Les Iles des Serpents and my 21st Birfday!

OK fasten your seatbelts, this is a long 'un! I really need to post more often so I don't have to write such epic posts. Anyway.

Last Saturday our Environment class took a field trip to Les Iles des Madeleines, better known as Les Iles des Serpents, just a pirogue's ride away from a beach near WARC. Les Iles des Serpents are a national park here in Senegal. Ironically, there are no snakes on the islands- they are called Les Iles des Serpents because (as the story goes) a French criminal by the name of Monsieur Sarpan was exiled there many years ago during the colonial period. When he had served his time, though, Sarpan decided that he wanted to stay on the island rather than return to Dakar! After our visit I could definitely see why. Les Iles were by far the most beautiful place I've seen in Dakar.

(Dad- here is a picture of a Senegalese cell phone tree! They're palm trees here, instead of pine trees. Thought you might enjoy the photo. This one was near the beach where we took our pirogue to the islands.)

Here's a view of Dakar from our pirogue.

The boat ride out to Les Iles took about 20 minutes. As we motored closer to the largest island, we got a closer look at the jagged cliffs that form its plateau. The white streaks on the rocks (see photo below) are bird poop- Les Iles are a resting point/nesting spot for many migratory birds, many of which fly all the way from South America! (Just to poop on the cliffs!) Wish I could tell you some specific species, but our tour guide was speaking in French and gave us the scientific names for all of the plants and animals we saw, so you'll have to forgive me for not remembering them all.

The pirogue putted around to the far side of the island, where Le Capitaine navigated a narrow passage into a small cove where we could hop out with our guide and climb a steep trail to the plateau. The cove was incredibly peaceful- the water was clear straight to the bottom, and all was calm, though we could hear the waves crashing against the cliffs around the corner.

The tour was fascinating! We learned that there are 110 species of plant on the tiny island, (we walked around the whole thing in half an hour) including one unique to Les Iles des Serpents! Many of the plants on the island have antibiotic properties, including, I learned, the fruit of the baobab tree. We saw a plant that causes blindness, as well an a huge sprawling baobab that is 800 years old!

We were lucky enough to make our visit during the mating season of cormorants, who had taken over the cliffs on the North side of the island with their nests. Cormorants are large birds, jet-black save for a patch of white on their throats. We learned that this white patch only appears when the birds, male and female alike, are ready to mate, and fades to black again when the mating season is over. There were hundreds and hundreds of them sitting on their nests up and down the cliff face, swimming in the ocean, and flying back and forth from the trees with grass to build their nests. Incredible!

Les Iles des Serpents have a mythical history. Every city and region in Senegal has patron "génies," or spirits, who protect the place and its inhabitants. Les Iles des Serpents are believed to be the home of les génies who guard the entire city of Dakar. Before the islands became a national park, they were uninhabited by Senegalese because they are believed to be sacred. The only buildings on the island are the foundations and walls of two small houses. In the 1940s, a Christian missionary decided he wanted to build a home on the largest of the islands- it seemed, however, that Dakar's génies had other ideas. Each time that the missionary finished his buildings, a huge storm would knock them down- he rebuilt 4 times before finally giving up!

After our tour, we headed back to the cove to wait for our pirogue to arrive and take us back to the mainland. We got to swim, and snorkel and little bit- Jon had the foresight to bring a mask with him. It was an absolutely beautiful spot- we were the only people there, and the cove was clean and quiet. Such a nice change from the typical Dakar beach experience! We were all sad when Le Capitaine arrived and we piled back into the boat to head back to the big city.

A view of the island and Dakar in the distance through the window of the missionary's house

The cove where we were dropped off and swam after our tour!

My environment class, minus a few slackers- Professor Diouf is on the right, our Program Assistant Adji on the left, and our guide between toubabs Jon and Eben.


Several cormorants perched on the cliff face!

The 800 year old baobab tree- it was HUGE!

Our guide with the tree

Saturday night, Jasper and his host brother Moustafa threw a party for all of us MSID kids and our families. The boys asked Maman Binta to make approximately one billion delicious fatayas (meat and onions wrapped in dough and fried) and donuts for the occasion. This was lucky, because I had a minor food-related break down on Saturday night before the party. As most of you probably know, I am not a picky eater. I love food, of all kinds, and eat a lot of it! I'm not afraid to try new things, (which sometimes gets me into trouble- see post entitled "Encounter with a Senegalese Death Pepper") and have no problem eating some Senegalese foods that freak other toubabs out, like copious amounts of Nescafe, paté, and whole, bony, googly-eyed fish. Given my willingness to eat, or at least try, most anything, I think I'm allowed one particularity about food, which is this: I'm not fond of eating plain eggs. I like scrambled eggs on toast, with veggies, or bacon, but I'm just not the biggest fan of eggs by themselves. Unfortunately for me, plain eggs on bread or noodles are a dinnertime staple chez Binta, Anicet, Raissa et Pascal. Doubly unfortunate, Raissa fried some eggs for dinner for the fourth time in a week. I'm ashamed to say that the moment I smelled the eggs frying, I went into my room, shut the door, and cried. Anyway, the point of the story is that I was very happy that Maman Binta made goodies for the party! I pretended I wasn't hungry at dinner, then gorged myself on meat pockets and donuts. Yum.

The party itself was really fun. Moustafa's friend Papis is a DJ, and he made some great mixed CDs and we all danced. (Twice to "Soulja Boy" and "All the Single Ladies". We are such Americans.) Emma and I also mini-celebrated 10/10, the biggest party at Grinnell during the fall semester. Below is a picture of us trying to spell out 10/10. Fail!

Sunday a friend of Raissa's braided my hair for my birthday! Other bday preparations included attempting to superglue diamonds to my teeth on Monday night. This seems to be a trend with the younger crowd here and it looks pretty snazzy, so I thought I'd give it a try. Raissa took me to the neighborhood boutique to buy glue- I was expecting some kind of special dental glue, but she went straight for the tube of industrial strength super glue. I told myself I'd be sure not to swallow any. Next we went back to the house, where Raissa said she had some extra diamonds. I was expecting her to pull out a small bag of gems- wrong again! She rooted around in the armoire and pulled out a small black purse with the shape of a skull and cross bones in rhinestones across the front. I noticed that about half of the stones were missing, and the pieces of the puzzle fell together. Raissa started gnawing them off the bag and we got started. Papa Anicet cracked up when he walked by our room and saw Raissa wearing my head lamp, superglueing rhinestones to my teeth. Unfortunately they all fell off while I was sleeping, but I'll try again! I don't think my teeth were dry enough for the glue to really stick.

Tuesday was my 21st birthday! I got a bunch of happy birthday texts from my fellow toubabs, as well as a wonderful card and many hugs. Rachel brought me a bag of candy and delicious delicious Biskrem, (yummy Senegalese chocolate filled cookies,) and Rebecca gifted me a $4 bottle of gin (haha). Professor Sene also bought me a cake, which I saved to eat with the family the next night. I had made a plan to go out to dinner after classes got out at 7PM, and was pleasantly surprised when around 10 or 12 of my toubabs wanted to join! We went to this nice Spanish place in les Almadies called El Toro, where we ate delicious tapas and drank sangria.

Although I was overwhelmed by my friends' kindness, I also got to feeling really homesick on Tuesday. I was happy to talk to my parents, skype with Molly, and IM with Betsy and Davis for a few minutes, but I felt very far away and disconnected from the people I usually spend my birthday with. I left the restaurant feeling a little down.

I was expecting the whole family to be asleep when I got home, but Papa Anicet and Maman Binta were sitting up watching TV. I sat up with them and chatted for a short while, and got to feeling much better. Maman Binta and I made plans to have a family celebration and eat Professor Sene's cake the next night, and I asked Papa Anicet if I could go with him to work at the University on Thursday morning. (He was so happy about it- he smiled so big I could see every one of his teeth!) It seems obvious now, but going home (sort of) and hanging out with my family (sort of) helped me feel less homesick. The situation reminded me of a line from the Talking Heads song "This Must Be The Place": "Home is where I want to be, but I guess I already am..."

We had a wonderful little party the next evening, thanks to Professor Sene's cake AND to the amazing birthday package of decorations, party poppers, and sparklers my mom sent from the States! Pascal helped me blow up balloons and hang streamers, and my neighbors Elke, Keren, Jasper, and Moustafa came over to help us eat. We popped all the poppers, tooted all the tooters, and sparkled all the sparklers. Pascal especially had a great time- he got all sugared up on soda and cake, thoroughly enjoyed playing with the balloons, poppers, and sparklers, announced that it had been a great party, and then promptly passed out at 10PM. It was a great party, short but sweet!

Here's our first family photo-

My cake, with all the candles my mom sent

Fun with sparklers!



Pascal, Moustafa, Elke, Keren, Jasper, and I

Pascal and I

Thursday morning, Papa Anicet took me to work! He works in La Laboratoire de Rayonnements Naturel et Artificiel (LRNA), where he and others are doing research on the composition of plastics. Their goal is to identify properties of plastics that shorten their lifespan, so that they might biodegrade more quickly. So cool! The physics professor in charge of the lab also uses the space to write and compile articles for the Senegalese Environmental magazine VIE, (Verte Information Environmentalle) which Papa Anicet helps edit.

Papa Anicet's Grande Laboratoire. The lady in the blue is Coumba, the assistant of the physics professor who directs the research and compiles the magazine VIE. You go, girl!

Me and Papa Anicet next to a machine called a SEPAP. Don't ask more.

After visiting the lab, Papa Anicet walked me around the rest of campus. Below is the library, which is actually quite massive and beautiful.

Inside the library-

Another stop on the tour was the IFAN museum, (Institut fondamental d'Afrique Noire,) where a friend of Papa Anicet's gave us a tour of the library there- they have a treasure trove of colonial government journals and Senegalese newspapers dating back to 1858! I wish I could go back and lock myself in til I read them all.

Our last stop was the Cheikh Anta Diop laboratory. It was here that the renowned Senegalese scientist discovered carbon 14!!!!! Carbon 14 is the isotope used in carbon dating. Big freaking deal!! Below is the equipment Cheikh Anta used to make his discovery. The lab is still used to do carbon dating, though his outdated equipment is kept only for show.

That about sums up the last week... My fingers and so tired right now. Can't believe I've only got one week left in Dakar!