Excursion: Toubab Dialaw

This weekend I went on an excursion to Toubab Dialaw, a fishing village and artist's colony situated about one hour southeast of Dakar on the Petite Cote.

The place was an absolute paradise, alive with music and ocean breeze and snoozing cats. Here are my takeaways:

1. The condition of a place's cats is an excellent indicator of a place. Cats are so perceptive, intuitive, and emotional. When they are alert, ragged, scared, or vicious, I typically feel an uneasy energy about a place. At Toubab Dialaw, they were calm, friendly, and usually sleeping. And there were so many!!!!! If you know me you know an artist's colony/ kitten wonderland is my version of heavenly bliss.
2. I got to take a dance class!!! This was such a wonderful experience. Not only did I learn new moves, but I also remembered how important it is to get out of my head and into my body. I'm always in better mental health when I'm taking time to express myself physically: yoga, dancing, running. Senegal is an extremely fit country. At sunset, people flock the beaches to exercise together. It's truly remarkable. In the morning, I'm always passed by groups of joggers as I lag behind with my 2 liter water bottle and baguette ft. Chocopain to-go. I could learn a thing or two, is my point. I'm going to try to take advantage of this health-minded culture from now on!
3. I really love this program. Our administrators accompanied us on this trip and they all brought their kids. It's truly so intimate and special. On Sunday, it was our assistant director, Gamo's, birthday. We rallied the kids to help us on our mission: to make a birthday card. They crowded around a stump where we drew joyeux annivérsaire. Giddy, one asked what we'd do if she come over here! To which 6 year old Aisha responded, on peut juste lui dire qu'on joue à un jeu. Another one of Gamo's daughters then asked if we could look for seashells. My friend Elia said we could but that we needed to finish the card first. She said, d'accord--c'est son cadeau. Ugh. Waterworks. Watching my teachers and administrators interact with their kids was so gorgeously human. Parents are so warm and affectionate with their children here! Children are so warm and affection with each other here!!!! I was a weepy, happy, wholesome mess all day. 
4. I love observing kids in different cultures. They're so telling of what human connects are shared across the board. They all love to play peek-a-boo, cache-cache (hide-and-go-seek). They all love to feel included. I felt this especially with my French professor Simone's daughter, who was too young to write her own name on the card. Pouty, moody (like I, the youngest cousin, once was), she sat further away with arms crossed over her chest. When asked what was wrong she said  je n'ai rien fait (I didn't do anything). Ugh baby!!! Human emotions are so fragile and relatable. We wrote her name for her with a heart and she bounced right back.
5. This coast is so beautiful I'm worried I'll get used to it. I want to keep being surprised and amazed over and over again, like kids are.
6. It was really fun to have a slumber party with our friends. I love talking my throat soar just to fall asleep laughing. 

On Friday, we went to a pool party organized by our cultural pals. This is another reason I adore this program. They utilize "cultural pals," a few local senegalese young people, during orientation. Lucky for us, these pals have stuck around. Every weekend they plan something cool for us, introduce us to more people. I'm learning how typical this is of Senegalese culture. There is far less social pressure. It's expected to meet new people each day and just hangout. I was worried it would be hard to meet Senegalese people while I was here and it's been so easy :)

À la prochaine fois!