Where to begin in my telling of this journey? Again, I lack any basis for comparison and this time I cannot even rely on the simple observations of my senses as they are all still reeling, suspended in a haze of dust and disbelief.

I have putted along the Gambia River, the lone boat on the river’s still waters, and watched tiny bubbles multiply and expand as hippos rose from murky depths and practically breached before us; I have slept on the sun-baked earth at the edge of Senegal’s one trans-country tar road with forty pairs of tiny eyes watching my every move as though I were some rare beast; I have drawn water from an infinite well and bucket bathed beneath an adolescent mango tree, its near-ripe fruit brushing the top of my head, the sharp hills silhouetted by an incandescent moon; I have danced myself into a frenzy to the beat of a single drum in the village of Medina Coutas where a sizable crowd encircled us toubabs, engaging in a kind of call and response with us, each of us attempting to humiliate the other, “Go Lili!” “Go Lilay!” “It’s Your Birthday!” “Iss Yo Behfday!”; I have sampled plastic bags of bissap from just about every roadside vendor; I have recognized my tissu (textile) problem—the first step on an addicts road to recovery, right?; I have consumed eight mangos in one day; I have stood beneath a cascade that stretched up into the heavens, the white noise of clear clean water nullifying all else; I have hiked to a Bedik village and rested in the shade of what villagers claim to be Senegal’s largest baobab tree….

And I have developed a proclivity for utilizing lists in the service of hurried description….gotta watch that one.

Somehow in these past few days our band of voyagers managed to do quite a bit.

Oh, and speaking of our band of voyagers, here’s the cast of characters for Spring Break Senegal 2005: Shannon and Loren (both juniors at Appalachian State in NC), Kendall (junior at UNC-Chapel Hill), Lili (Austrian also doing the gap year thing before she starts University next year), David (taking some time off from Tulane and doing a homestay in Yoff for a couple of months), Victoria (program’s Academic Assistant and co-Ecovillage banner bearer), Boubacar (employee of the NGO through which the program is run and co-Ecovillage banner bearer), and finally, Papice and his new schmazzy digi-video camera (Victoria’s husband, diligent and enthusiastic filmographer and constant source of good humor).

Tomorrow I will resume, hopefully posting the conclusion to our adventures complete with a sampling of my many pictures.

A Demain. N’Challah (God Bless).