Stuck in Senegal + Some Photos from The Gambia

Matt playing Draughts (international checkers) with Lamine Conte at a gaming group in Banjul, The Gambia

Matt with our friends Alpha, Bakary and Appolino in The Gambia

Alpha, Bakary and some of their friends playing Sorry in The Gambia

I was hoping that this post would be coming to you from Guinea. It feels like we've been away from Montana/California/Texas for such a long time- shouldn't we be in Guinea by now?!! Sure, things here work a bit differently and yes, travel here is a pain but, in this case, Matt and I are at fault (okay, I'll also share a tiny bit of the guilt with a mean woman at the Air Senegal ticket counter). If we had planned our travels a bit more carefully we'd be in Conakry, Guinea by now. We weren't sure when we'd be getting back from The Gambia so we didn't make any airline reservations beforehand. Basically we showed up in Dakar, Senegal on Saturday and "planned" (or rather, expected) to hop on a plane the next day. Of course the flights are booked until Thursday. Since we're not getting any turkey or homemade stuffing for Thanksgiving this year, our consolation will be *finally* making it "Back to Guinea." At least I hope it works out that way....

In the meantime, we're dirtying our last few "clean" clothes and trying to get some of our freelance work done despite the heat and power outages. (As a sidenote, I'd like to respond to the controversy about Matt and his underwear before this case makes it to the Montana Supreme Court via our favorite Lawer, Brian: Unfortunately I'm not authorized to say whether or not he wears any. I'll leave that up to him. BUT I can say that he did pack a lot. In fact he packed a lot more than I did. Since our current situation here in Dakar is not ideal for washing clothes (no bucket, clothesline, etc. Plus, we're leaving so soon) I've had to start wearing some of *his* underwear. The more I think about it, he was quick to offer them to me AND they don't look or feel very worn....)



Okay, back to our situation. Matt and I are used to being a bit unorganized and therefore often find ourselves fumbling around, trying to make plans at the last minute. We're fine with this. We've even come to like laughing at ourselves. But when it involves someone else it's not so funny. Enter Saint Boubacar Thiam. Actually, he's not a Saint but will go to Mecca this year and will soon be an El Hadj. Mr. (almost) El Hadj Thiam is a lovely man. He's a successful business owner and family man here in Dakar (though his son is studying in the U.S). His time is money. And, unluckily for him (though he would never say this), he has found himself "in charge" or two fumbling Americans with dirty, big and/or no underwear. Poor, poor Mr. Thiam. Matt and I were volunteers under Mr. Thiam's uncle in Guinea. His uncle, a Guinean man and a true El Hadj, now lives in the States. Since finishing the Peace Corps El Hadj and I have become friends via email and more recently, the phone. He has made it his mission to make sure Matt and I are safe, happy, and well taken care of in West Africa. He hasn't let the fact that he no longer lives in Africa get in his way. This is a big man in every sense of the word. He has big hands, big contacts all over West Africa, and an even bigger heart. He basically put his nephew who lives in Dakar with his family in charge of Matt and me while we're here. When we get to Guinea El Hadj has a whole other network of caretakers ready for us until we reach our Guinean families. Of course Matt and I are adults and can take care of ourselves. But I do have to admit that it has been such a pleasure getting to know El Hadj's newphew. And yes, he has made things possible that we never would have drempt possible. He as gone above and beyond the call of duty. He has put up up in a rental he owns, fed us, taken us to the aiport several times and waited the requisite three hours while we tried to fly standby, changed our money at a good rate (they use dollars in Mecca so this works out for everyone), connected us with a travel agency, facilitated us buying our plane tickets....and on and on and on. This list really does go on for a long time. We can't thank him enough. We also can't seem to get out of Dakar. So guess what? We're *still* his problem. Believe me, we've tried to get him off the hook. He won't have it. We've also tried to get the heck out of her and get to Guinea. It feels like some weird movie where the annoying foreigners who dress funny and smell bad just won't get the hint and take a hike. He's been great about it though and has made us feel very at ease (as we eat his food and he drives us all around town). We're embarrassed. We're also so damn happy to know this guy, not because he's bending over backward for us but because he's a great, funny guy and we have a wonderful time with him. I'll try to post of photo of him before we leave (if we ever do...).

Our trip back here from The Gambia was long and exhausting. We stopped in a big town called Kaolack on a mission to find Matt's Guinean host brother Abdou. Kaolack is known as one of Senegal's hottest towns. I don't mean hottest fashion or spiciest food. I mean hot. Hot, hot. Hot as in, I'm melting hot. So we arrived in Kaolack at high noon to look for a guy who we thought might be there. Fun! And Mr. Thiam and his air conditioned car were a zillion miles away. To make a long story (and a long, long, day) short, with a lot of help from a very nice stranger named Maget (he said to call him Max for short) we found Matt's host brother's older brother and got Abdou's cell phone number. He's currently in another region in Senegal- very far away. But contact was made so we felt good. Mission (basically) accomplished. It really was a small miracle to find this guy's family in the middle of a huge town where we didn't know anyone. Abdou will visit us in Guinea at the end of December. We spent a very bizarre night with Abdou's older brother and his wives. Bottom line: They had no idea what planet we were from or how on earth we knew their family. By the time we left their home we weren't sure what planet they were from. And Matt ended up with a whole bunch of bed bug bites.

My fingers are crossed (and Mr. Thiam's too I imagine) that my next post will be frm Guinea.



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