No school today means adventures to be had in Dakar! To get to Dakar, we got to take the train, which is only 3 years old. It was a very clean and smooth ride!
We started off the day touring the college that Sophie went to. College is free in Senegal, and security is tight on campus. You must have a student ID to get through the gates to enter each college campus we’ve visited. We enjoyed time in the library, where we got to hear recordings of the president’s speeches that are archived there, too.
Next we were off to some of our fellow Fulbrighters’ school for English Day. This is a festival where students read poems, sing songs, and make art to celebrate their English speaking. They also have a spelling bee, where they were spelling words like “oscilloscope” and “equilibrium.” While there, I had my first African gig with the purple trombone, performing “This Land is Your Land” with the fellow teachers. Two of Sophie’s students came to this English day to hang out with her and us, even though their English day is in May! How sweet is that?
We also had the opportunity to serve as judges for the beauty competition that took place at the festival. We had to rate each girl in her beauty, dress, originality, and walk. It was really fun and I’m happy to report that I must be a good judge since my scores matched Sophie’s, and she’s seen this before!
After English day was done, we got to have chicken thieboudienne (the traditional dish of Senegal). It was really good, and the more I have of it, the more I realize every version is a little different. Nikki (one of my traveling partners) compared it to jambalaya- you never have the same jambalaya at two places. It was the perfect analogy.
While eating lunch, one of the spelling bee participants started talking to me. He wanted to know if I had any tips on how to make his English pronunciations better. He said he watches BBC all of the time to get better at his English, but the British English causes him some confusion from time to time. This boy spoke such wonderful English that I told him Americans don’t always understand the British English either. How cool is it that this young man wanted to perfect his English? They really view the ability to speak English as a precursor to a successful life.
From there, we went to Le Phare Des Mammales, which is the lighthouse of Dakar. We learned about how a deep water port was needed in Africa for Europeans looking to get to China for silk and India for spices. Enter in the ‘nose’ of Africa- Dakar. This tour was fascinating, because the structure of the lighthouse itself is not tall, but it is at the top of a very large hill. We did not have many stairs to climb at all. Also interesting was the fact that we got to go into the part that held the fresnel light and rotate the structure. The windows are all covered in cloth during the day, and then at sunset, they turn on the light and let it do its lighthouse job.
Next we were treated to a tour of the Mosque de la Divinité, which has a very cool story. The founder of the mosque had a dream about this mosque- it came from the sky down to the ground in his dream, so he built it. We were given the tour by this man’s grandson! The mosque was built by volunteers entirely by hand. It was gorgeous and being there during the evening call to prayer was incredible!
We walked down to the ocean after our tour. We watched the fishermen come back in with their pirogues, and looked for beautiful shells in the basalt rocks along the shore. As we were leaving, the fishermen invited us to eat their catches of the day (for free)! This was such an Anthony Bourdain moment! We gathered around their catch that they had just got done grilling over a fire and enjoyed Emperor and Trumpet fish. They were delicious. I’ve never been a fan of fish that looked like fish (I prefer it to look like unidentified meat that smells only slightly fishy), but I’m quickly getting over that within the last 24 hours (we had fish with a face yesterday for our dinner at the hotel, too 😂). I’ve now learned to not look my dinner in the eye and to stop naming it – that seems to help! Also, trumpet fish is DELICIOUS!
What an incredible day! Stay tuned for more tomorrow, as I learn how the 4% of the population that are Christian celebrate Easter! I can’t wait!
Car Full of Harmony 
Published by