I don’t even know where to begin, there’s so much I want to say about December…for now I’ll start with one of the biggest events of the month…our trip to the Casamance, the southern part of Senegal.
We had informally talked with our host family about visiting Gerard’s village in the Casamance, but it wasn’t until a man from our church announced his wedding that’d be in a town nearby Gerard’s village that we decided that’d be the perfect reason to go. The wedding was scheduled for the 26th of December, so we got boat tickets for the 24th, Christmas Eve. (And for any of you wondering, we had a little family Christmas the weekend before).
So here’s the story…the condensed version…in pictures:
After getting a car to take us to the Dakar port, we loaded up on the boat.
We weren’t supposed to eat inside, so here we are out on the deck eating.
We rode the boat all night, and arrived early the next morning.
Almost there!
Hello Ziguinchor!
After getting to the port, we have to get to the village so we piled into some transportation.
But before we even got out of town we had engine trouble.
So while we waited for the mechanic to come, Clementine decided to make use of the time and find us a little porch to eat our lunch on.
Right when we were about done eating the mechanic came and fixed the problem and we all climbed back in, then eventually made it to the village! This is our host dad’s parents’ house where we all stayed.
Gerard showing Cameron how to climb the tree.
At the top!
Even his dad still climbs the trees to harvest palm juice.
We got to eat plenty of fruit! Oranges and lemons are in season now.
Getting the lemons nice and juicy to make lemon juice.
I don’t know how many of these things I ate!
They eat it, by pushing the jello-like fruit out of the holes.
We have plenty more pictures…but you’ll have to come back for part 2!