"A city is a place where there is no need to wait for next week to get the answer to a question, to taste the food of any country, to find new voices to listen to and familiar ones to listen to again." - Margaret Mead

Selfie overload! Sorry, I promised people to get more photos of me in my blogs. overboard much.

 

Susanna and I left the dusty roads of Kaolack to explore the capital city. We entered the sept place (taxi) sweating due to the sweltering heat and left the sept places rapidly searching for our largest thickest jumper. Due to the beautiful oceans that you've seen in a few of my photos, Dakar is very cold, well at least it felt that way after leaving the 40 + degrees that we've grown so accustomed to. 

Before I say any more, I must say well done for making it through the copious amount of photos that I've taken! I hope they make up for my absence. It has been a very long and lovely Easter. 

Our Easter started with a celebration as one our Canadian friends from Kaolack celebrated their birthday. We spent the first couple of days dancing, eating and generally having a good time. We even went back to the first place we ever visited when we arrived in Senegal. 

Once our friends left to go back to work, we took it upon ourselves to get lost in the city and found ourself standing in front of the main museum of Dakar, IFAN Museum of African Arts. We agreed to visit it the next day. The museum exhibited works of art from all around Africa and also had an exhibition on the top floor that focused on how much waste is produced in Senegal. If I had to compare it to London, my home town, I'd say the bottom floor was V&A and the top floor was Saatchi.  V&A now becomes 'Very African' and the Saatchi becomes Senegaatchi. Okay, maybe I'm not too good at wordplay, but you understand what I'm trying to say, 10/10.

Moving onto our second week, our friends came down from Kaolack again, but for a much sadder reason. Our Canadian friend,  had now finished her stay in Senegal and was returning to Quebec. It was a very sad day.  We had a nice lunch with her then watched as her taxi progressively disappeared  further into the distance. To get over our sadness, we all decided to dance the night away. We danced until the pain was no longer metaphorical, but in our legs and feet.

Near the end of our trip we managed to fit in a little more sightseeing. We went to Ile de Goree, a beautiful island off the coast of Senegal. As our ferry approached Goree, we were flabbergasted at how beautiful it was; colourful houses, beautiful beach and decorated stores. We took our time looking at the lovely jewellery, paintings and clothes that the island had to offer. Not a single person went home empty handed. Though that was not why we truly went there. 

Goree is known for its history as a major slave-trading centre so the main place went to see was 'La Maison des Esclaves', The House of Slaves. The House of Slaves is a museum and memorial to the Atlantic slave trade on Gorée Island. It has been visited by a range of world leaders from Barack Obama to Nelson Mandela to Pope John Paul II.   It really exposed us to the poor conditions slaves had to endure. 

We arrived on Goree very late and we feel like we're not done with it. We'll definitely be visiting there soon. 

The rest of the week was filled with loads of food, loads of coffee and loads of fun. Though we didn't actually do much, it was just what we needed. The other volunteers were finally in Dakar and it was time to hear about all the exciting things that happened at everyone's project. The days were filled with ice-cream, walking and exploring the big city. The night was filled with cooking, dancing and movies. 

As a whole our trip to Dakar was exciting and somewhat eventful. Loads of nothing happened, but loads of something did also. For now, it's back to work!

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