Monday, April 6, 2009

Keur Sadaro

This last week we had our second and last village stay in Senegal. We went to Keur Sadaro to stay with different Wolof families. I was in a village with one other girl from our group. We had a great time getting to know our family members and hanging out with our homestay sisters. During the day, we helped some with the cooking and the cleaning. Sometimes we drank ataaya (tea) with mint leaves (nana) and it was absolutely delicious. At night we hung out with the older siblings and danced and tried talking in Wolof with them. It was impossible. But I know a few things in Wolof. As always, I got completely attached to the kids in the village. They were wonderful. We got to carry the baby of the campement on our back. He was absolutely adorable, and his mom was my favorite woman there. She was the 2nd wife of my village stay father. Our younger sisters put henna on our fingertips and a big circle in the middle of our palms. Apparently that is how they do henna here. It is called fudeen. They also braided our hair into small braids. It was fun. Our last night, the girls dressed us up in boubous and took us to a village party for all the students. We danced with our families and had a great time. I was so sorry to leave, as usual. As a parting gift, my village stay dad's second wife gave me a sack of boiled eggs. It is an odd gift for an American, but I really appreciated it. The 4 days we spent there went by so fast. I was definitely sorry to leave. Before we got to the village, we visited Le Lac Rose: The pink lake. It is super salty and they get a lot of salt out of it. It was pretty cool, but I can't remember why it's pink. C'est dommage quoi.

1 comment:

  1. If I recall my biology, the salty water supports certain bacteria that have red pigments. The red pigmentation prevents damage from strong sunlight. Brine shrimp will often feed on the bacteria, concentrate the red pigment and will color other animals, such as flamingos, that feed on the brine shrimp.

    Love your photos here and on your facebook page. Keep them coming!

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