Weekend Number 10 (Edit: Actually Number 11)

I got stranded on an island in the middle of the night!

I decided to hang out with Billy on Friday night (after spending the afternoon at the beach) and we were looking to hang out at someone's house.  His friend Thomas has a house on Ile d'Ngor (the island off of Ngor beach), and he invited us to a house party he was throwing.  We left at about midnight, met up with Aya and Andrew, took a cab to Ngor, chartered a boat to the island.  The boat man said that some people had gone ahead of us and had his number, and he was going to come pick them up at about 4.

We went to the party and had some drinks and met people from Germany, France, Quebec, and the States.  We swam in the ocean and danced and talked (and I got devoured by mosquitoes) until 4 o'clock rolled around.  We tried calling the boat man, but he wasn't picking up.  He was sleeping.

We hung around some more, and at about 5 I crashed for a little while on a bed upstairs.  At 5:20, I was woken to go back to the beach--the boat was there!  Only, it wasn't actually.  Mamadou, the American Senegalese man among our group, took off his clothes and announced that he and James, one of the Americans, were going to steal a boat.  We managed to talk them out of it, and tried calling the boat guy a few more times.  In the meantime, Thomas came over to me and started apologizing profusely for the fact that I was not going to make it back in time for my field trip to Touba.  It was 5:45, and we were leaving at 7:30 for Touba.

I walked back to the house, and I had no sooner arrived than the boat was there!  So we all went back, and then Mamadou decided that the rates we were being charged were unfair (twice the normal rate).  He accused the boat man of raising the prices because we were toubabs (himself excluded) and the two of them got into a fistfight.  Turns out Mamadou speaks fluent Wolof, which was useful, but it would have been better if he wasn't using it to yell at the boat man.  By that point, 6 AM, I just wanted to go to sleep.

After breaking up the fight and taking the cab home, I arrived in Mermoz at about 6:50.  By that point, everyone had finished the first prayer of the day, the sun was up, and the birds were singing.  It was very confusing.  I bought an egg and tuna sandwich at the bakery, changed into mosque-appropriate clothing, and headed to school.

We went to Touba and saw the grand mosque, which was breathtaking.

We were in Touba only long enough to rest a while, eat, have tea, and see the mosque.  We got back in early evening, and I discovered that my Papa was in the hospital for his high blood pressure.  Everyone says he's doing okay, but that's a cultural thing.  They said Moussa was doing better up until he died, so I'm a bit nervous, but hopefully everything will work out.  For now, my house is even more weird and crazy than usual, because both parents are gone and everyone is still on vacation from Tabaski.

Alyssa and I went out to dinner last night when I discovered that my family was not feeding me, and then I Skyped my family (in the U.S.) for several hours, which was lovely.  When I went home to go to bed, I discovered several  cockroaches in my room, one of which I failed to kill.  I need to do some serious cleaning soon.

This morning I went to the Olympic pool to see Christine swim in her first Senegalese swim meet.  She did well (in my biased and uninformed opinion) and it was fun to watch.  I also discovered a funny looking piece of fabric hanging from the ceiling in the bleachers...an aerial silk!!!  I couldn't play on it because it was tied up, but I did find some people who worked at the pool and knew the circus boys and offered to introduce me Tuesday morning.  Now I have some renewed hope!

This week and next we have at least one paper or project due for every class, so it's a crazy work week.  I'm excited to get some stuff done and celebrate a fabulously unique Thanksgiving!