Senegal SST

Joal-Fadiout

Joal was the boyhood home of Senegal’s first president and poet Léopold Sédar Senghor.  During our stay in Joal we visited the Senghor home and museum where a guide told us about his life and contributions.

Bandia Game Reserve

On our recent field trip to Joal-Fadiout we stopped at Bandia Game Reserve.  We enjoyed observing African animals close up in their natural habitat.  The park was created in 1990 and contains species native to Senegal and from other parts of Africa.   We ended our stay with a picnic in…

Music of Sénégal

Our recent lecture on music took place at Thiès Regional Museum housed in a small old fort.  Our lecturer described traditional uses of music and musical styles.  He brought others with him to demonstrate jembe (drums),  several stringed instruments and the balafon.   At the end of the lecture students had…

Activities at Chez Goshen

This week (June 3) at Chez Goshen the meal was made by Alysha, Leah, Erin, Noah, Josh, and Patrick.  It included preparing vegetables and fruit, cooking rice, beans, and cookies in a hot kitchen, and improvising to make “Café Touba”  (a sweet spiced Senegalese coffee) using an old sock for…

Language and Lectures

For the past 4 ½ weeks our daily routine has included language study in the mornings and lectures or presentations about Sénégal and its culture in the afternoons.

Monastery, Lac Rose, Orphanage, and the Beach

This past Sunday we took a field trip that combined a variety of stops.  We began our day at Keur Moussa, a Catholic monastery, where we caught the end of the morning mass that uses traditional harp-like instruments, called “kora,” in the service.

Touba

Touba is the center of Muridism, one of the four prominent Islamic brotherhoods in Sénégal.  The founder of Muridism, Cheikh Amadou Bamba, lived in the 19th Century.  The grand mosque in Touba is a replica of the one in Mecca and is the destination of an annual pilgrimage that, for followers of Bamba, replaces the required pilgrimage to Mecca.  It is faced with marble from Portugal and Italy and is elaborately decorated inside.

Batik / Tie Dye

We spent an afternoon participating in the process  of tie dye and batik.  We learned four different techniques that are commonly used – simple tie dye, stitching patterns, using gum arabic, applying wax using block stamping.

Dakar

This week we visited the capital Dakar to see the center of the city which, during the French colonial period, was also the administrative center for all of French West Africa.  We spent time in the Museum and walked to see the Catholic cathedral, the presidential palace, and parliament.

Gorée Island

We took a one-day field trip to Gorée Island, located off the coast of Dakar. Gorée played a significant role historically as a trading center and as a strategic military location. It was occupied at different times by Portugese, Dutch, English, and eventually the French . It also was a…