Day 2

Sunday January 7, 2018

              By the time we landed, it was Sunday morning. We exited the plane onto the runway and a bus took us to baggage claim and passport check. We had 34 bags to claim as a group and we were missing three. Buba’s main bag of clothes and two other girls’ bags were missing. They waited in line for about an hour to figure out where their bags were. Apparently, they were never loaded onto the plane at JFK. Myself and the rest of the students just sat in a circle and played Uno. We then got on a bus and waited another hour for Buba and the two girls to figure out how to buy clothes. Our suitcases were attached to the top of a bus. I was a bit afraid that mine would fall off and get lost as had Buba’s suitcase last year.

 Dakar  Airport

     We drove for about an hour until we reached the hotel. Everyone was very sleepy and in a bad mood. There were either two or three people who room together in these hut-like buildings with straw roofs. Since there are only three guys on the trip, we had a room of three. There was only one single bed and a double bed so Rohit and I are sharing. The huts are cramped and are nothing desirable, but it is just a place to sleep. We had lunch, buffet style. The food was ok. They eat a lot of meats, rice, and vegetables. I much prefer my American Food. We then were given time to nap. All three of the boys, myself included went back to nap. However, the other boy snores so loud that I could not fall asleep. Rohit and I left and just sat by the pool. It was 73 degrees here today and a little bit windy which made it chilly.

My hut

              At 5:00, we headed out to explore the local lake called Pink Lake or Lac Rose and the market. To get to the lake, you need to pass all the merchants. They are very aggressive salespeople. They will physically put jewelry on you to get you to purchase it. They always want you to “come to my shop.” Buba tried explaining that none of the students had exchanged currency yet but I don’t think that any of them understood. The Pink Lake is aptly titled… it’s really a pink lake. This is a cool effect of the saturated salt in the water and the sun. The lake does not look pink in the evenings and the mornings because the sun is not up. The lake at its deepest, is 1.5 meters salt and 1.5 meters water. The local women row out to the middle of the lake every morning and shovel the salt into baskets and bring it back to shore. There are gigantic mountains of salt along the shores. They have these large quantities of salt but are still very poor. A bag of salt that we would typically buy to salt our driveways is $4 here. Buba would stop every few minutes when walking around the lake to point out some cultural or historical aspects. I was actually extremely cold during this walk. It was very very windy, and I was in shorts and a t shirt. I regret not packing more hoodies and sweatshirts.

Pink Lake

              The wifi is very poor here. It is nice to be away from my phone but I still need to take care of stuff, such as my emails and contacting my parents. Tonight I will be having chicken and homemade potato chips for dinner. I hope to gain better access to wifi tonight so that I can talk with my family and friends. Hopefully the snoring does not keep me up tonight.

Goodnight from Senegal,

Andy