Daycation

August 21st, 2010

Best. Day. Ever.

Yesterday I was sitting in Big Faim, a restaurant in Thies, trying to escape my family and relieve some of my general malaise about life with some other volunteers when someone suggested a day trip to Mbour. At first I wasn't so into the idea. There was no reason for me to go, but there was REALLY no reason for me to stay in Thies and do nothing for another day while getting more annoyed by my family. I've actually been at site for quite a long time, since Kedougou at this point, and although I know I have all of my modern conveniences and can go into town to forget about things for a while, my family is really starting to drive me insane and Ramadan is really boring. I'm so glad I went on the daycation. It was epic.

The plan was to get up pretty early and head to Mbour so we could spend the morning at the beach so I got up and ran early and then met the rest of the crew at the garage. A quick sept-place ride later we were in Mbour at the wonderful toubab grocery store purchasing a wide variety of beverages to start out the day. From there we headed to the beach and set up camp at a campement that the Eco-T volunteer in Mbour works with. While some people went swimming, Jackie and I lounged and read. The water in Mbour while cooling and nice to dip my feet in to combat the heat is also filled with trash and crawling with Senegalese children and vendors, not a good combination.

Two bottles of wine and a beautiful view later we moved on to lunch. I was really excited to have some fresh seafood and it was delicious. Jackie and I split a seafood gratin and some shrimp which hit the spot. From lunch we moved on to the main event of the day and it did not disappoint. One of the volunteers I was with had heard about a liqueur distillery outside of Mbour where you can sample liqueurs much like wine. I was highly skeptical, but the afternoon turned out to be amazing. The distillery was beautiful, the host wasn't too bad to look at, and then liqueurs themselves, which are made from locally grown fruits, were absolutely delicious. It was so much fun. Most of us bought a few bottles and our lovely host threw in a free bottle which we drank on the spot.

After attempting to go to what is supposedly the best pizza place in all of Senegal for dinner, it was closed for Ramadan, we grabbed some delicious pasta for dinner and jumped in a sept-place back to Thies. I'm so happy that I got out of Thies and had a great day.

Pictures are up so check them out.