After finishing our literature presentations (yes!) Addie and I were feeling a little adventuresome again. We stashed our stuff, tucked a bit of money in our shirts/pockets, and walked out the door, without a plan. Bad idea. We ended up ducking back into school to check out a map. We thought about places we hadn't been yet, and ended up deciding on Grand Yoff for no reason in particular. Now that we had a vague idea of what we wanted, we headed towards the VDN near my house to catch some type of transportation. While standing along the road, a man asked us where we were going, and told us we'd want to take #29. It took awhile before we saw the crowded white bus, and when the doors open, the apprenti told us, "it's full, get in" We "got in" and thought we were going to be hanging out the door. I don't know how, but eventually everyone got in enough to shut the doors. In comes ptomiscuité d'espace. At first, Addie had her arms around me. I ended up right in this one lady's face and all over another guy and probably 4 or 5 other people as well. But, seeing as we needed to pay, it was fine. I asked the woman how much it cost to go to Grand Yoff and she said 150, so Addie handed me her change, and I added mine to it as I passed it up. It's crazy to watch people passing money back and forth to the back, where they take it and give you a useless ticket. We paid with exact change, but others paid with 1,000 or even 2,000, so the change gets handed back with the ticket. At one point, no one really knew to whom the change belonged; someone asked "who just gave me the 1,000?'
We weren't quite sure how we'd know when to get off, but eventually we saw some signs that said Grand Yoff and the next time we stopped, off we went. We wanted to go to the market, so we stopped and asked where it was. A kind woman led us closer to the street and pointed out some vague directions, muttering in frolof. We didn't really get it exactly, but it didn't concern us. We found a baggie of sliced mango to split and continued on. Eventually we did take a couple turns and found the market. It was a really interesting part of the city in general, as it was pretty much all shops. The market itself was pretty standard, leaning heavily to the practical and not so much toward the toubab. There were a lot of nice smells, and surprised Senegalese. We gathered that not very many white kids like us come around this block too often. We were the only ones we saw the whole time. We mostly walked around a lot, unknowingly getting crazily sun burnt. Laayila. We decided to get some lunch and found a woman selling sandwhiches with 3 choices: pasta, beans, or potato/onion. We picked option 3, which was scooped into bread slathered in mayo with some kind of seasoning added, and then piment. Some young boys laughed at the toubabs eating piment as they passed by. We found a bench to sit on, as eating and walking is highly frowned upon (it's forbidden by the Khoran) and sat and ate. Several people came by and greeted us, and surprised young children just stared at our white faces.
We set out to break a 5,000 at a boutique and enjoyed a refreshing fanta, 100cfa cheaper than in our neighborhoods. This proved to be a critical move. We then walked around for awhile more looking for some kind of vehicle when we reached a sort of terminal. A car-rapide was stopped so we asked where it was going; the answer was to ask us where we were going. We said the lutte stadium because we figured that was our best shot at getting home. The apprenti didn't really understand us, but told us to get in anyway. He collected our money, and someone else asked us where we were going. Once it was understood, several people were ushered out of this car into others. We have to wonder if they changed directions? Anyway, it was pretty full and we made quite a lot of stops; it seemed like people were just getting on and off wherever. We got relatively close and they told us to get out there. They clearly weren't going the direction we actually needed. Walking is fun though. We made it back to the BC and recounted a few silly tidbits before deciding to hit the beach. After the beach, I went to Djiby's to hang out and when I finally got home I looked in the mirror for the first time and saw how read my face was. Sunscreeeeeeen whoops. Addie texted me and we had an exchange about how burnt we were. She was wearing a v-neck - just picture it. I was wearing a scarf so at least my chest didn't get it, as I too was wearing a v-neck (imagine that, les jumeaux wearing the same things)
Transportation both ways and lunch for the pair of us was right around 1,000 cfa ($2) (this doesn't include the fanta because that wasn't really lunch. it does include the mango though). Please tell me where in the US I can have an adventure and a delicious satisfying lunch for a dollar or less.
I want to see my people of course, but I really don't want to leave. How would you all feel about a great migration to Senegal? Please bring my guitar and some peanut butter cups. And more VIA. Thanks.
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