Zee end of Ziguinchor

My last week at work flew by. Bittersweet are these goodbyes since it is the end of a lot of fulfilling relationships. By “the end”, I mean you never know in life, but chances are, I’ll likely never see the people I met in the past five months again. I will likely stay in contact with a handful of them, but its definitely the end of an important chapter.

(Image right: Daouda and I. He looks so good with a pink scarf! And me with a sexy tie...lol)

On Monday, I stopped by Daouda’s home to pick up clothes I had asked his sister to make me. I ended up eating lunch at his home and had a very interesting conversation with the ladies of the house. After this, Daouda convinced me to go to his judo training session with him. I figured that exercise is indeed called for, so I went. I’m not a big martial arts fan, but I really appreciated their training (the “warm up” part that I could do with them). For the rest, I just watched. One of the girls he trains with went to the Olympics this summer. They are all at a high level and its very interesting to watch. Inspired by their training, I've entered an agreement with Daouda that I'd train until my departure to be able to do a chin up. So

(Image left: technical aids re-invented!)

My time at work was spent tying up loose ends and golly there were a lot of them! I hardly saw any patients since I was so busy running left and right, looking for people, charting, organizing, writing summary reports, etc.

As of Tuesday, pretty much every meal until my departure was planned for ie: invited somewhere. Tuesday night was a BBQ with friends.

(Image right: Horthence distributing gifts to the orphans)

Wednesday lunch I was invited by Daouda to go to the judo Olympian’s home as she was having a huge lunch party- her name is Horthence Diedhiou. There were about 100 people! All the judo dudes and dudettes, her family and most impressive of all, an entire orphanage! She seems to be a very giving person; transported, fed generously, gave toys and clothes to all these young (well behaved) orphaned children. She even gave everybody a t-shirt; she’s obviously sponsored, but still!

(Image left: Daouda, myself and Horthence )

In the evening, inspired by the athletes we ate lunch with, Marie-Claude and I went to the judo training session (just to participate in the 40 minute warm-up). It is so intense that I can only do about half of it!! After our intense workout, we went to a colleague’s home who had invited us for dinner. Dominic Priera is an orthotics specialist who built up the department and the worked for Handicap International. He is a modest, very skilled and most interesting man. Unfortunately, during his absence from the hospital (he was travelling all over the world with HI), his position was usurped. He lost his place in the hierarchy but is too qualified and this generated insecurity among his colleagues which takes the form of jealousy (he’s only been back for about 6 months). The poor guy told us out right that he didn’t warm up to us until the end because he didn’t want his colleagues getting any impressions. I could go on about his life since it is so interesting…he should write a book!

Thursday at noon, us three girls treated Kumba (Claudine’s mom) to lunch at the Alliance restaurant. In the afternoon, I had my last African ultimate practice. I did everything I could to introduce the sport here. Now the discs are in the hands of four different people; three of them of which I’m pretty sure they’ll continue trying to get the sport going.

(Image right: MC, Kumba and Claudine at the Alliance)

Thursday night, I went to Sabine’s for supper. It was a delicious German dish with potatoes and BACON and MUSHROOMS! Wow! So delicious! How can I be blamed for getting fat?!?

(Image left: the pau)

Friday was my last day of work and it was quite busy. Our coworkers kindly organized a “pau” to celebrate our departure. There was pop and cake for about thirty of us. It was extremely heart warming. They really made it clear to us that we’ll be missed at the hospital. I was humbled by how many people showed up and seemed to care about us that were not our direct coworkers (some of the nurses I had given my presentation to, the secretary of the hospital who I’d see now and then to print from her PC – and it kind of became a running gag), the porters Claudine and I gave formations to, etc). My supervisor gave an inspiring speech and each on of us girls was asked to speak as well. Very emotional!

(Image right: me in my new sarouel and Noah - the chef porter.)

Claudine and I had a last individual meeting with Abba, our supervisor. My goals were reviewed and everything was finalized. Abba expressed that he really appreciated my work and felt that I had attained all my goals and more. The feedback was very positive (both ways).

Friday evening was supper by Marie-Claude. It was a delicious buffet style meal. Again…getting fat! I’ve been hanging around with my friend Daouda a lot these days and will truly miss his company and humor.

(Image left: Astou - my Senegalease mother- dancing with El Hadj and Mammy in the background)

This morning, I went for a sad jog – my first since getting over malaria. It was quite pathetic. I’m really out of shape. I started packing my bags. Let me tell you that this is quite difficult to do when El Hadj decides he wants to help! Gosh I’m going to miss the little man! My family hosted lunch and my last meal at home. MC and Claudine came as well. Tonight, we’re going to eat at Claudine’s and go to the Bombalong night club.

(Image right: Astou, Landing, El Hadj, myself - 6 other people not visible - for our last meal)

I`m taking the boat for Dakar tomorrow. Monday, I`ll leave for St-Louis (northern part of Senegal). Please give me news... I`ll still be checking me emails!

Last weekend I stayed in Ziguinchor since I had been invited to a wedding through Claudine’s family. None of us girls actually knew who was getting married. There were so many people, it didn’t really matter. This was the first Muselman wedding I’ve ever attended and there were certain aspects of it that I didn’t grasp such as: The husband wasn’t even there!

(Image left: me in my wedding booboo)

The celebration took place at the bride’s home (she lives with her parents/family) which happened to be on my street. They had blocked the street and set up a tent, a sound system with DJs, hired traditional musicians, cooks and lots of people. Women who had been invited wore boubous in lime green.

(Image right: MC, myself, the husband replacement/bride's friend, bride, Claudine and Tabaski - Claudine's sister in background)

Apart from that, there wasn’t any decoration. It lasted the entire day and night and mostly consisted of sitting around, eating, drinking pop, dancing and the bride opening her gifts.

(Image left: Claudine, Gaston (C's friend), Sabine and myself eaing supper at the Alliance)

She had a friend replace her husband for a part of the ceremony where she stands for about an hour and one by one, each invitee greets her and gets a picture posed with her. She changed hairdos and dresses three times throughout the day! At the end, they apparently do a procession whereby they escort her to her husband’s home, dancing in the streets. By that time, I was in need of a real drink since I hadn’t been able to have one because of being on antibiotics. My Gazelle was a delight!

(Image right: Claudine, MC, myself)

On Sunday, I made French toast for my family with the maple syrup Phil had brought. They enjoyed it very much and I subtly took in a couple raw tablespoons of the much missed Canadian elixir.

(Image right 2 : me working with the darling girl I helped start going to school)

Later on in the day, I went for a bike ride with Daouda in the countryside. We ended up exploring an orange plantation. Highlights include me falling from a tree because I misjudged the distance (I thought I was higher up than I actually was when I set foot back on the ground).

The work week flew by and was very interesting. I finished plans for an access ramp and presented them to my patient, I got the patient to get into a pool for the first time in twenty years (tetraplegic), I got an eight year old girl with cerebral palsy to go to school for the first time in her life, I met with a director of a nursing school. I started a project to form people in rural areas to make technical aids. I have so many things to finish up before I leave!

(Image left: teaching the sport of ultimate frisbee in a phys ed class)

On Tuesday, I gave the phys ed class on ultimate at a private school to young adolescents. It went really well. The kids caught on quickly and it was interesting to teach phys ed! On Thursday, I had the regular practice and people actually showed up! I’m not sure to what extent my ultimate introduction to this part of the world will take hold, but I’ll have certainly tried! What is encouraging is that Lou Lou, a friend, is really good with kids and plays regularly with the kids in his neighbourhood. I’ll be leaving a bunch of discs here as promised to my ex-team mates who donated them.

(Image right: Claudine and I doing pose Cachuane - notice the grey sky; the fi)

On Friday, us three girls headed to the road station for the last time to go to Cachuane, a Casamance destination neither of us had been before. Much like Karabane, we took a car to Elinkine and from there, took a pirogue to the island. I didn’t like it any more or any less than Karabane.

(Image left: young girls transporting firewood towards the village)

There wasn’t a ton of stuff to do – except there was a windsurfer. It was very cold the entire weekend so it took a lot of balls for me to get my bathing suit on and surf. The winds were so strong and I’m so out of shape that my windsurf excursion was dismally short. Other than that, we explored, ate, played Taboo and Scrabble, drank, slept, read. I know its hard to believe it when I say it was cold, but it really felt like a cold autumn day near Thanksgiving. I guess such weather will prepare me for the cold that awaits me upon my return to Canada (February 14, 2009).

(Image right: windsurfing in the mighty cold. I'm really glad I got do it at least once during this trip)

How are you? I'm fine (and it is true!)

The nature of my work changes when I go on vacation. I tend to lose my patients since they aren’t too good at thinking very far into the future. That is, if I tell a patient not to come next week but rather the week after, I’ll likely never see them again… I guess they just get used to not coming and it slips their mind. Who knows? At any rate, a lower case load gives me more time to finish off projects which is great!

I have some catching up to do with my blog…During the week of January 5, 2009, Phil came to work with me to try to fix our hopeless computers plagued with viruses. On Tuesday night, MC, Claudine, Sabine, Phil and I went to a “local’s” restaurant called Chez Alain to eat porcupine! Unfortunately, even though we had called and ordered it, they didn’t have any. Instead, they gave us what Phil coined “mystery meat” and what they seemed to say was beaver! I haven’t had the time yet to verify if beavers actually exist here…I doubt it. What the meat was, we’ll never know. Some pieces had hair on them and I didn’t eat much because I wasn’t so hungry. It was ok to the taste (I avoided the hairy pieces). Our hosts explained how the animal is hunted and tried to describe it to us. The more they talked about it, the more it seemed as though we had eaten huge rats!

After our interesting time at the restaurant fuelled by wine, Phil complained of nausea (and not because he had over-drank) during our walk home. I’ll refrain from giving the details but keywords to describe the hellish night are: diarrhoea, multiple, vomit, mess, lying on bathroom floor. Phil being my guest, I lovingly stayed by him during his explosions from within. The next morning, we were both non-operational. I still had my everlasting cold and he was dehydrated and couldn’t keep anything in him (even water). We therefore went to the doctor (the same one I had been to before). We got so many medication prescriptions that for the days that followed, we felt like an elderly couple popping pills all day long! The doctor was perplexed by the fact that I was still ill. She sent me for a consult with the ORL. I missed work that day.

The next day, I got my blood tested again (for the second time in the week since they’d lost my results the first time) for malaria. Phil stayed home to recuperate. I tried to get an appointment with the ORL specialist but this was impossible seeing as how she’s the only one in the province and she was sick herself. In the end, I went on internet and confirmed that it might make sense to take on of the antibiotics I had brought from Canada (meds I wouldn’t be allergic to!). Not a very productive day at work since still felt like crap.

(image left: our campement was very beautiful; our hut in the background)

Friday, both Phil and I were feeling better. Alleluhiah (or for muselmans, Alhramdulilah) for antibiotics! After my day at work, we headed off to northern Casamance, destination: Abéné. We had a very uncomfortable ride, being squished in the back of a station wagon with severe exhaust problems. But it was worth it once we got to our campement by the ocean named the Kossey. I had been there before and really loved it because you stay in a hut in a beautiful garden by the beach + food is delicious + no electricity so candles and lanterns instead!

(image right: sunset on beach in front of campement)

We stayed there four days (yes, I missed two more days of work!), having a blast and relaxing. There wasn’t much to do which suited us fine… each day, we woke up late, ate breakfast, went for long walks on the beach, read, watched awesome sunsets, showered, had delicious evening meal and went to bed early.

(Image left: candle-lit dinners ; lots of fresh fish! mmm!)

The setting was most romantic, the air was pure and calm and the scenery was beautiful. The mini vacation delighted us both and the high quality relaxation enabled us both to get back on our feet.

(Image right: baobab tree by the beach)

For the first time in a month, I feel normal! My energy level has returned and I can breath when I lie on my back! My only remaining ailment is that my left nostril is still very blocked… and I`m severely out of shape!

Wednesday, I returned to work refreshed. It was an unsual day since my supervisor had asked me to give a lecture on the prevention of bed wounds to a class of nurses.

(Image left: me watching the sunset in peace)

As soon as I got to work at 8 am, Abba and I left for the school and I gave my two hour lecture. I have to admit that I was not looking forward to this since I hate speaking in front of crowds. But it went surprisingly well since I was well prepared (and I had given presentations on the subject before). I always thought I`d hate being a professor, but I actually enjoyed myself! I liked interacting with the students; keeping their attention, answering their questions, making them laugh ever now and then, etc. I find I`m really lucky to be getting experience in all sorts of things I never thought I`d do!

(Image right: Phil and I eating breakfast in the gardens)

When I got back to the hospital, I saw a patient (hemi stroke) who I`ve been working with for the past two months or so. He`s only 36 years old! I did a work site treatment session with him before the holidays and also evaluated his ability to ride a bike for he was unable. I gave him a plethora of recommendations and was happy to see that he had carried them out successfully. Because of my intervention, work was going a lot better and he was now able to ride a bike! I love having an impact on people`s quality of life like that!

(Image left: a man enjoying his well earned vacation...)

It being my last full day with Phil, we went shopping for souvenirs, a drink by the fleuve Casamance and a romantic diner. He came to work with me on the next day since his flight was only at 5:30 pm. For lunch, we went back home along with MC and Claudine for a good-bye lunch with my family. We ate a delicious thie boujdien (national meal – fish and rice) and shortly after, headed to the airport. It was sad to bid farewell to Phil but not half as hard as when I left him in September since we`ll be seeing each other in one month! Suffice to say that during my walk home alone, my head was pretty low. In the evening, I joined the usual suspects for a modern dance show at the cultural centre. It was mediocre.

(Image right: Me, Phil and El Hadj on the day of his departure)

Friday was busy with preparing reports for work, planning the rest of the trip with the girls and doing a home visit. My patient has been tetraplegic for twenty years and has asked all the previous Occupational Therapists in my position to see him. Its amazing how we all have such different ideas for different interventions. He is awesome to work with and I wish I he had appeared on my caseload sooner! I installed a bed helper to help him get out of bed independently with *a lot* less effort, showed him a more comfortable way to eat, discussed modifications for his toilet (currently transfers onto a toilet only a couple of inches above the ground!) and most importantly, discussed the construction of a ramp into his house. The man is independent for everything except for getting in and out of his home! Home modifications are not my forte, so I`m now going to have to review my algebra for calculating/designing the ramp. Hoorah for me…years ago, I debated becoming an engineer; now is my chance to do some!

(Image left: the delicious thie boudjien!)

In the afternoon, I went to buy my boat tickets for my final departure from Ziguinchor. I decided that I`ll be skipping town a little sooner and will visit St-Louis (historic city in north of the country) with the girls. I`ll also be going to Morocco for one week before returning home on February 14, 2009.

My afternoon sped by quickly since I had to wash my underwear (by hand) and meet a teacher regarding ultimate frisbee. Indeed, my friend Lou Lou (the guy who has helped me get ultimate going) put me into contact with a gym teacher who is interested in teaching the sport to his students. Nothing about the rendez vous went according to plan, but in short, I`ll be teaching students between the ages of 11 and 13 next Tuesday as a part of their phys ed class :) I am truly happy to get this opportunity to try and introduce the sport here! As to the fact that within the space of one week, I`ll have given a phys ed class and a lecture to nursing students, I`m a little perplexed!

I returned to the cultural centre in the evening for a meal (yes, they are so good!) and another modern dance show which was a complete and utter disappointment. I think it’s the worst production I`ve ever seen. It was an absurd Spanish production with two ladies who didn`t even dance much and had no meaning. At least it was short. I found my 15 minute stargazing session on my rooftop far more entertaining.

Happy 2009!

As mentioned in my last update, I spent New Year's in Cap Skirring with Philippe. We made a delicious home cooked meal with more shrimp than we could handle. Since champagne does not exist here, I created my own version with white wine and effervescent palettes. Indeed, I have these high dose vitamine C palettes that I have to take once per day since I'm STILL sick!

(Image right: improvised champagne!)

The evening went by quickly and by the time we finished our meal, it was almost midnight! We entered 2009 standing on the balcony and watching fireworks put on by the nearby resorts on the beach. Personally, I find the starry skies here more entertaining :)

We had planned on searching for a djembe party but Phil had to stay near a toilet. We ended up taking a walk on the beach and crashing resort parties which were surprisingly lame. This also enabled us to infiltrate the nearby SUPER expensive Club Med and see what it is all about: not worth all that money and hype! The beach was interesting to observe throughout the night since the tide went really high. We ended up going to bed rather late despite the relax evening. For the first time in my life, while walking on the wet sandy beach, fluorescent plancton would effervesce beneath my feet. What an amazing phenomenon! Has this happened to anybody else??? Makes me think of Steve Zisou and his Life Aquatic adventures!

The next day, I felt a little more normal (just a normal cold). Throughout the morning, the ocean had pretty much eaten up the entire beach! The water almost came up to the houses and there was barely any beach left. Very bizarre.

(Image right: Phil and I on New Year's Eve)

When we asked locals about this, they explained that this happens once or twice a year because of really strong tides. Also, the ocean was paler (because all the beach sand had been displaced making it shallower). Sorry I didn't take pictures of this...should have!

Since there wasn't much of a beach left, we decided to visit what has now officially become my favorite place in Casamance so far: Djembering. A ten minute ride from Cap Skirring, this charming village is located about 1 km from the ocean. I had described it in a previous blog... As I forewarned Philippe that there wasn't much to do in the village apart from walk around its labyrinth-like pathways (where there are no cars, no bikes), we heard drumming from afar. Exciting! We let our ears guide us towards the action. At first, we had no idea what the celebration was for, but after asking a couple of people what it was and finally speaking to a person in French, we found out that it was a traditional Djola funeral (see image left). This was such a delight to see! The woman were dressed in boubous and surrounded the older men who were bunched together under the sacred tree. The men carried arms (some real shotguns) and would dance (and fire the shot guns) in order to chase bad spirits away (at least I think that was the point of their dances). Meanwhile, there was awesome djembe drumming going on. I hope you can see the video! The men would aim at the sacred tree's branches and try to shoot them down. When they would suceed, everybody cheered and a couple old women would pick them up and dance with them. Seeing this ceremony really made me feel in the heart of Africa! I wish our funerals were like this!




We enjoyed every minute of the day, drifting through the streets filled with curves, dead ends, gigantic trees, a calming wind, families of pigs, goats, roosters, chickens, children and bats! Indeed, we even saw a bat infested tree - my it was noisy! We also relaxed on the beach and hung around with a monkey!

(Image right: children in the streets of Djembering who wanted to be in a photo. The children here are so kind. They don't ask for money. People are kind. The only thing that was asked of me was by a teenage girl I had met the time before; she asked if we could be friends. How cute!)

(Image left: Phil the explorer on the beaches of Djembering)

During the remaining days of our ocean-front vacation, we took it easy. I felt so-so most of the time. I tried on several occasions to get re-tested for malaria with no success. I surprisingly didn't get very far in my novel reading :( We sailed our kite once or twice and swam in the huge waves on days that the ocean was calmer. I guess the disadvantage of this beach during this time of year is that it is very powerful. The first time Phil went in, he actually got pushed over and hurt/scratched his shoulder and face!

(Image right: Phil in the French Man look! He bought used clothes to bring to Africa as per my suggestion. But these pants are really too much! Yuck! He couldn't do a better job of looking like a French tourist...)

On our last night, we went to a nearby classy restaurant the lady chez whom we were staying had suggested. It was the finest buffet I'd ever been to! The atmosphere/decor was the most romantic and charming place I've ever seen and the food...unbelievable! They basically didn't have any "fillers" like pasta, rice, potatoes, etc. It was pretty much all seafood or fine cuts of meat: fois gras, 10 cm scampees, lobsters, oyesters, mussles, 3 types of smoked salmon, other smoked fish, sushi, magret de duck, filet mignon, T-bones, cheeses. Oh my lord! They even had porto on the dessert table!

(Image left: Phil and I at the divine feast)

I was pretty sad when the vacation was over. Ziguinchor welcomed us with smoke from burning trash (read plastic!), noise and dust. I do believe I have returned from paradise. I'm so thrilled I still have days left with Phil but I'm sick of being sick :(