Thies to Diourbel - Day 183

Date: February 17th, 2010
Distance: 91km
Country: Senegal
Song of the Day: Courage - The Tragically Hip

I woke up got ready to go. I tried to help Elie with a copy machine that was sick. I don't think I was that helpful though. Sorry man. I said goodbye and wished Elie the best of luck. He said to keep in touch. If I get to Rwanda, he has friends there. Also, to call when I get to South Africa. To Elie, thanks for everything. You are awesome.

After that I headed over to the Peace Corps training center in town. Byron was in Thies for IST. So I wanted to go over there and say thanks. When I got there, I didn't want to just bust in on everyone. I was going to call Byron when one of the girls I met in Dakar recognized me and came over. She came over and said, "Hi, how are you doing? Come on in, we can't leave another toubab standing outside." Toubab is a Wolof word for "foreigner", but generally means "white guy". It was funny, and it felt great to be recognized and welcomed.

They even invited me to lunch with them. Traditional Senegalese food. Simple but really tasty. Just rice with some boiled vegetables and some beef. I should have gotten on the road earlier, but I really was having a great time talking with all the PCVs. All good things end though. They had to get back to training, and my day wasn't getting any longer. So I said goodbye to Byron and hit the road. To Byron, thanks for all your help. I had a fantastic time in Dakar and you have connected me a with a lot of great people. Thank you so much.

From there it was onto the road. The trip itself was really easy. I had a slight tail wind, so I could just cruise along. I also noticed that in the villages I don't get asked for money or gifts as much. It still happens, but more often I get little kids running out to the road. They wave and smile while shouting "toubab". I guess this could be considered rude, but they seem so happy running out to see the crazy toubab on a bike.

I got into Diourbel (the "dio" part makes a J sound in Wolof) without any real problems. I have been learning French, and maybe I just have a bad accent because no one seems to understand me. Fortunately in this town everyone I talked to seemed to speak English. They directed me to an Auberge I could stay at. They didn't have rooms, but I could camp on the roof. Deal. The power went out again just before I went to take a shower. It was only off for about 15 minutes though. My shower did run pretty long though. With the heat and the dust it feels so good. Also, I haven't seen a shower recently that has both hot and cold. So you just get cold. Not that it matters since after melting all day, why would I want hot shower?

The guy who ran the auberge directed me to a place I could get some dinner. Actually, the place sold cooked meat. I have started to become used to asking "combien" for how much is it. It really throws me off when people ask it of me. I sometimes it means how many (say, Cokes) do you want. In this case, it meant how much do you want to spend. I got 1000 CFAs worth of cooked beef. I have been reading the reports of a vegetarian couple who biked through Africa. I didn't get how you could even do that. Even if you could find meatless food, how do you get the protein? After seeing the guy hack off a piece of meat that had been hanging up and covered in flies for got knows how long, it made more sense. They also chopped it up, bones and all. I miss meat sans bones.

-Dravis