Woi ya yoi. It's been a roller coaster.
We did finally make it out to visit the family who supplies the goat's milk Maniang uses to make goat cheese, in his small but successful self-started business. (Graham is going to buy him a bigger refrigerator, as a microloan, so he can expand production, which I think is awesome!)
Visiting the Ka family, and their goats and cows, on their compound way, way out of the way of anything, even a ways outside the nearest small village, was such a great opportunity, and one we only got through Kap, and all the friends she's made here.
Unfortunately, I was sick the day of our visit (the diarrhea you just have to expect to contract at some point, and a mysterious fever that came and went, possibly just a result of it being very, very, very hot) and spent most of it lying down and trying not to move, while Kap and Graham were sitting with the family and trying to learn a few phrases out of their Pulaar phrasebook (a different ethnicity and language from the Wolof we'd focused on so far).
I was also just exhausted after many days of living with a large, extended Senegalese family, and sharing small quarters with two fellow travelers around the clock. I want to think I'm flexible, a good traveler, and able to drop into any situation the road throws at me - and usually I am, but somehow I felt for a bit there that I'd met my match in Senegal. I need to reflect on this more, though, before I can say anything real about it.
Anyway, I went down to the beautiful Sine-Saloum Delta on my own for a few days, to recover both my stomach and my sanity, and came back much improved.
After the usual hurdles (country-wide transportation strike, room that had been reserved for me for weeks suddenly not available) I've actually made it back to Ngor (the village on the coast just outside of Dakar) where I have just one more day before I fly out! You better believe that after all that, my plan for tomorrow is to STAY PUT in Ngor and enjoy just one day that's not hectic or difficult in unforeseen ways.
Inshallah.
A few more random, extra thoughts, before my internet time is up:
Germans:
I forgot to say, when I was talking about names and being German and such: People in Senegal love Germans! I think it's a soccer thing, because Senegal is crazy about soccer, and Germans are good at it. One guy on the street proudly told me that he always supports Germany in the World Cup. And the father of the family with their goat farm way out in the countryside started listing for us all the German cities he knows - and he even knew Moenchengladbach, the small western German city where I always go for Christmas, a place no one but the Germans ever know. Again, it must be a soccer thing, right?
"Discovering":
A lot of people ask me why I'm in Senegal (or once, why there are so many white people in Senegala right now), but in the end, it seems they want to hear one of two answers: "vacation" or "discovering," in the sense of "I like discovering other cultures." Again, it seems people are most content if you stick to the script they're expecting.
Culture:
And something Kap's friend Abdoulaye said, while we were all at the Cheikh Lo concert in Dakar, that struck a chord with me: He said, "I want to keep my culture" (He's Poule/Pulaar/Fulani, one of the ethnic groups that make up West Africa), "but not all of it. I've also learned another culture."
And I thought, Yes. That's exactly why I think it's so important to get to know other cultures. Because otherwise, how will you know what parts of your own culture you agree with?
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