The Baobab Tree

There are very few tourist spots to see in Dakar, so Ron and I waited until we were joined by Sharron and Jane to go to see any of them. We had a couple of free Saturdays, so we were really happy when one of the readers, Tidiane, offered to show us around Dakar! He was an excellent guide---he is a university graduate in tourism.
Here is Tidiane (with a "toothbrush" stick in his mouth!).

One of the places that he took us was to an artist center. This small building is a gathering place for artists, musicians, and souvenir vendors. Outside the building is a huge baobab tree. For such a big trunk, the top of the tree is usually relatively small with branches that are not dense. The baobab tree is the source of several products. One is the fruit. Glue is made from the sap of the tree. The bark can be stripped off to make rope.

The next two photos show the fruit of the baobab tree. The fruit has a hard shell. Monkeys are the only animals that eat the fruit because of the hard shell. Inside, the fruit is white and kind of like a hard candy with pits. We tasted it, and it did not taste bad, but it is not something that we really wanted again! Juice is made from the fruit, and it supposedly tastes like a banana milkshake. We are taking some of the concentrate home, but we have not had any of the juice.

Next is an artist doing sand painting.

The sand is from regions all around Dakar and is in many different natural colors.

First, the artist uses glue from the baobab tree to make his design on the plain wooden board. The glue will dry in about 10 minutes so he must work quickly.

Then he sprinkles just the right colors of sand in just the right places. He then will add glue and sand as needed to complete his beautiful picture.

Here is the partly finished product! You can see his other pictures hanging on the wall. We bought one that has a baobab tree in it.

Next is a video of some musicians playing African music.

In another part of the city, we found this baobab tree in the middle of a road. It has had some of the bark stripped off of the bottom part, then pictures were painted on the tree. Sharron is in the first photo.

The next two show Sharron, Jane, Tidiane, and Ron beneath the tree.