Across the water in a pirogue to swim in the bolongs

I wanted to take full advantage of what this beautiful region has to offer.  A big advantage of having Saliou along with me is that he talks to everyone and gets the inside info on who is available to help us do something.  After a couple phone calls, we were picked up by a (really nice) car to take us to the river to go out on the boat.  Just us, reasonable price.  The boatman spoke French quite well, but conversation quickly dissolved into Wolof, and much shared laughter on their part.  It's nice to see that.

The river is quite large with dense mangrove on all sides.   We stopped at a small sandy pullout where another pirogue was docked.  The narrow sandy path opened onto a clearing of three houses.  Two women (out in the middle of nowhere...) were beautifully dressed in the traditional clothing.  They were hacking at a large tree branch.  Whereas we Americans would use a saw, they use a long machete-like tool to chop at the tree.  Our boatman helped out.  The three buildings were well built (had roofs, for example).  One family, three generations, lived there.  There was a family cemetery there. Various sized raised mounds show whether the person was an adult or child.

  To us, it is so foreign, that you would live on your own like that.  There is no cash exchange here, only barter by boat.  All the females are traditionally dressed. The Senegalese women spend in inordinate amount of time washing clothing.  They are always well dressed.  You'll often see men in what appears to be American T-shirts.  Children can look pretty unkempt, but that's to be expected.  In villages, you see pig, chickens, goats all over the place.  Right now there seems to be an abundance of baby animals.  And of course, children roam all over the place.  No helicopter parents here.

Along the shore are many vacation homes of Europeans.  We pulled up at a small resort to swim and I chatted with a young man on a surfboard (paddling, as it was calm).  I had been admiring his swimming way out in the river, very smooth swimmer.  He spoke very good French and it was super fun to talk to him  When I can upload pictures, I'll put his picture here.

Guess what I had for lunch?  Yes!  Fish and rice!

Tonight is packing night for an early departure tomorrow morning on the ferry.  I hope very much that we don't end up in a Sept-Place that breaks down....we will leave with plenty of time in case that happens.

I have to say that I would never come here alone.  It would be enormously hard to get around as all negotiations are in Wolof .  I'm also not really sure where the idea came that people are super friendly and warm.  I can see that if you are in an organized tour, that would be the case since that's where the money is to be made.  When I was alone in Dakar,  people mostly wanted to sell me things.  My friends here are extremely protective of me, and are immediately worried if I say I am going to wander off by myself.  They also guard their belongings very carefully.  Just now, the waitress here asked Saliou in Wolof if we could give her some money.  No one has any around here.  Saliou will go to the ATM to get 500 cfa (about 80 cents).

Spending time with Badou, Iba and Saliou has been wonderful, and would have been, in any country!