Keeeeeedougou

Alright kids, I'm going to tell you about a magical place called Kedougou.

It's down in the southeast corner of Senegal, right by the borders of Guinea and Mali. The land rolls and rises instead of just lying flat. There are beautiful, beautiful forests. and people. Beautiful, beautiful Pulaar people who speaking beautiful peul words.

We stayed for the first few days in air conditioned huts at the Hotel Nierko. Our first day we hiked up to a Bedik village, Etchwar, on top of a mountain (or hill rather). Unfortunately, most of the people were out working in the fields so we didn't get to see much. But it was fun scrambling on the rocks and the view of the land was pretty incredible. Then the next day we got to go on a 2 1/2 hour kat-kat (4x4) ride to the Guinean border, where we went on another hike to one of the only waterfalls in all of Senegal. Cascade raffet na! And we got to go swimming, so that was a plus.

The next three days I spent in a Peul Fouta village called Sinthourougi, about 3KM outside of Kedougou. But you almost wouldn't have known we were so close since we had no electricity or running water and well, I felt like I was in the senegalese version of the shire. We lived with the village chief, Lamine Sow. He's been the chief since the 1970s and has 2 wives and a mistress he keeps in Kedougou. His wife Djeneba was the one whose compound we stayed in, and she has 10 sons. WOW. It was really great to hang out with so many guys, who all spoke Peul, French and some spoke Wolof. There was a wife who was about our age, but she only spoke Peul. But we smiled a lot and I said "walé jamn" (hello!). I actually compiled a little Peul/Français dictionary with help of my brothers.

Some other things we did were play football everynight, eat couscous for almost every meal, drink tea every other second, go on adventures to the Gambian river, startgaze, roast corn and get marriage proposals- including one from my host dad. Ladies- if you're having trouble in love, come to Senegal.

But the best part of had to be the Cow Party. The Cow Party (Fête des Vaches) happens 3 times a year during the wintery time. So we were lucky to get to see and help out. Let me say, the Pulaar LOVE their cows. They don't eat them, they use them for milk and also forms of banking. So they like to take really good care of them, which is the point of the cow party.
We (me and Jamie) followed our brothers out into the brush, till we got to a clearing where some guys were starting to fill a basin with water and stones. They told us they were going to make something yummy for the cows to eat. We asked what the stones were for and they told us they weren't stones. They brought us over and showed us that they were chopping up termite hills and putting them in the water because the termites were good for the cows.
Meanwhile, other guys were chopping up tree branches and pounding them. They then submerged the branch in the water and extracted the sap. They then poured the sappy water into the basin with the termite-y water and threw some salt in.

Then they told me to get in the water. With the termites. And mix everything up and stick my hands into the gooey mix.

mmmmmm.

It was actually really fun, though the sap did feel like mucus.

Then there was a mini version of the running of the bulls and the little boys ran in with the entire herd, shaking their twigs and slapping them on the butts. Jamie wanted to try, but she ended up just sort of tapping them like she was going to turn them into a pumpkin.

For lunch we ended up having couscous with lots of lait caillé (sour milk, like yogurt) that was the cow's "present" to us.

Overall I really liked this village stay, even more than my first. I had amazing conversations with my family that opened my eyes to how life is like for most people in Senegal and gave me a new perspective on the country.

The week finished up with another intense hike to Iwol, another Bedik village and walking to a club two miles away from our hotel to go dancing on Halloween. Yea, all around a good time.

So now I'm back in Dakar, trying to figure out where if I'm going to stay with my homestay family or not... at least I finally know my ISP topic.