Road trip north of Dakar to Lac Rose, les dunes et la Grande Cote.

I love road trips in Africa. I love being in Africa! Is it ok to say that if I've only been to three African countries...probably not! I love watching the villages and people and sights we pass by and never tire of keeping my eyes peeled for more beauty and busy activity. Respite from the hustle and bustle of Dakar was a night and a couple of days staying by le lac rose sur la grande cote au nord de Dakar. Tranquility, beauty and pastoral serenity. And a/c in our circular traditional Senegalese huts to boot. Not that I used it at night it was so fresh and cool. Came here just for a day with Laura last year and fell in love with the place as a destination for my students. They all loved it, the pink lake and the salt harvesting, the huge beautiful sea and dunes and the miles long, wide beach. When we all had some free time I wandered around the campement and spent some time with some absolutely charming, hard-working, salt of the earth ('scuse the pun) farmers (pictured above.)

I am posting photos and student journal blogs on:

http://worldperspectivesprogram.wordpress.com/category/senegal-trip/

Back in Dakar, Senegal! June 2011

So good to be back in the hustle bustle and the colour and the song and the Teranga, the unique, friendly, welcoming hospitality of the Senegalese! The people are so tall and poised walking so regally and with such perfect posture and easy gait. They are stunningly beautiful in the rich and diverse colors of their pagnes and boubous.

This time I have five intrepid students in tow who are adjusting very quickly to the sights, sounds, and smells. They are taking all relative discomforts in their stride till already after just a couple of days it's as if they have been here for ever and are ready to embrace each new experience.

I'm here a month earlier than before; June is dryer, cooler and breezier. As the rains haven't come in yet there are fewer mosquitoes, hardly any.

Everyone at the centre Baobab is so welcoming and helpful: so good to see Rama, Gary, Samba, Ismael, Al Hassane again and to meet Aida, Daour, Thiaba and Fatim. My internal bells and alarms and need to schedule and get it done now....have completely dissipated and evaporated onto Senegal time. Which is: all in good time. Oh, yeah.

The food is even more delicious than I remember: lots of thieboudienne: capitaine (perch) and spicy onion and piment with turnip, carrot, peas or other vegetables and rice; followed by deliciius teas or the mangoes currently in season or bissap, (hibiscus flower juice) or pain de singe (baobab flower juice)