On a mission...

On our first full day in Dakar, Laura and I had a few missions to accomplish. First, get our flight to Mali arranged. Second, see the Ile de Goree. Sounds simple enough.

We were prepared enough to know the Senagalese version of normal is that things do not go as planned. Well, we thought we were prepared. First, our tickets. Here’s the short story – Air Mali doesn’t exist, or at least not where they say it should; and their phone number doesn’t work. Senegal Air exists, but no one knew where it was, and the address we had proved almost useless. When we finally found it, Senegal Air could process our tickets, but only accepts cash. Which I didn’t have enough of. 3 bank lobbies and 3 ATM attempts later, including a mad dash down three blocks in a skirt and 90+ degree heat to get to a bank that just closed, I got the cash.

By then it was a little after noon, and we decided to spend the afternoon at the Ile de Goree. This is a small island (about .25 mile length) a 20 minute ferry ride away. It is famous, or infamous, for being the departure point for slaves that were taken to Cuba, South America and the USA. We just missed the 12:30 ferry, but no problem, we’d catch the 1:30. Except there is no 1:30 ferry. It’s at 2:30. Ok, still not too bad. And from there the day got better. We spent about three hours on the island, traipsing around remnants of an old castle repurposed many times over, taking in the view of Dakar across the water, having a lovely lunch with a bird’s eye view of the ocean (and, luckily, a somewhat cool breeze).

Of course, we also needed to see the main sight – La Maison des Esclaves - a horrible reminder of man’s ability to be inhuman to fellow mankind as we visited the primary holding place and departure for the Africans sold off into slavery. The categorization of slaves into various rooms was clearly defined – women, men, men who needed to be fattened up to reach the minimum weight for slave trade (130 lbs), “recalcitrants”, and, most horribly, children. The old trader lodges upstairs now house a museum of shackles, chains and weapons used to control the slaves, as well as placards with history (in French, of course).

Our two missions accomplished, we took the evening ferry back to Dakar, rather exhausted from the heat and a full day. We enjoyed dinner with some French wine and Senegalese beer (not too bad, actually), and ended the day with a sound night’s sleep.