Holy God America is Cold!

As you may have noticed, or heard, I am in America for a short time. Trip length December 12st to January 15th or sometime close to that hopefully.

When in Africa we all talk about what we miss, what we want to eat right now and what we will do first when we get back to America. I am writing this blog to remind me, and maybe a few other people, of a few of the not so amazing things that we left behind. Maybe this will also help to make the holidays away a little better.

Enjoy!

1) It is SO SO cold and my feet do NOT like sneakers anymore.


Stephen is sporting the latest winter fashion trend to sweep Michigan. As many layers as possible...


2) As soon as I got off the plane my skirt was already sticking to my legs from static. I couldn't wear my hair down in The Gambia because of my sweat and I can't in America because of the static. Nothing has changed.

3) My nose hurts and my lips are so chapped from the dry weather. My Dad had to buy a humidifier because it is too dry for me to sleep :(

4) It may only cost $0.02 to skype America from The Gambia, but it costs $0.45 to skype The Gambia from America. Totally not fair.

5) My Starbucks, although delicious, cost > $5.00 at JFK airport. WTF.

These Starbucks drinks were not quite as much, but that is because it is Michigan


6) There are about 5 hours of sunlight in the day, if we are lucky.

7) Texting is NOT free

8) Commercials are SO loud

9) You HAVE to drive and taxis cost way more than 5 dalasi or are not available in the Michigan country. What this means is that all those drinks you wanted to try are not so easily available :(

Don't get me wrong America it is pretty awesome, but when you are really sad think twice about all the not so amazing things you left behind. Maybe it will help. Mostly I wanted to vent.

I also took some pictures to help you remember:




And lastly, this is my friend Stephen posing for a depressing Michigan weather picture. He was pretty sad that the sun had been missing for several days now.

Brikama to Dakar. Easy as a very complex pecan pie.

Soooooo…. You want to travel from The Gambia to Dakar? For one reason or another I have gone back to The Americas and because it is WAY to expensive to travel directly from Banul I booked a ticket out of Dakar. Here is a step by step of the awesome, very short and very comfortable journey…

PS I found out at the airport that you might be able to get a ticket to fly from Banjul to Dakar for $80 - $100 USD so if you don't like the outline below then consider this option.

Summary:
Trip Itinerary: From Brikama, The Gambia to Hotel Du Phare, Dakar, Senegal
Total Time: 530AM to 3PM
Cost: Approximately $20USD, 10,000 XOF or 550 dalasi
Modes of transportation: 6

Exchange Rates (you will never actually get these of course):
1 USD = 497 XOF
1 Dalasi =18 XOF
1 USD = 28 Dalasi

General Costs (Just what I saw quick fast):
Food: 2500 – 4000 XOF
Nice Dinner: 6000 – 10000 XOF
Local Beer: 2500 XOF
Shot of Alcohol: 3000 – 4000 XOF
Juice: 2000 XOF

Step 1: Exchange your dalasi to XOF. If you decide to do this at the border KNOW how much you should get back and triple check your money. It is a notoriously terrible spot to exchange money. You will not get a good deal to begin with and they will probably try to steal some anyway.

As an alternative I would suggest asking Alpha for the number of the guy that he knows who will exchange for you. I got a rate of 3,000 dalasi for 50,000 XOF. The guy was able to meet on Kairaba about a ten minute walk from the office right after we called him. Very convenient.

Step 2: Wake up at 530AM. Drink copious amounts of coffee, get ready and finish packing

Step 3: Leave house at 6AM. Walk to road where gele will pass. Get ride to Ferry terminal. It was free more me to get to the ferry terminal in Banjul, but usually you will need to take a gele which is around 8 – 18 dalasi depending on where you start (Brikama vs. Fajara)

Step 4: Take the first ferry from Banjul to Barra (unless you are already on the north bank of course)! The first ferry is at 7AM and can take anywhere from 1 – 2 hours to cross. Cost is 10 dalasi.

Still dark upon ferry departure:

Step 5: Look for ferry cakes on your walk to the Barra car park. Find a gele going to the border. Gele cost is 30 dalasi. My big backpack may have been 10 more dalasi.

Step 6: Drop at the border, eat a bean sandwich and get a departure stamp from The Gambia (I never got a stamp in my passport when I arrived to The Gambia so this was a small issue. Eventually they just gave me a departure stamp and let me cross). Cost is nothing

Step 7: Get an entry stamp into Senegal. Easy. Cost is nothing.

Step 8: Approx time is now 10AM. Grab a donkey cart to the Senegal car park. Cost is 5 dalasi each person. MUCH cheaper than a taxi or a scooter. Avoid these and go for the donkeys. Promise.

Sweet Donkey Cart Ride:




Step 9: In the car park get a “set-plas” headed to Dakar (this is a car that goes from one point to another without stopping so it is much faster. It fits about seven people). Cost is 6000 XOF and my big bag was 1000 XOF additional.

Note: For an additional 1000 XOF you might be able to buy the front seat. TOTALLY worth it. I got stuck in the middle in the back and was curled in a small ball the whole time. I was literally almost crying by the time we arrived because my but hurt so badly.

See how crunched I am!:

SOME people can read in the car... others cannot :(

Step 10: Sit in “set-plas” forever. We finally left the car park around 1030. It was still a little chilly because it was December, but by the end I was a puddle of sweat as usual. The first part of the road is ok, but it quickly disappears. There are a ton of pot holes and swerving and eventually the road turns to some strange dirt path. This lasts for about 45minutes and there is a TON of dust. After the dirt path the road magically appears once more and is pretty ok from that point forward.

Awesome road that did not make my dusty AT ALL:


Warning: There are a lot of police stops but they didn’t actually stop to let us out at all. I had to ask to pull over and pee so watch out for this. I hear that sometimes they let you out in Kaolack, but not during my trip.

Also, at some points people will start putting rolls, tangerines, lemons and other goods through the windows to sell. These are all 200 to 500 XOF for a bag and the rolls are delicious. You will need food at some point.

Step 11: Arrival to Dakar’s Banjul car park at 230PM (There are a lot of car parks so make sure you know where to get out. We took it all the way into Dakar and got out at the last car park.). There will be a few taxis sitting by the road and they started at 6,000 XOF to take us to the Hostel. Ha! We got them down to 3,000 XOF but just ended up walking across the main road and flagging a taxi down who agreed to 2,500 XOF right away (still prob too much but when you are so tired who cares).

Two notes:

One – Change is still a problem. Try to get change and never expect any taxi for person walking around selling food to have it. Eventually they will just take all your money. Also if you spent a lot of time bargaining and don’t have proper change the taxi may just not give you your change and tell you to get out. At this point you are screwed. Don’t put your luggage in the trunk if you can help it. This does not help your situation.

Two – Very few people speak English. French or Wolof helps a ton.

Step 12: Know where your hotel is and be able to convey this information to the taxi driver (i.e. street, neighborhood, main roads, etc). Arrival at hotel around 3PM. Took almost an hour to check in. First order of business was to wash layers of red dust of self and personal possessions. Second order of business to nap.

On the way to the hotel. Looks a little like a war zone:


Yay! Made it to the hotel finally. Clean and cute. About $20 per person for a private room with a shared bathroom.



Sweet roof deck:

Sad Baobob tree :(

Walking down the Cornish:

Yes my friends we are still in Africa. A taxi passing a donkey cart on the main highway with some billowing black smoke in the background. So safe.

The Senegalese coast:


O. M. G. A supermarket!!! I view this a stepping stone on my trip back to America. It softened the blow.

Got to love all the African barbies.... of wait... they are all white. So weird. Hello business opportunity.

Dinner on the roof deck. Brie. Salami. Crackers. Mimosas with mango juice. Amazing.

The Slaughter-livestock Festival (Readers beware)

Tuesday November 16th (or Wednesday November 17th depending on your area)

Tabaski! aka Slaughter-livestock Festival (…in Chinese) … aka Eid al-Adha or "Festival of Sacrifice" or "Greater Eid" is an extremely important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a ram to sacrifice instead.

Gambians celebrate this historical event by sacrificing and eating a Ram of their very own (or whatever animal they can afford), getting new Tabaski outfits to wear, eating a lot of delicious food, walking around talking and sitting with neighbors and the kids go out and ask for Salibo (a Dalasi or a candy or a prayer etc.). It is sort of a Muslim version of both Thanksgiving and Halloween, but carries the weight of Christmas. Sadly there are no sweet decorations.

Also, the meat of the Ram is divided into three parts to be distributed to others. The family retains one third of the share, another third is given to relatives, friends and neighbors, and the other third is given to the poor & needy. This is how I got my hands on some!

For several weeks before the actual day of Tabaski rams and goats and such start appearing out of what seems like the middle of nowhere (I think a lot actually come from Senegal). Everybody is getting ready to buy their sacrifice...

Me passing a goat/ram farm while in a Gele riding from Brikama to Fajara. These literally do not exist any other time of the year.


Typical butcher shops…. Oh my…

… that is a dead goat hanging in the front of the shop in case you want to pick up some dinner as well as your live goat

Goats taking over one of the Fajara car park - Westfield - Usually this is filled with cabs, Geles, people and vendors. Not goats.


All of the goats and people leave a little trash behind... not sweet

Leaving West Field. It looks better while walking away for sure.

To get the goats home sometimes they put them in the trunks of cabs... Obviously.

Fitting in goat number two. These people MUST be ballers to afford such an extravagance.

Can they get it shut????

Day of Tabaski! This is my new Tabaski outfit. I bought all the fabric and had it made at the tailor in Fajara. The tailors are jam packed before the holiday.
Black Fabric: 2 meters for D100
Pants: D150 for sewing
Color Fabric: 2 meters for D50
Shirt: D200 for sewing
Total Cost: D500 (aka $18USD) -- I went to a more expensive tailor because I wanted to make sure it turned out

Wearing asobe (outfits made with the same fabric) with my kitten!

Tobaski celebration at my house

So cute that I am making myself sick

Again with the level of cute leading to sickness

Even I am cooking something on Tabaski. I heart Chole (Indian dish).

Now time for the real fun… leading the Ram to the sacrificial hole in the ground

Making the hole deeper to hold all the blood…. With a machete!

Cute Ram! ...Yum?!

Getting the knife ready

Pinning him down so he is facing East

The cut happens quickly and they hide the knife from the Ram so it is more humane.

Now bleeding him into the hole in the ground. And I DID take some of these pictures.

Me and Mbosse staying a safe distance away from the blood

Hanging him to butcher

Butchering… or something like it

Im not the biggest fan, but don’t want to miss everything

Muhammed is not scared

They keep going

An hour or so later they and dividing the organs from the meat and blood etc.

It does not seem like they should put the head on top of the legs. Poor guy.

Lol. He actually called me out of my house to take this picture.

Cooking begins

Apparently the first thing you are supposed to eat on Tabaski is the liver of the Ram you slaughtered. Mbosse gave this to me and Kane to participate. Oh god.

Hes not happy…

I am not happy…

But we try it anyway…

Sigh…

Sitting outside and brewing Attaya with the neighbors

Also grilling up some of the goat meat while we wait for lunch

After lunch all the kids get dressed up and walk around asking neighbors and friends for salibo (A few dalasi or some mintys or you can give them a prayer which is hilarious because they can’t say anything but you know they are so sad that they didn’t get money or candy)

Foolay (one of the neighbor girls) getting her hair done before going out

Foolay all ready

Muhammad all ready (Mbosses son)

Im giving mintys to the girls

And Kane gives them to the boys

Taking surprise pictures of more kids. Most of them were too scared to talk to the white toobobs sitting outside even though they have no problem screaming for mintys every other day of the year. Go figure.


So Tabaski is only supposed to be a one day holiday, but there is some disagreement on which day it should actually occur. Half of the Muslims here want to celebrate on the same day as Mecca and they other half base the day off of the moon somehow. The reason that these two days differ is because Mecca sees the moon differently than The Gambia due to location… so when we start counting down to Tabaski and when Mecca starts counting down is not exactly the same.

My part of Brikama celebrated on Tuesday, but they other half celebrated on Wednesday. Because Kane and I could not eat anymore goat and we were pretty much stranded due to the unavailability of transportation we rode our bikes to the Tanji (A small fishing village on the water). It was about 25 miles total. It was fun… but now my legs hurt :( Here are some pretty pictures.