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We arrived back in Joal last night after a month's worth of travelling. Joal is very much flooded due to the rainy season. I have so many dirty clothes I'd love to wash but it's currently pouring down. It took me about ten minutes to walk to the shop (which we can see from our front door) to get breakfast things this morning because I kept getting stuck in the mud. It's like being at a music festival but with flipflops instead of wellies. It's the month of Ramadan and the fast will be broken this weekend, we're leaving Senegal around about the same time. If Korite (the breaking fast festival) turns out to be on Saturday then we may be able to celebrate a bit with Aicha, Amadou and the family in Dakar. The Muslim calendar depends on the moon, so we'll see. I fasted for the first four days of Ramadan, (although I drank a bit of water on some of these days, cheating a bit). The rules of Ramadan are basically not to eat, drink, smoke or have sex during daylight hours. If you want breakfast, you get up around 5am to eat and then wait until 7.30pm to break the fast, usually with bread, dates and coffee. Most Muslims then eat dinner around 11pm. The usual dinner dishes we have in Senegal, like pasta and peas etc. are scrapped and Thiebu Diene is eaten for dinner instead of lunch. In Ziguinchor, it wasn't too hard going without food and drink for four days, but we did get tired and a bit bored really. You don't realize how much of the day revolves around eating. It was especially hard when it rained because we were stuck in the house, watching films, counting down the minutes until we could break the fast. Before going to Ziguinchor, Lottie and SJ visited us in Joal and we celebrated Mouhamed's 11th birthday. He'll be going to CEM Lamine Senghor in October, the school we taught at. Lottie, SJ, Julia and I headed to Dakar after Joal to do some shopping and visit Lac Rose (the pink lake, turned pink due to algae I think). We went on a horse ride across the beach and into the sea, which was amazing, although my horse kept running off in the opposite direction to the others. In Dakar, we finally went to get our visas at the passport office. Unfortunately Lottie had chosen to wear denim shorts and was refused entry until she rented a skirt from a nearby woman. It's hilarious that so many Toubabs dress inappropriately that this women was able to open a stall renting skirts to those who could not get their passports sorted. When we started travelling, we stopped fasting. We had a ten hour sept-places journey to Tamba. Tamba is dull, and boiling! We asked a few people what there was to do there and they answered, 'so much I can't even being to explain… we have two beautiful banks…' and when I asked where the centre of town was, they answered 'here'. We went on a hunt for the Senegalese beer, Flag, and could not seem to find it anywhere. In one hotel, the waitress took us to a fire station where there was a private bar full of firemen and they only had Gazelle beer. We decided it was a bit awkward, made our excuses and left. Anyway, we only stayed in Tamba for one night before heading to Kedougou, which we much preferred. The host of Lottie and SJ, Bas, hooked us up with his friend, Hyacinthe, who was a great help and he worked at a really posh hotel (which we couldn't afford to stay at, but we ate their and used the pool!) From Kedougou, we went to Dindefilo and then to Segou. This part of Senegal, the South East, is so different from everything we've seen before. There's no sand, it's all grass and trees and mountains. We climbed up a mountain, with a guide who was fasting - much respect, I don't know how he did it! And swam under waterfalls, visited villages on the mountains, which seemed bizarre, people living so high up… It was weird being in Dindefilo as well because it was a Pulaar village, and although I know a few phrases and greetings in Pulaar, it was like being back at square one in October when we couldn't understand any Wolof. The people there clearly spoke Wolof, but as they were all Pulaars, they chose not to. I wish I'd made a bit more of an effort with Pulaar from the start, but oh well. On the opening night of the Olympics, we found the only TV in the village, in the yard of a hospital. There was a huge rain storm but we all huddled under a bandstand to watch the ceremony. It was really surreal, and some of the locals thought that the queen really had jumped out of that plane with James Bond, shouting, 'Wow! She's strong. Isn't she really old?' and laughing their heads off at Mr. Bean. Despite a few power cuts and missing the end, where the flame was lit by Beckham, it was definitely the best way we could have seen the opening ceremony. Getting back to Ziguinchor was quite an effort. We decided to do it in a day, which meant getting a bus from Kedougou at 3am. Now this bus had a lot of people waiting outside it, and by the time our names were called to get on, it was full of people. We started to get a bit annoyed at this point, how could they fill the bus when people have to register beforehand?! We thought we'd have to stand for the four hour journey. But no, small planks of wood were suddenly lifted between the seats. So it went like this, two seats - plank of wood - two seats. Six people then sat along each row. All of us volunteers were on the wood. Being very tired at 3am, we did all we could to keep awake so as not to fall off the wood. I asked SJ to talk at me until I woke up a bit. After this interesting journey, we had to get on a sept-places at Tamba. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a huit-places because they shoved eight of us in. Seven hours later, we arrived safely in Ziguinchor and struggled in vain to wash our clothes and get them dry with the ongoing rain. It was an amazing holiday, though. A few days later, Richard and Conor arrived and we went to Cap Skirring for some nice relaxing on the 'most beautiful beaches of West Africa'. We went out for some really good pizza, which was very much appreciated after living off tapalapa bread and Biskrem biscuits the whole time we were away. I'm going to miss speaking Wolof, not that I'm even that good at it, I just like the sounds and the fact there are no other words for, 'sai sai', 'rek' and so on. In Ziguinchor, Lottie and I made Thieb at Gemma's house, one of the girls' hosts and then Yassa Ginard for everyone at Lottie and SJ's. It took us about 5 hours, with only one small gas stove, but we were so pleased with ourselves after. (I'll upload a picture soon!) Looking forward to cooking Senegalese food for everyone when I get back home. We've had a few very sad goodbyes already, first in Ziguinchor and then in Kaolack, with all the people who welcomed us in September. It's really sad to think about but I hope I'll be able to see them again next year if I'm able to visit Senegal with my family, which is the plan! I'm sure I've missed out a lot, so I may do another blog to finish everything off when I'm home. It's so scary to think that we've come to the end of our year here. Coming to Senegal was definitely one of the best decisions I've ever made and I'm going to miss it so much.
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D x bless you babe xxx