Hotel Sokhaman Dakar

... across to N'Gor Island. Upon arrival, I was approached by a local Senegalese man who turned out to be an artist and showed me around the island. After Asia, I was expecting him to demand payment from me, but he insisted that he didn't want payment and stuck to that. His generosity in spending an entire afternoon with me and even refusing a cup of tea that I offered to buy him is really remarkable. We spoke French the whole day and he explained to me ...

So much has happened in the last week, I can barely remember who I am any more! Finally got back to school but after much deliberation have decided that the 'maternelle', or nursery, is not the place for me. As much as I love nearly all the kids it is not satisfying me. So, on Thursday I am being taken to my new school and will be an English teacher, or helping one of the teachers there. I am sad to leave the maternelle but I think it is probably for ...

Today was another laid back day in the middle of the ocean. The seas were calm all day and despite the fact that it is Sunday we had class. I participated in the usual routine of class, lunch, then a little homework while lying out on the deck. We docked in Senegal today to get fuel with more success then our last attempt at Gibraltar. We were in port at Dakar for five hours but no one was allowed to get off ...

... Maybe it was, but I had not slept since saturday morning and my head and stomach were in no mood. So lets play it safe. I don't even know how to explain Dakar(or wherever the place I was in that was 10 minutes away from the airport). There is something almost charming about it. I'm not saying I want to live there. But it kinda seemed calming. Although there was a bit of trash and many dilapitated buildings, it was kind of ...

... e mais comprido (2h e alguns caganitos até ao centro) e voltei, sempre à butes, chegando à casa la p'ras 16h30. 8 horas de marcha nervosa, que me permitiram de apreciar pequenos detalhes como os graffitis na Av. Cheikh Anta Diop, os Sister Taxi, pequenos carros amarelos invariavelmente com « sistas » no volante, os incontornaveis Ndiaga Ndiaye (kandongueiros), o mercado Sandaga, autêntico mar de cores em todas as bancadas, fossem elas as de roupas africanas, as ...

... that I am suffering from a severe case of dehydration. She then runs to the supermarket, picks up some ice tea, a banana crackers, chips, and some cookies and comes back and starts the close to 12 hour program of rehydration. Apparently it is not a simple as drinking more water. In fact after a certain point that can just kill you because you don't have the sodium and the potassium that you need. BY the next morning I was ...

... At the end of our visit, they all huddled in a big group and followed us out to our buses to tell us goodbye. It was a crazy but amazing start to my trip here in Senegal. I was joking with Mom that it may have been a better transition into international travel if I would have experienced Mexico first, then tried to tackle Dakar...but she knows me better and I have found that adapting here is pretty easy. The people are some of the most friendly people I have ever met.

Sat 1 Mar - to be filled later I went to the famous HLM market - my third big market visit. Not nearly as gruesome as the other previous ones - this is a cloth and goods market. Around the edges there are rows and rows of stalls set up in the dust in the open sunshine .... piled high with flip flops, or kitchen pots, or shoes, or some with bolts of cloth - but mostly cheap pre-manufactured clothes. As you get further into the market you realise that you have enetered a warren of ...

... way was having them all going out into the forest for a month and they were not allowed to see any women. I had a great time sitting with the older men and listening to their stories. I should sit down with the women and do the same thing. Oh there are so many things I want to do....I ended up staying in village for a total of 7 weeks straight and well I went a little stir crazy and so I ended up moving my work site to Dakar and ...

... Still I never lost my faith in my fellow men, and that's what sustains me, the basic goodness of men and women, cultivated through religion and honed through practice. These are 'people of the book,' too, the Qur'an, and it shows. I was never offered so much food and drink as on that train, even by Thais, and they're good at that, and including Deep Southerners, ditto. This, too, will pass. The *****house wasn't that bad ...