This morning all six fellows, along with two guides, piled into a Tata bus for an outing down town. And by bus I men a large van with about six rows of benches five seats across. We entered by jumping through a door in the back and folding down the middle seats to make our way to a free seat. We then banged along; barley moving however, as we sat crammed together. At one of the many stops we climbed to the front and jumped out the side door.
While waiting for the next bus we were surrounded by a group of little boys. They came up to each of us without stretched hands. Most of us just smiled and shook our heads no, but Alec, remembering what we had learned in class the day before, said, ‘ba beneen’, meaning later. This caused the little boy to burst out laughing and instead of go away hold up his hand again and again just so he could hear Alec repeat the phrase.
When we reached down town we split into two groups to walk around. After squeezing through vendors, cars and people at the market, our guide took us to a Senegalese restaurant. While waiting for our food we had some peanuts. If they had not been in peanut shells I would not have known what they were. Each “nut” had a soft white case around it and was shaped more like a corn kernel as opposed to the typical “American” shape. When I bit in it tasted nothing like what I think of as peanuts and was soft and fleshy. For lunch we had traditional Senegalese food which is usually rice with meat or fish and root vegetables such as carrots and potatoes. All in all it was a fun outing!
