Another Coastline

Here are some photos of another coastline in Dakar. This area is being promoted as a tourist area. At least one hotel is under construction.

Last Two Parties

Our last two parties were well attended and fun. We had many readers as well as many church members attend the parties.

The first was a Texas Party. Here is Ron welcoming guests, getting them to sign in, and giving them name tags. Notice the bandannas hanging from the ceiling. The word "bandanna" was a new word for our friends.

Sharron is showing everyone the location of Texas.

Here is Sharron teaching the song "The Eyes of Texas". Notice her sheriff's badge!

Everyone is really paying attention to Sharron!

The final party on the Sunday afternoon before we left Dakar was a Baseball Party. A large number of our readers attended. It made us feel good that they all wanted to see us one last time! In the first photo Jane is teaching the words to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". It was fun to hear all of the people singing the song with their African accents!

I started not to put the next photos in because everyone looks so serious! They really did all have fun, but in these photos they are concentrating on the interesting information that Sharron and Jane were sharing with them about baseball. Later several told us, "Now we know so much about American baseball!" They were really happy to know how the game is played and about the terminology. When we divided up the group and began playing different party games, and when we were serving refreshments, we were all so busy that we did not have time to take pictures!

Some of our readers had already left when we took this final photo. Faith is on the left side and Arnold is on the right side. We all really grew to love these people!

Goree Island

The main tourist spot in Dakar is Goree Island. This island was the main port for exporting slaves in the 1800's. Slaves were brought here and held until they could be loaded onto ships headed for England, the U.S. and other countries. The slaves were kept in very crowded conditions, and family members were separated from each other according to age and sex.
Today the island is beautiful, clean, and well-kept. There are pretty flowers and plants. It is a place that the native Senegalese like to come on weekends or holidays.

Following are photos of the port of Dakar and the ferry that took us to the island.

The following two photos are the views as we approached Goree Island.

Next is a photo of one of the very friendly women on the ferry. She welcomed us to Senegal and to Goree Island, and she wanted to make sure that she knew our names and that we knew her name. Later we found out why so many of the women were friendly to us----they wanted us to spend money at their shops on Goree! They would call out to us as we passed their shops and say, "Remember me! Come and shop!" Later one of the locals told us that no Senegalese person is friendly without an ulterior motive!

Following are some of the pretty scenes on the island.

The next photo is a row of baobab trees. These must be younger trees than the ones in earlier photos, as they have much smaller trunks.

Jane, Ron, Tidiane, Sharron

This woman is washing clothes. (There are about 1000 people who live on the island.)

This little girl liked having her photo made.

We ate lunch at the following outdoor restaurant. It was a very popular spot.

This man cooked the meat outside on a grill. We had fish that was really good.



These are pictures of the slave house.

This is the entrance to the room for the infants.

There is a narrow hallway with a door from which the slaves left on the ships. It is called "the door of no return".

While we were at Goree we passed by a Catholic wedding. We had to step to the door to get a photo!

These two Muslim girls were waiting outside. They could not go into the Catholic ceremony. We understood that they had been hired for the reception. They have on interesting hats!

The following is a video of the singing at the wedding.

Pink Lake

We went by taxi for about an hour and a half to visit Pink Lake, sometimes called Salt Lake. According to a local man, the water that forms this lake seeps underground from the ocean, and thus the water is salty even though the ocean does not flow directly into it. For some reason the lake has a pink cast to it, and that pink color is more defined at sunset. We were not there that late, but we could see a little of the pink color.
Much salt is harvested from the lake. Each day men go out in little boats and dig up salt deposits from the bottom of the lake. They carry that salt to shore, set it out to dry, put it in bags, and then load the bags onto big trucks. This is very hard work and extremely low paying work.
The boats have to be replaced often because of the salt damage to them.

Some of the men really wanted to take us out for a boat ride, but we did not go. The boats did not look like they were in good condition, and there were no life jackets. However, the men said that the water is not deep and that no one would drown because of the heavy salt content of the water. The heavy concentration makes a person float---at least that is what they said!

When the salt is brought to shore to dry, it is put into piles. The signs are put on the piles to designate which pile belongs to which family. The women work along side the men to pile the salt and to bag it.

These bags are ready to be loaded onto the trucks.

Some of the women quickly spot visitors, and they come quickly with their items for sale!

This is the village beside the lake. There are souvenirs for sale, as well as food and drinks. We only bought orange Fanta to drink.

Following is a link to more pictures of Pink Lake.

http://www.galenfrysinger.com/senegal_pink_lake.htm