After travelling for close to 17 hours, my car pulled over and let me off at a very quiet Ndioum intersection. It didn’t stay quiet for long (due to the loud uncreative swearing) because I immediately stepped on 4 or 5 thorny plant things that seem to be generously sprinkled across the entirety of Ndioum. And with my new foot piercings I hobbled to the regional house and passed out.
Things were perfect from then on though. Good movies were watched. Heineken was had. Cookies and cake were eaten. Paul, Maddy, Evan, and I were lucky enough to have the regional house to ourselves. So to celebrate the new year, we played the “What’s Up” He-Man video on repeat, cooked General Tso’s chicken, and fired roman candles at each other. Overall, a really wonderful celebration, largely in part of the company I kept (and maybe also because of the booze). But seriously, it was the company.
Once the fête was over, I had the chance to see Sinthou Diambo, Evan’s village. It was my first time getting to see a village in the north, so I didn’t know what to expect. What I saw was beautiful. It was like walking into one very large compound. There wasn’t really a clear division of houses, so each hut sort of ran into the next one. This all led up to the river, which you can see from Evan’s hut. Evan’s hut is pretty awesome. He’s got 2 windows and an attached toilet/shower area with a tall wall, so you can shower in peace (take a note Afia Seno, nobody wants their wiener exposed to every horse drawn cart that passes). His water table is also absurdly high, which made me blindly jealous at first but then I had to remind myself that…wait…nope, still jealous. Evan’s family are also all very nice, even though they did laugh at the way I spoke Pulaar, including Evan. (FYI - The dialect of Pulaar I speak is sometimes considered a little “country,” especially to northern Pulaars.) I was honestly impressed to see how comfortable and integrated Evan was in his village. The community there really does love him.
After spending a couple nights in Diambo, we headed to St. Louis for the night. There, we went to La Source, a pretty fancy bar/restaurant, drank a bunch of wine, and then stuffed our faces with warthog, chicken, and fish. Oh the excess. It’s beautiful.
