West Africa V: Casamance--Meeting the Folks in South Senegal (10/25/23)

We traveled, on October 25, 2023, from Banjul, Gambia, to the lush riverbanks of Casamance, in the south of Senegal.  On our drive, we visited the home village of our guide.  We spent the night in Ziguinchor, where we rode in a boat into a still bend of the river just before sunset, searching for birds.  Mike took his huge telephoto lens, which he uses to photograph wildlife.  

We learned, in West Africa, that tribal identity is still very important.  Africa is filled with many different tribes, each with its own language, architecture, and customs. Since the colonial administrators drew national boundaries arbitrarily, tribes are sometimes split between countries.  Our local guide was a member of the Jola tribe, which has lived in the Senegambian region for centuries.  He took us to his home and showed us how his family lives.

The Jola live as extended families in large homes with lots of rooms.  A large compound surrounded the house, with goats and fruit trees.

There was a separate building for the toilets.  There was no toilet paper, but, instead, the typical West African bucket of water with a scoop to wash yourself after using the toilet.

Our guide introduced us to his mother, a tall, elegant woman who relaxed outside their house with sisters and brothers, nieces and nephews and grandchildren.

Our guide now lives with his family in Dakar, many miles away from Casamance, but he is building this house for his family for when he comes home to visit.  He has gotten used to living as a separate family unit, rather than communally.
 

We visited the local school, which our guide had helped to finance.  There was a motorcycle parked outside, a symbol of affluence in West Africa.

The children sang songs in French for us, and we gave them school supplies--colored pencils and sharpeners, paper, a calculator, and a soccer ball.

Finally, we reached our comfortable hotel, located on the river in Ziguinchor, the main city in the Casamance.

The hotel grounds were lush and beautiful.

Before dinner, we boarded two motorized pirogues, which are long, thin, low boats, pointed at the ends.  We sailed past mangroves, with dolphins swimming along beside our boats. There were also hundreds of birds, including flamingos, pelicans, egrets, and others I didn’t recognize. I have often teased David that when we retire, we will take up birdwatching and square dancing.  Square dancing may never be acceptable to Dave, but bird watching from our pirogue was very fun!

The water was so still that we could see perfect reflections of the trees in the water.

We became very fond of our tour members.  Janet met Rishi on a former Adventures Abroad tour of West Africa.  They were caught together in a political coup in Burkina Faso, and that began the romance.