Transportation doesnt get much better than this

A note: there was some confusion as to what my cell phone number is here, mostly dueto my poor typing skills. It is: 011 221 673 3933. And if you call and I dont answer feel free to leave a message even if you dont understand what the French message says to you.

And now for your reading pleasure, a replication of the journal entry that I composed en route to Linguere. But first a little background: I went to Linguere this weekend from saturday morning to Monday afternoon to scout out the situation for my project there.

Heres the journal entry, I hope that it feels like you were almost there with me! I believe that this is a cross between the bus trips between NYC and DC and the trip to SD in August without ac because rural Africa is almost as desolate and reminiscent of southern Minnesota and South Dakota.

Tranpsortation in Senegal (and Im assuming other parts of West Africa) is quite an experience. To me it seems like there is no organization whatsoever but it all works in the end. Essentially, this "station" was a tiny space in this industrial neighorhood across the street from where they sell the sheep where they line up all of these cars and buses bound for numerous destinations in Senegal. And essentially once you find a car bound for your destination you must wait until it fills up. This could take hours (or it could not fill up at all and you wont be traveling, nothing is certain)

My first thought was how many people do youthink fit in a "Mini Car"? Well I guess I would guess 4 or 5 because a normal car holds 5 or 6. No try 19 people (including a baby on a lap). This "mini car'' was only slightly bigger than a VW van. There were three people in the front seat, and four in each of the 4 bench seats (and the baby). From my estimation these bench seats should hold, 2, 2, 3, and 3 people respectively. These senegalese really know how to get the most bang for their buck. The initial plan was for me to ride in a glorified grocery getter (station wagon) called the "Sept placé" (seven seats). Unfortunately by the time I arrived at the "station" they had all filled and left for Linguere, thus I had the luck of being able to ride in the ol Mini Car.

As I was waiting for the bus, van whatever, to fill up I watched as they piled more and more cargo on the top of the bus. At one point they put a whole steering column on the roof and the guy next to me and I look at each other and laugh and he says "c'est afrique" Thus I am in a van which to my estimation should actually hold 12 people. This van is ingeniously rigged with a jump seat in each row next to the sliding door so that 4 people instead of 3 can sit in each row.

Top 5 tips for transports out of Dakar
1) The most ingenious idea, I think, when they try to stick you in the back seat where there is next to no air flow (in a vehicle which to my estimation gotup to about 90 degrees) tell them that you get sick riding in the back. I tried this and automatically got a side seat next to the door!
2) similar to tip 1, if they try to make you ride bitch (ie the middle of the seat also with no airflow) tell them you get claustrophic.
3) get to the station early enough to take the 7 placé. The advantage is clear, 7 people, not 19.
4) bring a handkerchief for nasty smells/dust
5) dont wear nice clothes. You will never be more dirty after a trip

I met a kindly guy named Sidy. He told me all about the towns that we were driving through and he kindly put my backpack on the floor in front of him so that I wouldnt have to strap it to the top of the roof. I would have sooner sat on it for 6 hours than strap it to the top of that hoopty. We even got close enough for him to start spouting sexual inuendo. I guess you know that your language skills are improving when you can pick up on these things. The vendors were selling cashews and he said (translate) "these are good for men. For the puissance (power)". you know the PUISSANCE. I said "how about for women?" and he laughed and I promptly said "Sci sci" which essentially means flirt in Wolof. But rest assured, he was married and I was as well (atleast as far as he was concerned). i made up an elaborate story about my husband, its become my standard story now actually.

Positive (and negative) points about the trip:
1) the road is paved (mostly)
2)window seat
3) there is a child next to me (and not a 300 pound woman) because even if there were 3 300 pound women in the row, we must fit 4 people per row.
4) theres a space next to the sliding door where i cans tretch my legs (although there is also a hole in the floor here through rich rocks fly and smack my legs)
5) im not the guy in front of me who is sitting on the broken jump seat and is tilted at a very uncomfortable angle. Also the old owman next to him is scooting closer and closer to him thus he is occupying about a one foot space. This same old woman also just leaned over him to spit out the window. IM just thankful that she had good trajectory and it didnt come into mine.

I am also in the processs of searching for potential escape routes should the situation arise. But I have reassured myself that the other people in the car seem relatively unworried and that they value their lifej ust as much as I value mine and certainly wouldnt ride in a death trap... Oh my the thought just occurred to me that I should be worried about cankeles; especially since I barely have any space for my legs; I have started my heel and toe raises.

Another positive aspect about this trip is that when we stop for the "controle" the police which check drivers licenses I dont even have to move and these women run to the windows to sell food. I got these fabulous little cakes with frosting on top which taste like cornbread for only 100 cfa (about 20 cents) Talk about service. MY friend Sidy takes good care of me. When I took a bag of Madelines (the cakes) from the vendor he gave it back and made sure that I had the bigger ones. How sweet!

We almost hit a child.

Also a funny thought. I had brought my neck pillow. There is no way on gods green earth that I could ever sleep on this thing. Its comical that I ever thought that I could. My expectation of this ride was clearly alllll wrong.

Sign that says "Bienvenue (welcome) Chez Ass" (sorry thats immature of me)

And I just saw a mans such and such who just felt like peeing in open sight on the road... aint a thing.
Everyoneo n the bus now knows that I have a "jekker" (a husband in wolof) who lives in the US. But the woman next to me doesnt believe me because im not wearing earrings and apparently all married American women wear earrings. This is the baby of the woman who doesnt believe me. She was exceedingly well behaved.

Dead horse on the side of the road.

Dead horse #2

The people Im with are either camels or are dehydrated because no one has yet gone to the bathroom. Made the mistake of drinking water on my trip because I was just forced to use the single nastiest bathroom yet of the trip which was located in a market where we stopped to by mangos.

As we get further and further into the bush, the roads are getting worse and worse. Its a good thing that there is relatively little traffic because we are swerving to miss "mini car" sized potholes in the road. I really do get seriously worried however when we swerve onto the side of the road and are driving half on the road and half on the shoulder because this sucker is top heavy. I just keep trying to reassure myself by saying that the chauffeur knows what hes doing! And as we are going on about 3 hours on the road my water is as hot as hot tap water after sitting on the floor of the vehicle. Just did some heel and toe raises to prevent Cankles.

As we are getting closer to the destination my patience is wearing thin. IN these areas everyone knows everyone and at one point we stop and the driver disappears for about 15 minutes and returns with a car part. I jsut pray its not for our bus. can you imagine that happening in the US? Taking a greyhound to madison for example and the driver stops for a few minutes in Eau Clair to do his shopping at Walmart.

I was also the last person to get off the bus because they made many stops to drop off and pick up random people within the last hour of the trip.

Return trip: Most memorable note from the return trip. I saw my first goat being strapped to the top of the van. Here he is after being bound being hoisted to the roof. He was making a lot of noise as he clearly didnt like what was going on. It wasnt my transport unfortunately.

More about my stay in Linguere and my trip to Goree Island to come.