St. Louis (sans Arch) Part I

I spent the last weekend in the city of Saint Louis, the original colonial capital of Senegal. We left only half an hour behind schedule, during which time I asked everyone if they had seen a giant spoon after Thanksgiving dinner. My seat mate was the always amazing Jen, and we had a relatively enjoyable five hours of chatting, reading, and napping. I brought along a novel and some homework for Wolof class – yay pretending to be productive! The program was split between two separate inns: one was more of a youth hostel with a really cool vibe, and the other was a more traditional hotel at which we ate all of our meals. I stayed in the more convenient accommodations. I would’ve said nicer, but there was no running water in either place, which isn’t a big issue after living here for over three months. Friday night, I headed over to the hostel and it was decided over beers that my friends and I would head over to this cool tavern to hear a free concert by Orchestre Téranga (Hospitality Orchestra). I was still in my school T-shirt and shorts, so I walked home to change only to find that my roommate couldn’t open the door from the inside without a key. Now, my own door works this way at home, but we keep the key in at all times in order to prevent people from being locked inside and outside of the house at one time. A quick jaunt back and forth, and I managed to briskly walk in the moonlight to the tavern for half an hour of good music. I hadn’t slept well the night before, so I went to bed in order to be up at 6:00 for the bird park!
On Saturday, I learned why we refer to these trips as “excursions,” which evokes camping, instead of “vacations.” We awoke to find that the water had turned on briefly during the night – just long enough for the back of our toilet to overflow the bathroom and soak an arc in the carpet of our room. No one’s stuff was damaged, alxamdulilaa (thanks be to God), but it did not bode well. After rationalizing to myself that no one would get a shower, I headed down to breakfast at 6:30 am to find that a) it was very cold and b) nothing resembling breakfast settings was in place. Several of us warmed ourselves by the oven until items began to trickle in at 7:00. Jen and Isaac passed the time by discussing favorite coffee-like beverages. Sadly, Nescafé didn’t make anyone’s cut. We loaded the buses at 8:30ish and arrived at the park before 11:00. For some reason, I had been expecting something similar to the boardwalk in the Everglades. Instead, we went off in two pirogues and were able to get very close to pelicans, cormorants, and other lake fauna (like crocodiles!). Our lunch was amazing: we each got a chicken sandwich, a cheese sandwich, an orange, a banana, and a pop!