The day I slept in a sept-place, AKA- slept-place...

The day I slept in a sept-place, AKA- slept-place (that pun is thanks to the lovely Annie Cleary)...

Travel Nightmares living so far from Dakar. 

I woke up thinking I should just stay another night and enjoy Oktoberfest with my friends in Dakar. In fact, I went back to bed for another half hour. I woke up again and decided that I couldn't afford another day in Dakar (I went through my entire monthly allowance for October and it was only October 3rd. Dakar is expensive and I stayed in the city for over a week. I had 6,000 CFA (12$) to spare for the whole month IF things worked out how I planned. And, by the way, that 12$ is allllll change I gathered and was resorted to. It's going to be a very tight month) and I started preparing my belongings for my departure. Usually, it is wise to leave by the latest 3:30am, but since I went back to bed, I was leaving at 4am. I had to buy cat food to (inshallah) last until January when I come back from my vacation from The States, so I had an extra heavy bag I had to carry on my head to the main road to find a taxi to take me to the garage. I reached the garage with a almost native familiarity now and asked a man standing next to a sept-place which sept-place was leaving for Kolda, he pointed to the one I stopped at, the second one to the end (which I already assumed) and said I just got the last seat! Awesomely Horrible. I didn't have to wait for the next sept-place, but I got the worst seat in the car. The guy was trying to overcharge me for my extra bag, and I was getting mad, calling him a bandit and saying he was trying to steal from me because I was white. We met somewhere in the middle in the price dispute, lowering my already tight money situation. Even though I bought the last seat, we were waiting on a person to arrive that showed up super early, but went somewhere to get something else. We didn't leave until 5:30am. Not off to a good start, but I didn't think it would be the end of the world. I had reservations pretty much every step leading up to our departure. We tried several gas stations in Dakar but none were open or they were too busy. I never reallllly believed in omens, but sometimes you can't miss the signs of trepidation. We eventually got gas, and I was trying to avoid being touched by this man that is coming back to Kolda to live a few villages over from mine. He told me he wants an American wife and I found him reaching over and casually touching me by draping his arm behind the seat. I think his older brother was on to him because at one point when we all got out of the car, the man tried to switch seats with his brother who was sitting in between us, and even though his brother had the worse seat, he wouldn't let it happen. I was very grateful for him in that moment. We ended up stopping in Kaolack, a not-so-nice-little over-half-way mark to get breakfast. I wasn't happy about the stop because we were already running behind and we could just wait a few hours and eat while we waited at The Gambia River to cross. But who listens to the toubab? No one. I bought 1,000 CFA (2$) of food, some yogurt and some bread, hoping to tide me over until we reached Kolda where I have some food at the regional house to eat for dinner. Shortly after our breakfast stop our car started to overheat and break down. We were going every 100m stopping and going, stopping and going, stopping and going. We ran out of water to refill the radiator, and I only had a little water left in my bottle and didn't want to give it up. I can't just drink any water like everyone else in the car. I almost thought about getting a ride back to the Kaolack regional house and just try to depart in the morning, but I realized I didn't have the funds to buy another seat the next day, so I endured the stops. We finally reached The Gambia a little after 11am, honestly really good timing for stopping so much. I wasn't overly concerned until I saw how far back we had to stop in the line. The line to cross was the longest I have ever seen it. Everyone got out except the man that was trying to feel me up, his brother, the driver and me. I moved to the front passenger seat and started a new book. It wasn't until my stomach started to growl from hunger did I realize I might be in a situation because we hardly advanced in the line and it was now 5pm. I skipped lunch hoping to still make it to Kolda for my next meal, but I couldn't wait any longer and my water was depleted. I spent 1,400 CFA (3$) on an omelette sandwich and a bottle of water. My 6,000 CFA, was diminishing and my positive attitude about getting home started to fade.  I called my friend Annie to talk about my unfortunate situation and run over some figures with her to see if I could afford another sept-place ticket if I crossed The Gambia and abandoned my sept-place and got on another one after the line. We decided I didn't have enough money and it was too risky to cross without knowing for sure. I finished my book as it started to get dark, and remembered that there is a road block put in place every night after dark until 6:30am that we would be affected by. At this point, we advanced a substantial amount in the line and almost thought we were going to make it across the river before the ferry closed for the night. I decided that I needed to call Mbouille, Peace Corps' Safety and Security main man, because this type of travel is forbidden by Peace Corps.  Even though I let them know my travel whereabouts at 5am, so they knew I did not anticipate this situation, I knew it wasn't a good thing to be in my predicament. Especially alone. I ended up using my entire Month's phone credit allowance in just a few hours calling Annie, my mom called me, and then several communications with Mbouille because of the roaming charges in Gambia. Great. Now I don't have any money for the month and I don't have any phone credit for the month either. October isn't looking so good. I quickly realized that I wasn't crossing the river and the road block shouldn't even be a concern because the ferry wouldn't reopen until 8am. It started to thunder, lightening, and downpour. Everyone hurried to get into the car, but I was still in the passenger seat, occupying another man's seat. They all hopped in the car and told me we can all switch back after the rain. Well, at that point I just got off the phone with Mbouille (Safety and Security) with the realization that I would be spending the night in the "slept-place." With the previous unsolicited attention in my original seat, I wasn't comfortable sleeping back there, so I managed to charm the man to sleep in the front. He is actually very interesting. Before I turned on my charm, I didn't know how to communicate with him because I only heard him speak in Wolof, but, then, I heard some sing-song language that perked my interested. After listening for a minute I realized it was Italian, and it was the guy whose seat I was occupying!! I was incredibly intrigued and impressed with my initial assessment of him; he had dreadlocks that were so perfectly clean looking that I knew that he didn't live here. But, he spoke Wolof, so he had to, right? Well, it turns out he was born here, moved to Italy as a young child and started working as a mechanic and now works as an engineer for Fiat. Usually, I am too embarrassed to use my French to try to have conversations, but I was too intrigued with him, and my curiosity got the best of me, so had I had to indulge. I have come to realize that I can't do language switches seamlessly, not even with English and Pulaar. I haven't really spoken French since 2008, so I was pretty rusty speaking, but I understood (almost) everything. After a few hours of talking my French improved significantly, and once midnight approached, I had four allies in the car and I felt safe sleeping in a place that I previously was terrified of. Well, not the exact place because I slept up front, but I was terrified of sleeping in a sept-place open and vulnerable. One of the people that the guy was traveling with lives in Dakar and was even practicing his English with me. Surprisingly, I could translate his French quickly enough to English for it to be somewhat effective. 

After spending the night tossing and turning, trying to get comfortable, which literally no sleep, I took out my ear plugs at 6am and started a new book. When I got out of the car, to my surprise, we still had a long way to go before our turn on the ferry approached. I thought it could be very possible that I would see Annie at The Gambia before crossing since was scheduled to depart the morning after I did. I tried to call her but with no credit in The Gambia, I couldn't get through. After a record breaking 23.5 hours wait, my sept-place and my 6 new friends (we lost one person who decided to take a different sept-place to save time) crossed the Gambian River, and made our way to Kolda, exchanging contact information and sending friend requests on Facebook. 

Annie called and she crossed The Gambia a few hours after I did. I should have just waited the extra day and went back with her. After I got to the regional house I took a much needed shower, made some lunch, watched a movie and then took a nap that turned into 16 hours of sleep. Now, I am going to the post office this morning and relax a little until I bike back to my village in the morning. I plan on taking advantage of this absence-of-money-poor-situation and plan on spending the next 3 weeks at site. 

And if you're wondering what the tally is for how I just made it by money wise, I have 2,100 CFA left for the the rest of the month. And, it is only the 5th. 

I am growing so much over here. 

And I'm not just talking about my stomach from all the rice. 

You can make decisions, but some decisions make you. And with Peace Corps it is a never ending cycle of making decisions that end up making me more of who I am. 

Oh, since I said in my last post that my next post would be about Tabaski, I should at least mention it. 

Tabaski is the biggest holiday of the Muslim religion, we celebrate it for 3 days, but I had to go to Dakar unexpectedly and left the evening of the first night. Everyone liked the candy I bought to give out since I refuse to give money out, it was a nice compromise, even if the elders weren't amused and would have preferred money. Sometimes you just have to show them you aren't there to give them money nor are Americans an endless supply of money. 

Everyone loved my new komplet and my hair. They said that I was a true Senegalese now. 

Typically cutting a ram's throat is supposed to be a big part of this holiday, but once again, we didn't have money and thus didn't have a goat, ergo we lacked any meat in our dinner bowl. Nonetheless, we still enjoyed the holiday. However, when I biked into Kolda that evening to prepare for my early departure to Dakar, I stopped at my adopted family's house to greet them, and they fed me their gloriously veggie and meat filled bowl and side dishes of bread, butter and beans! Wow, It was good! I wish my phone was charged that day so I could have taken pictures, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. I'll be sure to take pictures next year.