St Louis!!!

So, we are going to have to do this step-by-step:
We planned to head directly after Friday evening class, and so I rushed to pack my bags that morning before heading out. Of course, I did not pack well by any means but I didn't do too badly either- the big mistake was bringing wet laundry off of the line, planning to hang it up at school, but then accidentally leaving it tied in a plastic bag for almost 24hrs- yikes!
That afternoon I finally made it over to the post office to pick up my package- but more on that later. St. Louis is definitely more interesting...
We hitched cabs after evening class and made it to Centre Ville before 8pm. The cabs pulled into a packed parking lot, more of a dirt clearing filled with old rusting cars. We got out and thought about finding a sept-places (a sort-of station wagon seating 7, not comfortably). They kept on piling on charges once we finally settled on a car (lured in by promises of a new car, that ended being as worn-down as the rest). First 4000FCfa per person, then an extra 500FCfa because of the late hour, and then an extra 3000 FCfa in total because of the bags... when we paid our 34,500 FCfa, finally having stopped the the onslaught of extra charges, they tried to hold our 500 FCfa change. Granted it's only a bit more than one dollar, but still, we weren't prepared to lose that extra 500 F. We still had our principles, and we didn't want to be paying anymore than Senegalese would.
After battling Dakar traffic for almost an hour to get out of the city, we coasted only the highway. We were missing the view, but we spent most of the ride sleeping anyways. Pulling up in a small village outside of St. Louis called Raw at about 1:30am, we were all ready for a few hours of sleep.
Emma, another MSID student, had been chief organizer for the trip. Her host family is originally from St. Louis, or it might be simply that they have relatives there, but for whatever the reason, they were pushing for her to make a trip. And so, the rest of us just kind of tagged along...
We stayed with a cousin of her host family in Raw. The original plan was to find an inexpensive auberge but apparently the proprietors kept on jacking the prices once they found out it was going to be a bunch of american students. It was great having the help though of some locals. We stayed with Doudou, her host cousin, who then spent the next two days playing tour guide.
We were able to rent a large van of a family friend for Saturday. We hoped to stop by a wildlife reserve but all of the tour guides were busy- meaning that the one! tour guide was busy with one! group of spanish biologists. Although disappointed, we went to check out a different national park- La Langue de Barbarie. A large delta were the Senegal (a river) and the Atlantic Ocean meet. The name refers to the shape of the sandy peninsula- the tongue of the savage- rather than the language of anyone.
It was beautiful!!! Just gorgeous!
Check out pictures below:

(our group, R to L: Keren, Elke, Emma, Britta, Jasper, Melinda, Amanda)

(holding a crab...)

(and then... I dropped it...)

After the park, we thought it time to head into the city for some lunch and some shopping. After walking around, soaking in the beautiful architecture. (For me, the biggest difference was the paint! Dakar is mostly gray cement buildings where as St. Louis is orange, pink, red, blue, green, and white.) St. Louis, as the former colonial capital, still has much of the former architecture in the center of town. It was what I would expect from the French Quarter in New Orleans or the French Caribbean.

Doudou, our host, thought it would be great for us to the city by carriage ride. Riding around centre ville in a light pink carriage pulled by a white horse covered in rainbows ribbons was... quaint, I suppose. However venturing into the poorer fisherman districts was just... awkward. I was appreciative for the chance to venture off of the beaten path, but I prefer to do that venturing by foot rather than by... pink carriage. We stopped at the fish market where they prepare the fish for sale and load trucks headed to other regions of Senegal. Never have I been this shocked by food preparation. It was disgusting! Discarded fish carcasses were overflowing out of woven baskets while the innards littered the ground. The smell contrasted sharply with the beautiful view- full crashing waves painted orange and yellow and white by the setting sun. Guide books always mention a trip to watch the action at the fish market in the morning, with boats setting off for the morning catch crossing paths with those coming in from hard night's work with their nets full. And yet, the smell just couldn't be forgotten- no matter how picturesque the sight.
Afterwards, we stopped for a scoop of ice cream to refresh us for an evening of Senegalese music!
We headed across the river to the mainland, across a bridge build by Eiffel!. At the stadium, after much waiting (typical), things finally got started. There was Wolof rap (was quite proud when I managed to get about every 15th word), traditional senegalese music (so beautiful! have to track down a recording), a hiphop group (my kind of music because franglof (french+english+wolof), the language of my life here). The kicker- Fallou Dieng, playing "Mana". The song is sort of our group's theme song, and so was a ton of fun to get to see in concert. We were dancing as best we could. Any one around us kept on turning around to get a look at the "toubabs" attempting to dance to Senegalese music. And then they would get their friends' attention. By the end of the night, I am sure that the whole stadium knew of the 7 toubabs dancing on the field.
We got home at 3:30am or so. Just enough for a few hours of much needed sleep before hitting the city tomorrow morning to get our last fill of St. Louis. Sadly Sunday morning rained, and rained, so that the streets were muddy and our clothes were wet. After grabbing a delicious breakfast of chocolate croissants and cafe au lait, we decided to stop by the market for some fruit before calling it quits early. I wasn't too disappointed 'cause that meant that we avoided most of the evening traffic headed back into Dakar.