The Week in Review

My first week here has been fantastic- I have loved every second of it! There is so much I have learned I cannot even begin to divulge. Hopefully through my few words and pictures, I may convey the slightest image of the beatiful African culture.

THE MOST INTERESTING.......


...PEOPLE

~This is Parfait (pronounced like the frozen dessert). Parfait is what we call a bamf. Every time I talk to him, I learn something fascinating about him. He has been showing me around Dakar.


...PLACES

~Goree Island: It is an island right outside of Dakar. It was one of the largest shipping ports for slaves. Now it is a historic preserve in which the natives embrace the Rastafarian lifestyle: "It is better to have peace and be poor, than to have wealth with conflict." Many artists here as well as Karaoke Bob Marleys (unfortunately my batteries ran out before I snap a shot of "Bob Marley").



~Dakar: At a lighthouse overlook. The tip of land you see in the distance is the most western point of Africa.



~Pink Lake: As you can see, the lake is pink in the background. It is from salt. It is very similar to the Dead Sea, where you float on top of the water and don't sink. These people are collecting salt.



~Thies: The famous Baobab trees of Africa. This one is huge. It was hollowed out a long time ago and used to store dead bodies....kind of like the Sleepy Hollow movie....



~Soma: like in the book Brave New World as well as a song title by the Strokes. It was an awesome village where they wove these fantastic silos to store grain.


...PICTURE

These villages (like the previous picture) had no more than 3-5 families living in each one. There is so much I can say about them...but no one likes to read essays :)