A Weekend in Saint Louis

("sept-place" bargaining)

Around 4pm, we arrived at the bus station-like place to get two "sept places" for Saint Louis. "Sept places" are eight seater station wagons (seven, really because of the driver) that you pay to drive you places. When we got to the station, however, to our surprise, we found some guy who had a 15-seater van willing to accept 3500 fCFA per seat. In comparison to the "sept place," this sounded like a great deal because we wouldn't have to take two separate cars (we were a group of 8) and could sit comfortably for the same price. Once we all piled into the van, the driver then informed us that the price was 3500fCFA... per seat... meaning we would have to pay for all 15 seats.

(within the ngiaga ndiaya)

So we get off the bus, pissed of course, and some other guy comes up to us telling us about some 2800fCFA per head deal. We clarify that its per head, not per seat, and agree to go. We all pile into this bus and pay 10000fCFA as down payment. At some point, we realize that the bus we were now sitting in was a "ngiaga ndiaya". What does this mean? Ngiaga Ndiayas stop along the route to the destination and pick up people as we go. Basically, what we knew it to mean was that it would take 5-6 hours to get to Saint Louis isntead of 3-4 hours. We tried getting our money back after this realization, but to no luck. What ended up happening in the end, though, was Josh and Laura got off and took a sept place (because of PB and D) while the rest of us roughed it.

Our "direct" what we thought would be 5-6 hr Ngiaga Ndiaya road trip up to Saint Louis ended up taking 8+ hours. Within the actual Ngiaga Ndiaya, we sat 5 people a row in what shouldve been 3-4 person rows. The road trip officially became an adventure when we pulled onto the highway and got hit by another bus. We lost our driver's side-view mirror. Then, maybe an hour into the trip, we for an unknown reason got pulled over by the Po-po. All this time, we were sitting with no leg room whatsoever (in fact, there was a hole beneath my feet so everytime we went over a puddle, my legs got splashed), windows down, bugs swarming towards our overheated perspirating bodies. By the end of the 8 or so hours, we had stopped only 3 times at rest stops, one of which wasn't really even a break so much as the entire bus unloading to go see a person who got hit by a car. In the meantime, Laura texted Mairead and told her that she and Josh had arrived at 8pm to only be pleasantly surprised by a really awesome hostel and friendly gentlemen who provided them Ceebujen (the national Senegalese dish which Saint Louis is famous for). After we arrived at Saint Louis past 12 am, we piled all 6 of us into one taxi and got to the hostel only for our taxi driver to ask Cait for a goodnight "bessous" (kiss).

(our hostel... it reminded by of the Real World)

(mmm mmm café crème)

(cool artist who goes by Bobey)

(kerry, me, cait, and josh)

We woke up the next morning and ventured around town. We found this fantastic patisserie where had the most amazing pasteries and cafe creme, ever. Also, we went to the most beautiful beach that Ive seen yet in Senegal (called Hydrobase), however the dead goat and the dog who peed on the dead goat and also getting harassed by locals took a tiny bit away from it. At night, we ate at this toubab restuarant along the river and then walked home for some beers. Josh taught us this cool intuition drinking game, which we played for a while. And then we finished off the remainder of the beers with an equally as fun and new game introduced by Cait; By the time we finished our beers, there was only myself, Kerry, Josh, and Cait left. We then decided to go to a bar where we played Kings Cup. By around 3 or 4 am, Josh and I, who were the last ones up, went to bed only to hear Laura talking in her sleep ( she said something along the lines of "yeah, i'd like that").

(me, Cait, Paulina, Laura, Josh, Mairead, Licia, and Kerry)

The next morning we went back to the Patisserie and ordered delicious omelettes, and of course, more cafe creme. We left in two separate "sept-places" (for whatever reason, we chose not to take the Ngiaga Ndiaya again). The ride back was pretty intense for everyone in the car-- though a bit less for me because I was reading Josh's the Red Tent. We started off by almost hitting a boy who was leaning too far into the road; at some point Laura saw a guy standing butt naked in the street; at another, it started to pour... into the car. The driver was a huge prick and would not stop the car when we asked him to, not even when Laura started to cry, or when everyone else in the car (even the 3 native senegalese passengers) started to scream at him.

When we finally got back to Dakar (it was only a 4ish hour trip this time around), they got me my own taxi (because i live so far from everyone else) for 1500 fCFAs. As everyone else I was with walked away towards their own taxi, all these local Senegalese men started to yell 1500fCFA at me and tell me to go sit in this empty taxi. I didn't know what to do, so I went to the taxi, opened the door, and sat inside. After two or so mintes, some guy walked up to the car and told me to get out. Once I got out, all the men from earlier were now screaming 1500fCFAs and telling me to get into their cars. I ended up just following the guy who got me in teh first place and got into his car. By now I had no idea what was goign on, so I called Laura. She didnt pick up. Then two other guys got into the car as well. I said hello to everyone in the car in Wolof and we had a brief conversation about my (in)ability to speak Wolof. They then started to talk to each other too quickly for me to follow in Wolof. This is about the time I started to freak out a bit. I very casually got out my phone and then called Josh. I dont even know why I even bothered to call, its not like they could do anything from where they were. Before I hung up with Josh, one guy had already gotten out of the car. The other gyu started giving orders to teh driver to go through all these alleyways and back routes; we took so many turns that I lost track of where we were. Finally, we pulled in front of some house and he got out as well. Thank God.

I eventually arrived home to my host family at 7pm or so, and was pleasantly surprised by running water. Before leaving for Saint Louis, I was somethign like 8 for 10 in bucket showers. I was so happy, in fact, that I almost cried. This awesome weekend then finished off with some delicious Yassa Porc, which was probably one of the best dinners Ive had since being here.