thursday, I headed to the park to play ultimate. There weren’t many people there again – apparently because of Tabaski. But, there was a French dude who showed up because he had seen one of my coworkers walking with a disc on the street and had excitedly approached him to find out where people were playing ultimate. Turns out the French dude is a pro and had tried getting the sport going here a couple of months ago too but had had less success than I. I’m hoping he’ll show up next week again.