The passengers on the plane from Paris to Dakar, Senegal, on October 19, 2023, suggested our destination. There were only a few Anglos on a plane filled with dark men in dark business suits, women in floor-length, African print dresses, and little girls with many rows of braids in their hair.
We left the bustling, modern Dakar airport and entered a world of ancient cultures, with huge distinctions between rich and poor.
We were beginnng a 24-day Adventures Abroad tour of eight West African countries--Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, and Ghana. Those countries all felt new to me, but, when I got home, my brother Scott told me we had visited them all before, when we were children! My reputation in the family, when I traveled as a girl, was that I always had the guidebooks out, planning our next trip, rather than paying attention to the present one!
The tour didn't start till October 21, so we hired a guide on October 20 and visited sites our tour would miss. Our first stop was the Musee Theodore Monod, with a collection of art from all over West Africa. I quickly learned that Mali, which is now off-limits because of jihadists, is the font of West African culture, originating in the kingdom of Timbuktu.
I love African art, which was an inspiration for Picasso and other Western artists of the early 1900s. I bought a coffee table book on African art before leaving home, and I hope to make it more than a coffee table feature when I return. Dave especially liked this African headdress. It reminded him of the Viking horned hat he used to wear as the auctioneer at Spendlove family reunions.
It was a delight to have Mike come with us on the tour. We felt like we had one long, 24-day conversation with him, a luxury we never have at home.
Next stop was the craft market, to shop for African masks and African fabric. Mike has a zebra skin on his basement wall, and he wants to surround it with masks from across Africa. Mike bought the mask on the left and then later learned, from our guide and mask collector, Claude, that it was not authentic, i.e. it was made for the tourist trade rather than true to traditional designs. "Who will know, in Salt Lake City, whether your African mask is authentic?" I asked Mike, but he fell out of love with his purchase.
What to buy and what to pay? The choice was endless.
I was interested in African fabric for table runners. I know I'll be cooking West African dinners--I've already bought four West African cookbooks.
We next visited the food market, to help our chefs choose fresh produce for our cooking class.
Our cooking lesson was at Dakar's cooking academy, where students helped the chef make the national dish of Senegal, which is fish, fried and then stewed together with rice and a rich broth filled with tomatoes, vegetables, and spices. We sat in the dining room and ate
this national dish of Senegal, which is fish, fried and stewed, together with
rice and a rich broth filled with spices. “I think we can make this at home,” I
told Mike, and he agreed.
The cooks let us help them peel vegetables, fry fish, pound spices and garlic with a large mortar and pestle, steam rice, and then stir the whole mixture together.
We sat in the dining room and ate this fish and rice national dish. “I think we can make this at home,” I told Mike, and he agreed.
No comments:
Post a Comment