Back from Kedougou, approaching ISP

We got back from Kedougou last night, and I ended up going straight to sleep after dinner due to the 3 hours of sleep I got the night before.

It's difficult to summarize my experience in Kedougou, since I feel like I did so much in the short time I was there, but I'll give it a shot.

The trip to Kedougou took about 12 hours over both paved and unpaved roads. I was dumb enough to pick the back of the bus, so I got to experience every bump and pothole to its fullest. Fortunately, there was air conditioning, so it was more comfortable than it could have been. I tried to use the time to do some reading--I checked out a copy of Walden from Dr. Drame--But that made me a little carsick. I spent some time thinking about what I might do for my Independent Study Project, but didn't really reach any final decisions.

Once we got to Kedougou, we lodged up in a sort of hotel comprised of two-person air conditioned huts.

On our first full day (Saturday), we took a hike as a group up to Etchwar, the Bedik village where Elizabeth and I would be staying for our village homestay. Upon arriving at the top, I was pleased to find that all of my unreasonable hopes and expectations were fulfilled. We climbed up some rocks to get a view of the surrounding landscape, and it was breathtaking. I felt very lucky.

The next day, we took a two hour drive in four-by-fours over what I hesitate to even call roads in order to get to a waterfall. The trip was unpleasant, but ended up being completely worth it in the end. The waterfall was quite a sight--it was easily 100 feet tall, cascading over very geometric rocks into a clear pool at the bottom. Best of all, the water was frigid, and I was glad to be truly cold for the first time in nearly two months.

On Monday, we headed out in groups for our village stays. I got put with the Keita Family, and Elizabeth got put with the Camara family. These were the only two families in the village, which consists of about 50 people in total. Rather than recount every single detail, I'll hit some of the highlights:

We spent most of every day in the fields atop the mountain, doing a variety of jobs including cultivating peanuts and other crops and separating peanuts from their stems. The head of my family, Samuel, would go hunting during the day, and on the eve of my departure, he shot a meerkat (I think) that we ate for dinner.

We got to see both the sunrise and sunset from the top of the rocks that we had climbed up earlier as a group, and it was easily the most spectacular thing I've seen since coming here, possibly in all my life. On one trip up, there was a four to five foot python sitting on the path that Bernard, my host father, killed without hesitation.

On Tuesday, Bernard took me down to Indar, the village below where Lisa and Sonya were staying, in order to "taste" some palm wine. What I didn't realize was that tasting actually meant drinking about a liter and a half to two liters. It didn't taste particularly great, but it got the job done (and apparently only takes a couple of hours to ferment). While I was still pretty under the influence, we hiked back up to Etchwar, which was surprisingly easier.

The next day, we headed back down to have a look at the chapel where the two villages attend church (they're mostly catholic). This visit unexpectedly included more palm wine, and I ended up taking another inebriated hike back up to the top.

Overall, I loved the experience that I had with the Bediks. Everything about it was different from what I've experienced in Senegal thus far: Different religion, different social habits, different food, different music. It was incredibly refreshing, and I was sad to leave.

Friday morning, following our return to our "hotel" in Kedougou, we took a rather difficult hike up to Iwol, another Bedik village where we saw what is alleged to be the largest baobab in the world (in terms of trunk circumference).

That afternoon, a series of events transpired (including me cutting my head open one one of the bamboo poles coming off of the roof of our hut) that lead to me feeling as bad as I've felt since coming to Senegal. For the first time, I really started to miss my family and everything back home, and I would have loved nothing more than to have gotten on a plane and left. The bus ride back to Dakar was miserable, and neither the Kora that I bought nor the bronze sculptures I did were back at SIT like I thought they'd be when we returned.

I'm currently trying to work my way out of this slump.

Also, our ISP proposals are due at the end of this week, and I haven't decided on a topic. I'm so far behind the rest of the group. I feel unproductive and incompetent.

We're planning on having America night as a group sometime this week, which means American movies and food. It couldn't have come at a better time.