Toubab Diallo and Goree Island

We had a weekend Excursion to Toubab Diallo, which is this little cultural center hotel thing on the beach and literally means White person diallo. (they call white people toubabs here) It felt a little uncomfortable to be staying in this nice touristy place while meanwhile there were people around me who are in rougher living conditions, but we were bringing in business for them though so I guess that is a positive thing

There I got to do some African drumming, LOTS of dancing, and made a batique. We got to watch some pretty bad ass African dance performances, I don’t understand how they’re so good. Then there was a music group from Sweden that came and played for us and it was so beautiful and adorable! Afterwards it kind of turned into a dance party. I feel like a lot of things in Senegal turn into a dance party. A couple of friends and I hung back and drank tea and played music with the dancers and musicians at night afterwards, Then my friend Abi and I went and did some more dancing in this little dance club with some of our new friends and swam in the ocean at 3 in the morning. Which may have been a bad idea because the next week I got really sick. On the way back the bus got stuck in a hole and we had to push it out, and I got food poisoning or something on the way back, so the car ride back was terrible

Another weekend excursion we did was Goree Island. Goree Island is where slave trade took place, so you would think that it would be more of a depressing place but I felt like I was on a touristy getaway island, with vendors attacking me and telling me that they will make me good price. There wasn’t any kind of guide or anything so I felt like I didn’t get much history there. We briefly stopped at the slave house but in general the island felt like it was directed towards tourists and not really a place that showed signs of it’s dark past. Apparently my professor said that they just came out with a map there and an actual guide pamphlet so I’ll probably go back there soon and try to learn more about it because it has a really interesting history. I did get some cool African pants for about 5 dollars there so I was excited about that!