The Fritsches do Senegal... starring guest bloggers Sally "Salimata" Fritsche and Besty "Betsil" Fritsche

Welcome to the first ever Our Hut is Your Hut guest post, brought to you by Betsy and Sally, the two youngest Fritsche sisters! On this past Christmas day, we (and most of our family) left our cozy home in Columbia MO and traveled 4,778 miles to see Peter and Kait in Senegal. It was an incredible trip, far too much to write about in a single blog post! Instead of trying to cover it all, we decided to pick out bests and worsts for each day, and tell you about those. ‘Bests & Worsts’ goes back to our early childhood, when Mom and Dad would ask us about our day before tucking us in, and Kait revived the tradition for this trip, asking us to go around the dinner table each night and summarize what we liked most and least about the day. Here goes!

DAY ONE (12/26)

Best of Day One (Sally): Seeing our brother. We arrived in the Dakar airport in the wee hours of the morning, Senegal time. We’d been traveling since 8 am on Christmas morning, close to 16 hours ago. We left the plane, looking so conspicuously white and American that the flight attendant asked if we knew we were in Dakar, and not Johannesburg. We stumbled through the process of getting our visas, doing our absolute best to guess what the officials might want us to do. Put my thumb on the screen? Okay! Oh wait you meant my finger? Okay! Oh wait you were taking a picture of me? Oops sorry my eyes were closed and I was facing the wrong direction, hah yes I am the dumbest. We had our temperatures taken before we went through customs (don’t want those ebola-infested Americans causing problems in Senegal), and were shuttled through the process without incident (other than guards chuckling at our pronunciation of Guinguineo). As we stood in line for one last x-ray security check, I caught my first glance of Peter! He was standing just outside the airport, reading a copy of Dune Messiah, wearing tie-dyed pants rolled up at the ankle. The last time I had seen him, he and Kait had been leaving for the St. Louis airport. I had hugged them both and cried, “You’re the worst,” into Peter’s shoulder. I wished more than anything they could’ve stayed. In the Dakar airport, I started waving like a maniac, and soon we were all spilling out the door, sounding a little like a ridiculous flock of cooing birds: “Peterrrrr, it’s so good to seeee yoooouuu!” There were hugs all around. It was awesome.

Best of Day One (Betsy): What could honestly beat seeing my brother and sister-in-law for the first time in a year?? But in order to expand what you can read about our experience in Senegal, we have decided to include a second best for each day! A nice runner up was meeting Austin and Tesia, who are friends of P&K and fellow PCVs. We met them on the poolside of a lovely hotel for drinks, relaxation, and dinner after watching the sunset. After a stressful day of traveling across the world and exploring a totally new country, it was a comfort to just sit together and enjoy ourselves.

Worst of Day One: Jetlag. There’s nothing that takes the awesome edge off of international travel quite like being unable to keep your eyes open. We rode in a van from Dakar to our hotel in Kaolack (about 2-3 hours away), and while I desperately wanted to absorb my first views of Senegal, instead I was passed out in the back seat. We sleepily took pictures, sleepily ate awesome Senegalese hamburgers (with a fried egg and French fries piled up on a huge bun) and calzones (a pizza folded in half), sleepily showered, and sleepily dealt with the water shutting off in the middle of Miles’ extremely sudsy shower. In short, we were sleepy. Everything on this first day was muted by our bodies’ extreme confusion over the timezone change. Luckily, a solid 13 hours of sleep that night took care of it, and the next day started bright and early with coffee and breakfast.

Miles vs. XL Folded Pizza or "Calzone"

Language Factoid: The first Wolof phrase we learned was baax na (pronounced bach-nah, with an emphasis on the H part of the ch). It was what we heard Peter and Kait saying to all the salespeople who crowded around our van, holding out racks of sunglasses or bags of fruit. It means “it’s good,” as in, “No thanks, I’m good.” Shortly after baax na, we learned beneen yoon (ben-en-yoan), which means “another time,” and comes in handy when baax na isn’t doing the trick, or when someone is asking for something, rather than offering. When we arrived in Kaolack, there were little boys begging with yellow bowls all over the place. Peter said they are students of the Qur’an at the local school, and are fed lunch everyday through the charity of people on the street.

This much dust makes for beautiful sunsets... and black boogers.

DAY TWO (12/27)

Best of Day Two (Betsy): Meeting the Diop (pronounced Jope) family! During the first few days we had been practicing verbal greetings and motions to prepare for the convergence of the two families. When our taxi pulled up Yaay was outside and when Kait yelled out the window to her, she started dancing out of happiness! It appeared that our presence was highly anticipated by the Diops. We grabbed our luggage from the car and waded through the Diop’s compound towards P&K’s residence. Happily we took a few minutes to drink water and decompress before a full barrage of shaking hands and not understanding Wolof that is being spoken at us. Surprise surprise, it was awkward for a while. The newly arrived Americans watched as Peter and Kait resettled into their home setting. Naturally Peter was roughhousing with the four kids: Ouli (Oo-lee), Soda, Fallou (Fah-loo), and Papa Gorré (Papa Gorrah) and Kait was sitting with the family happily translating between Wolof and English. It was a lot of fun to ‘talk’ with the adults, but you know what crosses cultural and language barriers? Play-fighting and Trot-Trot-to-Boston! Bonding with the Diop kids was the thing that really broke any lingering awkwardness. Then over the next three days we were able to play with, eat with, color coloring-books with, and try our broken Wolof phrases with the Diop family like an extension of our own.

Mom and Oulimata, both fans of Trot, Trot to Boston.

Best of Day Two (Sally): The obvious best is meeting the Diops! Everything about the family and their home was wonderful. They were so incredibly friendly (and generous, yum yum, Baay’s grilled chicken!). But if I had to choose a different Best, it would be the shopping we did in Kaolack at the top of the day. We went to a cluster of artisanal shops that Austin (a PCV in Kaolack, who is also from Columbia, MO!) was working with, and got more beautiful souvenirs than we know what to do with. Also, we got muumuus! Highlight of the day for sure ☺. Muumuus are the most comfortable, bomb-ass dresses in the world. I will take any excuse to wear mine. Getting out of a shower? Muumuu. Walking on the beach? Muumuu. Going to bed? Muumuu. MUUMUU FOREVER!

Austin's Local Good Boutique, and Sally in her new muumuu.

Worst of Day Two: General anxiety. As it was only our second day in a totally foreign country, there were so many things we had not yet adjusted to. Such as: the pungent smell that was everywhere (sometimes fish, sometimes burning plastic, sometimes an unwashed armpit), the streets that exist in total chaos (horse carts, taxis, and mopeds jostling for space without any visible traffic signs), and being the center of attention wherever we went. Before traveling to Guinguineo we ventured into to the Kaolack market (the largest covered market in the entire country), which was quite an experience. We stayed close to the edge of the market, and looking towards the center revealed an endless, darkened maze of clothes, food, and people. Kind of stressful when we only had two people who could even begin to help or understand us.

"Yum, yum.  This attaya is SWEEEEEEET!" -All the people grimacing in this photo.

Language Factoid: Greetings are a big deal in Senegal. Pretty much everyone you meet expects the same rapid-fire exchange of hellos and well-wishes, from family members to taxi drivers to food sellers on the street. We got pretty good at greetings. We had to be, we had a lot of people to meet in Guinguineo! They go a little something like this:

Asalaam maalekum (Peace be upon you)

Maalekum salaam, nanga def? (And also on you, how are you?)

Maangiy fi. Ca va? (I’m good. How does it go?)

Ca va bien. (It goes well.)

And this is all accompanied by a hearty handshake and lots of smiling. You clever readers may have noticed that this exchange is in not one, not two, but three different languages (Arabic, Wolof, and French). Senegal is nothing if not multilingual.

The Fritsche Parents with Yaay, two of Baay's sisters, and Maam Yacine.

DAY THREE (12/28)

Best of Day Three (Sally): Visiting Nguick (pronounced N’geek). Because Peter and Kait are married, they live together in Guinguineo, but Kait’s workplace is actually in a rural village about 40 minutes away (by horse-drawn cart). On our second day in Guinguineo, we all piled onto a charrette (horse cart) and rode out to meet her counterpart, his family, and all the people of Nguick. The ride was hilarious. Eight tall white people (plus our two drivers, kids of a Diop family friend) crammed onto a charrette was obviously quite the sight to see; we got a lot of stares and grinning waves from everyone we passed. When we arrived in Nguick, we were toured around to meet the town elders, the chief, and the mayor, before finally settling down for some tea and beignets in Kait’s counterpart’s compound. While Guinguineo is a fairly large and prosperous town, with cinderblock buildings and metal roofs, Nguick is undeniably a village (although also quite prosperous). The buildings are thatched huts, the roads are dusty and unpaved. Kait’s counterpart lives in a compound with his two wives and his many adorable kids. All the kids were dressed up in their nicest clothes to meet us, and it showed! Some of the little girls looked like straight-up disney princesses in their colorful, floaty dresses. We drank super sweet tea and listened to all the Nguick men say how important it is to cultivate cross-cultural understanding, and how much they appreciate Peter and Kait doing the work they do. It was a big ol’ love fest. We also went out to tour the fields that Kait has been helping the farmers with. They’re planting living fences (thorny, inedible plants that keep the soil in place and keep cows away from the new plants), and things that will produce food to eat and sell (jujubees, cashews, watermelons, and more). Very impressive!

Bringing the party to Nguick.

Totally candid photo of Team Fritsche and Team Nguick exchanging thoughts on last year's millet yields.

Best of Day Three (Betsy): Our bags were approximately 5 lbs heavier when we were traveling to Senegal than on the trip back. The reason for this phenomenon? ALL THE GIFTS! Some for P&K but others for the Diops! When we got back from Nguick we gave serice (suh-REE-chay) to the Diops, which is a form of gift giving as a sign of gratitude for their amazing hospitality. It included some fabric, coffee beans, and soaps for Baay and Yaay. The children of the house got some sweet coloring books and sweeeet soccer balls. It was really fun not only to develop our only recently created friendships with presents and appreciation, but it was fantastic to watch the kids play around with their new stuff.

The kids were so excited that the off-brand, Caucasian Barbie's clothes fell off.

Worst of Day Three: Chopping 20 pounds of onions. We knew tomorrow would be a crazy day for Yaay, thanks to the giant lunch party P&K were planning in our honor, so we thought we’d help her out by pre-chopping all the onions she would need to make onion sauce. Ohhh man, we had no idea what we were getting into. We had four knives, each duller than the last, and just three cutting boards (Senegalese women just cut onions right against their hands!). The onions came from this bottomless bag; no matter how many we chopped there were still so many more! We wept and chopped, and took turns when we were completely overcome by onion fumes. And then, the power went out. The second hour of onion-chopping was undertaken in near darkness, with Soda (the youngest Diop sister) holding up a flashlight for us. As Kait said, “Welcome to Senegal.” It was a struggle, but I’m pretty sure it was all worth it when we tasted the onion sauce at the party the next day.

Approximately as fun as it looks.

Name Factoids:

1. Part of the greeting process (other than the handshake and Arabic/Wolof/French exchange) is to repeat the person’s last name over and over as you meet them. So meeting, say, Kait (Penda Diop) for the first time would involve something sounding like, “Jope Jope Jope Jouba Jope Jope.” Pretty great way to remember names.

2. If you’ve followed the blog up to now, you know that the Diops have a “joking cousin” relationship with the Ndiayes (pronounced like In’jai). That is, anytime Peter and Kait meet someone whose last name is Ndiaye, they immediately joke about how much rice they eat and how they’re probably going to gobble up all our food because they’re a big fat fatty. It seemed like about 50% of the Senegalese population is an Ndiaye, so it made for more than a few interesting taxi rides.

3. The Diop family couldn’t seem to pronounced Betsy’s name, so they settled on Betsil instead. We all thought this suited her, and it even ended up written on her water bottle at one point.

Ceeb u jenn! Ceeb u jenn! Ceeb u jenn!

DAY FOUR (12/29)

Best of Day Four (Betsy):Part of the deal of coming to stay at Guinguineo was that we were regarded as honoured guests, for whom a large feast would commence during our stay. Before we arrived, Mom was under the notion that a part of said feast would include slaughtering a goat in the yard and this was a very unpleasant idea for her. Fortunately for any goats or mothers, the meal included chickens only, but it was quite a spectacular event! The Diops rented a massive tent and chairs for comfortable shaded seating, and by the number of chairs this lunch party was going to be huge! Since this was a nice event, we all took the chance to borrow tradition Senegalese clothes to look spiffy! Once the party officially started Kait and Peter took turns introducing and translating between us and the guests. Before the food was brought around in the giant group bowls, Peter made a speech (I’m guessing) to thank everyone for coming and how grateful both he and Kait were for the past year of hospitality and friendships (but it was in Wolof so I’m not entirely sure). The fantastic meal made by Yaay and her ever working helpers was an amazing chicken couscous dish that we all stuffed ourselves on. Luckily we ate with spoons (as compared with just our hands) and we happily dug into our massive bowl of food.

Fancy party in Guinguinéo.

Lookin' fly.

Best of Day Four (Sally): Obviously the party was the highlight of the day (possibly of the whole trip), but second best had to be watching Human Planet. Before bedtime, we all gathered together in the Diop’s living room to watch an episode of Human Planet on Kait’s computer. The show is the culture-focused companion to Planet Earth, and this episode focused on various tribes who live in jungle regions all over the world. There was one group, a treehouse-dwelling society, whose men wore nothing but loincloths, and the Diop girls thought this was HILARIOUS. They laughed and pointed and half-covered their eyes, shouting (in Wolof) “Egg-butt egg-butt!” Which Kait says is the equivalent of “Butt-naked.” It’s good to know that the hilarity of butts transcends culture.

Worst of Day Four: This day exemplified the general trend in the trip that there was nothing quite that bad with our day to select as the worst, which is why for this day’s worst I am selecting the absence of my eldest sister, Carrie! Missing her from our adventure was also a general trend that lasted throughout the travels. My siblings and I all really love each other and sometimes it can be hard when we only get to see each other once a year or even less. A family vacation without everyone was not the same! One way John tried to make up for her lack of presence was that he brought a photo of Carrie’s face to add into photos (hopefully this is not a spoiler!)! Although we did forget sometimes, it was a great time when we could pull her face out of a bag and include her with the family shenanigans. Hopefully we will get to meet up soon!!

Carrie enjoying a coffee and a morning chat.

Whooah, Carrie!  I'm pretty sure I heard something about drinking while pregnant being bad...

Language Factoid: Neex na (pronounced kind of like Nech-nah) is Wolof for "it's delicious." It came in handy pretty much every time we ate food. Chicken? Rice? Tea?  Neex na! Interestingly we also learned that Neex na works to describe a location. As in, “How do you like Senegal so far?” “It’s delicious!”

DAY FIVE (12/30)

Best of Day Five (Sally): Bittersweet goodbyes with the Diops. I know it’s a bit weird to have a goodbye as my Best, but I really was so touched by the Diops’ reluctance to see us go, even after only knowing us for a few days. Yaay and Baay shook our left hands (so that we would be forced to come back one day and rectify this embarrassing social faux pas), and the kids grabbed left and right hands at once to shake goodbye, then refused to let go. We all posed for one last picture together, then the Fritsche party climbed into two station wagons and waved goodbye out the windows as we drove away. We were really so lucky to get to know the Diop family as we did.

Best of Day Five (Betsy): More traveling over Senegal’s awful roads called for another night of relaxing, eating, and drinking (it’s also vacation so deal with it!). This time we ended up meeting another visiting family of a Senegal PCV named Anna and sharing a part of our evening with them. We (the Fritsches) walked to our sister hotel that had a better dock/view of the water and menu. This is where the Frenchs happened to be staying and they joined us after a few hours. It was great having more Americans to talk to. Having drinks, chatting and watching the sun set was a fantastic way to end any day, and the food on their menu (they had a special cheepo PC menu) was actually pretty good!

Kait's so short.  Carrie would have rounded out this photo nicely.

Worst of Day Five: The road to Toubacouta! The ride in our station wagons (driven by friends of Peter and Kait) was only a few hours long, but the state of the road between Kaolack and Toubacouta made it feel much longer. There were so many gaping potholes that half the time we were just driving in the weeds and dirt along the side of the road. Needless to say, station wagons aren’t meant for off-roading, so those of us who get easily carsick were feeling the strain after an hour or so of lurching and bumping along. It made our arrival in Toubacouta nothing short of pure bliss.

Language Factoid: Jerejef (pronounced like a cross between jerry-jeff and chedder-jeff) is Wolof for “thank you.” It came up A LOT, especially as we were leaving the wonderful and generous Diops.

DAY SIX (12/31)

Best of Day Six (Betsy): We were located on the bank of a river that lent itself to exploration, which our hotel happily provided boats and guides for (for the right price). Luckily Kait and Peter knew of a guy who would happily take us out for a wildlife adventure, for a much better price. We left around 4 PM so we could be returning just after the sunset, and I must say, this trip was one of the most beautiful things I’ve experienced in awhile! We set out to explore the massive growth of mangroves that the area had bloomed into. Our guide (and Kait) pointed out wildlife when we could see it, and took us to some great places. We stopped at a place called Shell Island that had some really really old Baobab trees, and then we went to an outcropping of mangroves called Bird Island. Apparently predators won’t swim out to this ‘island’ so many birds reside there. It was smelly and loud but also really neat to turn the boat motor off and just watch the commotion.

 Betsy getting attacked by hermit crabs... or something.

Boat party.

Waaaaaaw!  (reference to joke further down the post)

Best of Day Six (Sally): Other than the boat trip, monkeys! I saw a big group of monkeys just chillin around, right outside my room. They were hanging out on the pathways, in the trees, and on the building roofs. I couldn’t get too close without them running away, but they were unafraid enough that I pretty much got a 5 minute monkey photo-shoot. Awesome! (Other best of the day: the name of the place where we ate lunch: “Chez Ass”).

Motto: "Try my Assburger!"

Worst of Day Six: Happy New Years Eve everyone! I know a great way to celebrate it, but it doesn’t include a required fee for later ‘free’ appetizers and a crap meal. That is how the hotel decided to play NYE, and it was rough. Now I can totally get behind some fresh seafood, but most everything about this meal was making us queasy. Broiled, warm-water oysters were one of the appetizers and they were retch worthy (I’ll save you all the details). The main course were some massively-sized prawns and a half rock-lobster, which a few people found to their taste but the rest were ready for the eating part of the night to be over.

Language Factoid: Waaw (pronounced like our English exclamatory WOW!) is Wolof for “yes.” Which made it sound a bit like Peter and Kait were perpetually struck with wonder when in conversation with Wolof-speakers. “Waaw waaw waaw, waaww.” And made our whole group sound like weirdly affirmative people whenever we saw something impressive or surprising. “WAAWW”

DAY SEVEN (1/1)

Best of Day Seven (Sally): Happy New Year! The best part of this day was the extremely high vacation-quotient. I sat by the pool (getting VERY warm; that equator sun doesn't mess around), went swimming, and read my book. We didn’t even have to get up for lunch, as Peter brought us all chicken wraps from Chez Ass for us to eat poolside. We played a few games of Bang in the afternoon, jockied to be next in line to read The Martian, and took turns napping in the hammock. It was a blissful day.

Betsy torturing her way into our hearts... (Dominion fans anyone?)

Best of Day Seven (Betsy): After a fantastic day of relaxing and doing whatever we wanted to, what could be better than discovering the best food of the whole trip?? Little did we know what Chez Boum had in store for us! We had pre-ordered just in case the kitchen wasn’t prepared to cook for 8 people, and our food was ready in roughly 30 minutes of us being there (which is pretty good since everyone is on Senegal time, a.k.a. you go with the flow). Most of us had ordered the chicken plate and there were a few fish brochettes coming, but unbeknownst to us we were also getting a plate of heavenly fluffy and amazeballs mashed potatoes. We all immediately stopped talked to start wolfing down what we could get our grubby paws on. It was all just so GOOD.

Meat and potatoes.  King of food combos.

Worst of Day Seven: Cheese gut. Remember all that awesome food Betsy just talked about? Well the (delicious, perfect, heavenly) mashed potatoes were full of milk powder, which is like 60% lactose. I made my lactose-intolerant-self totally sick all night thanks to my three giant helpings of PO-TA-TOES (boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew). Horrible way to end the day; still worth it.

Language Factoid: Rafet na (pronounced like rough-et-na) is Wolof for “it's beautiful”. It first came up when we were trying to compliment Soda on one of the pictures she had colored. We ended up using it often to describe clothes, landscapes, and just to show off how much Wolof we were learning.

DAY EIGHT (1/2)

Best of Day Eight (Betsy): The best of the best for today was settling down into our beach house after unpleasant driving conditions. This was where we had the most autonomy as a group and individuals, since we were staying in a small house. It meant we were making our own food (the Fritsche’s classic travel dish: red sauce and pasta), waking up on our own times, and we could do whatever (basically). It mostly meant we could read and play games whenever we wanted to! What a great way to live.

I'm guessing: Miles caught eating a booger while Betsy and Sally look on disapprovingly.

Best of Day Eight (Sally): Other than the always-beloved sibling time, second best was the blissful taste of food after going way too long without it. This was a travel day, so we woke up and ate breakfast (bread and jam) around 9:15am, then got in the car and didn’t eat again until 5:30pm. Let me tell you, that spaghetti bolognaise was the most profoundly delicious thing that my mouth has ever tasted. There’s nothing like a long day to turn a meal into a miraculously wonderful event.

Yes please!

Worst of Day Eight: On this day we were traveling from Toubakouta to Popenguine which is approximately a 5 hour drive and just like all of the other travel days we split into two different cars and started our journey. A few things made this day’s travel more complicated, though. The first was a ferry crossing, where our cars were loaded onto a big ferry, along with about 12 other vehicles and 100 other people, to cross the mighty Saloum River. The next was when one of the cars broke down in a way that it was not going to be able to take us the rest of the way. Luckily this was in Mbour, so that left only about a 45 minute drive to our destination. Still we only had one working car so we piled everyone’s stuff into the one working car along with the 4 additional bodies. Obviously it was uncomfortable as hell, but we made it with the windows slightly rolled down and going over the potholes slow enough.

Fun day of transportation fun!  Bottom row is double selfies, which were necessary to show how packed the party wagon was.

Language Factoid: Leegi (pronounced like leggy) is Wolof for “now.” We actually learned that leegi means maybe later today, leegi leegi means within an hour or so, and leegi leegi leegi means right now.

DAY NINE (1/3)

Best of Day Nine (Sally): The beach. This was our first full day in Popenguine, and we enjoyed every bit of staying right on a beach. We went for a long walk down to some dramatically outcropping rocks (worthy of a few big-arms shots). It was a beautiful day, very bright and sunny, and after we got nice and warm (hot really, did I mention that the equatorial sun is INTENSE?), we even went for a swim. The ocean was cold, but not unbearable, and very very clear. Mom kept exclaiming over how it was January third! And she was on the beach! Swimming!

Chatting with fishermen, squinting in the equatorial sun, big arms for cliffs, and FLYING FISH!

Worst of Day Nine: Aggressive salespeople. The only downside to our completely awesome beachfront location was the presence of some very friendly, and very persistent, salespeople. When we sat on our front porch to read or hang out, there was always a lady with a basket of fabrics on her head or a man with jewelry to sell who would come bustling over to offer their wares. Once, when one lady saw us showing some interest in another lady’s jewelry selection, she came sprinting across the beach with her own basket, hoping she could catch us while we were vulnerable. We got very good at rebuffing them with our broken Wolof: “Baax na, baax na, jerejef. Beneen yoon. Jerejef!” (I’m good, I’m good, thanks. Another time. Thank you!). Well, some of us got good at it; Dad pretty much just evacuated the porch every time someone came near, and I (Sally) avoided it entirely just to be safe. There was one time we were ready to send a gent on his way, but then Peter called, “Kait, this guy’s selling cheese! [a luxury in Senegal]” Kait’s eyes got wide, and she ran out to the porch to haggle.

Hagglemaster hard at work...  "4,000 CFA?  I'll give you 1,500 if you throw in your first born."

The friendly neighborhood door-to-door cheeseman... "GET yer BRIE!  GET yer CHEVRE!  You WANT it? I GOT it! STRAIGHT from cow's NIPS to your LIPS! I got CHEESE HERE!"

Factoid: The currency in Senegal is West African CFA Francs (abbreviated CFA, pronounced safe-uh). 1,000 CFA are called a “mil” (mil as in millimeter, not as in million), and one mil is equal to about two dollars. Prices in Senegal were definitely lower than we were used to. When Betsy went to get custom-made pants out of Senegalese fabric, Kait told her it would cost 2 mil (4 dollars) and offered to haggle it down even further if we wanted!

DAY TEN (1/4)

Best of Day Ten (Betsy): I know there has been (or will be) a lot of talk about siblings and such, but since vacations are half about what you do and half about who you do it with, bear with me. The best of Day Eight consisted of quality sibling bonding time in the late evening, but this night it wasn’t just us messing around having a great time playing games. This night was set aside (unintentionally) for some real talk. Us ‘kids’ sat down together and just talked about our lives: the good, the bad, the struggles we’d been through recently or in the past. It usually happens once or twice a family vacation and I must admit that I really enjoyed it. Not only was it some good time to get advice from the best people, but bonding in a serious manner is just as important to me as goofing around.

We demonstrate our literacy, and Miles demonstrates that he saw a ghostly apparition behind the cameraman.

Worst of Day Ten: Throughout this whole vacation there has been a small but constant threat around every corner, and it is DIARRHEA. Up until this point our guts had all been spared, but we made a fatal mistake with our drinking water! Mistakening we had been drinking bad (tap) water for a day, which is chocked full of bacteria our western guts cannot deal with. So for that night and the next day the majority (but not all!) of us were running to the toilet while holding our gut and expressing horrible pain on our face. It was not pretty.

Nobody excited mosquitos' proboscises quite like the supple-fleshed Miles.

Language Factoid: Wax is the word for the colorful printed fabric that everyone wears here in Senegal. It’s amazingly beautiful; the wax we’re bringing home is probably the #1 favorite souvenir of the trip. Betsy even got a pair of wax chayas (kind of like Senegalese parachute pants) made while we were in Guinguineo.

DAY ELEVEN (1/5)

Best of Day Eleven (Sally): North Korea statue. Yes, you read that right. My favorite part of the day was a “North Korea statue.” Let me explain. In 2010, North Korea gave a 49-meter-tall bronze statue of some nearly-naked people to Senegal, for no discernible reason. The statue is of a giant muscle-bound man and his busty lady companion, holding up a baby who is pointing into the distance. The man is wearing a fez (that doubles as a viewing room), and not much else. Obviously, this was our first stop once we arrived in Dakar. It’s such a distinct, bizarre landmark; I would’ve been sad if we’d missed it!

Uncanny resemblance, except Sally's wearing clothes, and Miles' muscles are a waaay too big.  Also, little backpacks don't have arms.

Betsy Day Eleven (Betsy): For dinner we ended up going to this Lebanese place and rather than ordering individual meals, Kait suggested that we order multiple appetizers to share, and boy was she right!! We first got the basics, which included amazingly fresh bread and two spectacular dipping sauces (one was a sesame seed dip and the other was a garlicky heaven fluff). We then order several more copies of bread and the bowl of heaven, but added on two rounds of the best falafel ever (moist and cinnamon-y), and some meat platter that wasn’t half bad. Basically we stuffed our faces with this amazing food in a basically empty restaurant.

In the future all foods will be efficiently delicious calorie pastes.

Worst of Day Eleven: Failing to eat at Caesar’s. Our Lebanese dinner was perfect in every way, but we still missed the chance to eat at Peter’s favorite Dakar restaurant - “Caesar’s: Kentucky’s Chicken and Grill.” He would not shut up about this place for the entire time we were in the city, but alas, we’ll never know the magical taste of the most Genuine American Fast Food Experience that Dakar has to offer. Luckily, P&K planned on staying a couple days in Dakar after the rest of us leave, so hopefully he’ll get a chance to satisfy is fried chicken craving at a later date.

It's a hookah bar, too.  Also makes julienne fries.  (obscure Aladdin reference... RIP Robin WIlliams)

Language Factoid: Senegal was a French colony, and English really is not spoken there today. This turned English into our own secret code language. We could sit happily at a restaurant, unselfconsciously discussing the consistency of everyone’s poops for the day. Kait would talk to a taxi driver in wolof, then turn around to us in the back seat and say, “This guy’s being an asshole, let’s get out of the cab.” The one time this failed was when Peter was struggling to calculate a complicated bill, and the waiter hovered just behind him the whole time. Peter looked up at us across the table and, assuming the waiter couldn’t understand, asked, “The guy is standing right behind me, isn’t he?” ‘The guy’ in question snorted his laughter back, and continued to wait patiently, and Peter embarrassedly finished up with the bill.

DAY TWELVE (1/6)

Best of Day Twelve (Betsy): Tonight was our second to last (kind of last?) night in Senegal, so we wanted to make the most of it! Which boiled down to the younger generation adding our own alcohol to drinks and then going out after dinner for more sneaky drinks! Not only was it hilarious to watch Peter try to be stealthy about spiking a few drinks, but it was great to be able to spend that time with the siblings.

Boys and their balls... Miles and John practice playing their traditional Senegalese scrotal maracas.

Best of Day Twelve (Sally): Sally’s first poop in a hole! Thanks to the plush accommodations during our trip, there had pretty much been western toilet seats available when we needed them, so I was able to make it this far without ever having to poo in a hole (although I had gotten very good at peeing). The public toilets at the ferry station, however, were squatty-potty only. I’m very proud to say that I hit a perfect bullseye, like a champ! I can’t remember being so proud of a poop since being potty-trained :). 

Touring on beautiful Gorée Island.  Legacy of Slavery? Check.  Beautiful colonial architecture? Check.  Far and away the most aggressive sellers one has ever met? Check.  Giant rusted-out artillery emplacements from WWII?  Check.  THIS PLACE HAS EVERYTHING!

Worst of Day Twelve: During the post-dinner drinks with the kids, there was some kind of biting insect that absolutely destroyed Sally and my legs, without us noticing them biting. From our ankles to our knees, it looks like we were diseased! It also itched like crazy and is still very visible and itchy (1/11). We’ll just keep slathering cortizone cream and hope the bites will go away soon!

My Temporary, but Nonetheless Dramatic, Struggle with Gross Ankles: The Betsy Fritsche Story

Factoid: English-language t-shirts are cool and stylish in Senegal, even if no one understands what they mean. This led to some hilariously inappropriate shirts along the way :). A man in Nguick (Kait’s very rural work village) was wearing a shirt that read, “What part of Y’ALL don’t you understand?” P&K’s host brother Fallou slept in a t-shirt that said, “Never send a boy to do a girl’s job.” One guy we passed on the street had a “The Man (with an arrow pointing up), The Legend (with an arrow pointing down)” shirt. Hilariously awesome.

DAY THIRTEEN (1/7) Our last day in Senegal!

Best of Day Thirteen (Sally): Dinner at Ali Baba’s, a Lebanese fast food place. Ali Baba’s was our last family outing in Senegal, and it was fantastic. The food was delicious and being out with the family was great as always, but the actual best part was Miles’ drink order. He ordered a Long Island iced tea, which was listed on the menu as including vodka, tequila, rum, gin, triple sec, sweet & sour mix, and coke. The waiter then pointed to this description, and asked (in French, brokenly translated by Kait) which one Miles would like in his drink. Confused, we tried to explain that he wanted the whole thing, an entire Long Island iced tea. The waiter nodded, left, and came back a few minutes later with a glass of straight rum. Ali Baba’s has only very recently started to offer alcohol as a part of their menu, hence the general cluelessness about cocktails.

This is us at Point des Almadies, sitting at the western-most table in mainland Africa. 

Best of Day Thirteen (Betsy): Getting home. I totally agree that the worst of this day was the fact that we had to leave. But after 16 hours (or something) of traveling we finally pulled up in our driveway in Columbia, and even though it was horribly freezing cold, it felt amazing to step out of the car, after that looong day of travel.

Worst of Day Thirteen: Saying goodbye! It was downright tragic to say goodbye to Peter and Kait at the end of our two weeks. We all hugged goodbye at the hotel, then they escorted us, in taxis, to the airport. It’s hard to believe we won’t see them again for almost a whole ‘nother year :’(. Just gonna have to hold out hope that our totally realistic plans of all living in the same city will pan out.

Goodbye Peter and Kait! We miss you, and even after all these words, we still don’t have the words to say how incredibly wonderful you made this trip for all of us!

Love,

Sally and Betsil