Home again for a minute... to be continued
We actually all make it up by 6:30 (I think) am and are on the road by 7:00. Dia is accompanying us out to the paved road. He will find another ride back to his home.
We stop at the village closest to Dia home, where we are told there is a Saturday market. Dia directs us down a few dirt roads to where there is a building in progress. This is his new home he is building for some of his wives and children - and him, I assume.
I am struck again with the simplicity with which people live here, the lack of hoarding things, the sharing of resources.
Of course, the lack of things period - gadgets, stuff, even toys. The abundance of human life certainly outnumbers things. Life seems to flow with such ease, even when things are so stark and bare, the women with their gorgeous selves, the children calm and relaxed yet alert, ready.
He takes us around the spacious cement and cinder block building that is almost complete, pointing out the rooms off the large main room. We walk up onto the roof again, this time with indoor stairs leading up and we see that his home borders a river that feeds the large lake close to his country land.
He points out where we can sleep next time we come and says he will have electricity and water by then.
We take our leave and head to Dakar.
This time I am in the front seat and I can see much more. I see people, two at a time, with long hoes plowing the land by hand. Here & there are the occasional horse attached to a simple, single blade plow, but mostly individual people working hard in the intense sun with no visible source of water close by, to farm the land.
We make it to Dakar in time to eat and then leave again for Tessie's friends' home. This is a bed and breakfast that a U.S. straight couple has come here to own and run.
Tessie thinks we will have air conditioning, internet access, work-out room, swimming pool - and it is a beach resort area so we'll have ocean access - along with all the amenities of the u.s. of a!
So back into the jeep we pile. This time, we are heading to what Tess calls "the garage" which is an outdoor area as jam packed as a modern cemetery with cars willing to drive you anywhere in Senegal.
We stop at the village closest to Dia home, where we are told there is a Saturday market. Dia directs us down a few dirt roads to where there is a building in progress. This is his new home he is building for some of his wives and children - and him, I assume.
I am struck again with the simplicity with which people live here, the lack of hoarding things, the sharing of resources.
Of course, the lack of things period - gadgets, stuff, even toys. The abundance of human life certainly outnumbers things. Life seems to flow with such ease, even when things are so stark and bare, the women with their gorgeous selves, the children calm and relaxed yet alert, ready.
He takes us around the spacious cement and cinder block building that is almost complete, pointing out the rooms off the large main room. We walk up onto the roof again, this time with indoor stairs leading up and we see that his home borders a river that feeds the large lake close to his country land.
He points out where we can sleep next time we come and says he will have electricity and water by then.
We take our leave and head to Dakar.
This time I am in the front seat and I can see much more. I see people, two at a time, with long hoes plowing the land by hand. Here & there are the occasional horse attached to a simple, single blade plow, but mostly individual people working hard in the intense sun with no visible source of water close by, to farm the land.
We make it to Dakar in time to eat and then leave again for Tessie's friends' home. This is a bed and breakfast that a U.S. straight couple has come here to own and run.
Tessie thinks we will have air conditioning, internet access, work-out room, swimming pool - and it is a beach resort area so we'll have ocean access - along with all the amenities of the u.s. of a!
So back into the jeep we pile. This time, we are heading to what Tess calls "the garage" which is an outdoor area as jam packed as a modern cemetery with cars willing to drive you anywhere in Senegal.
posted by Xan @ 11:19 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home