Okay let’s try and recap the last few days…

Friday we went to Gorée Island which was a quick ferry ride away. It has la Maison d’Esclaves (Slave House) which has been preserved as a museum. Gorée was a major connection point in trafficking slaves since it is conveniently located of the coast closest to the Americas and Europe. We visited the museum and saw the rooms where they crammed people waiting to be shipped off, if they met physical and gender requirements. Once you went out the back door, you never came back. Going into the trip knowing all that made me resist the tourist allure of it all, but as I’m looking back at pictures I’m realizing it is quite beautiful. We spent the day there, pausing at the end to swim and then came back.

Saturday, Megan and I went around a neighborhood nearby and interviewed some tailors for a project which was fun and then we walked to the beach and observed the fishing, mutant pelicans and wrestlers training on the beach. People here just gather in large quantities on the beach, or any patch of sand for that matter, and workout. 

Sunday was eventful! We took a 2hr bus ride to Mbour (I know, you think how the heck do I pronounce an M in front of a B?! It’s exactly that, you just say it like you totally understand and it works. Try it.) where we spent the day in a “resort” on the beach.

It’s a touristy area I guess but we didn’t see any, maybe its off season? Anyway, I felt odd about “vacationing” in a place where the majority of people are struggling to get by daily and depend on our purchasing of their jewelry and wooden figurines. As we were laying on the beach a woman sat with her basket of goods trying very eagerly but in a friendly way to buy something saying she hasn’t had customers in weeks. Now, I know this can be part of their tactics as I’ve been hassled a tremendous amount thus far, but she was very calm and seemed quite honestly in need of business. While I’m lounging on the beach, why? Because I can afford to. 

Meanwhile, a group of boys nearby harassed us the whole day, taunting us and shouting things in mixed Wolof and French. It was tolerable to ignore that, but when you went to get in  or out of the water they would try and cut you off to sneak a grab under water. No thank you. Not okay. Luckily I escaped that but it’s stupid what they think they can get away with since we’re silly toubabs. Everywhere we go, we’re an attraction. A lot of the time pretty negatively. Oh I suppose I should mention the grand finale with the boys was being flashed. Once again, thankfully I was warned before turning around!

After the beach we went to find the Kankourang ceremony in town. The Kankourang is a masked figure who becomes a spirit to fight of bad spirits. He’s completely disguised and is not a masked man, but a spirit. He dances with two machetes around in the street accompanied by drums and the sages of the town. There are about 4 or 5 spread around in the streets at a time. The ceremony is to protect the boys who have just been circumcised generally between the ages of 3 and 10. The ceremony happens every Sunday in September while the boys are healing, as the Kankourang protects them. 

The process of finding this was chaos. We were a bunch of white people on a bus driving through the streets and the locals were furious. They assumed we had come to take pictures and were hitting, swarming and chasing the bus. Some kid even mimed slitting my throat through the window. We had to stop multiple time for our guides to tell them we wouldn’t take pictures. Preserving the sacred of this ceremony was of the utmost importance. The ceremony was really scattered we were literally chasing the kankourang trying to find one. Eventually, after kids were jumping on the back of our bus, we got off, carrying nothing so we looked innocent and joined the crowds in the street. If the Kankourang turns towards you everyone sprints away because there are protectors with sticks to keep everyone at a distance, so we kept confronting mobs running towards us. It was kinda fun to be caught up in crowds of screaming kids escaping from the kankourang’s guards. There were sooo many people in the streets. Everyone is involved, well all the kids at least. It was so cool how into it they were. I did see the Kankourang but have no pictures to show you…which is how it should be. The mysterious and sacred Kankourang remains as such!

Here’s a picture of my house which is pretty much an apartment. I think that guy walking yelled at me cause he thought I was taking a picture of him but it was such a mumbled quick exchange I couldn’t clear it up.

Ba ci kanam! (Until next time)