The entire staff pays into central pot and gets lunch catered every day on the roof-top deck of our building. It is usually fish but also grilled lamb and chicken served with white or what my mom's era would call dirty rice - a rice cooked in a rich broth or sauce. The Senegalese seem to like their meals well oiled. Maybe it is easier to digest that way. Every meal is fairly heavy with lots of white rice and meat and very very few vegetables. If vegetables do don the plate then they are cooked well past the point of holding onto their original form. The palate here shies away from hot peppers. And while people eat out of a single dish at home using only their hands, the etiquette at work seems to require the use of spoons. Obesity is very rare. I look forward to learning their secret?
Each day we are treated to a new kind of juice. The favorites so far are Bissap and Ginger - both Wolof words meaning hibiscus and well, yes, you guessed it, ginger. We may also drink monkey bread juice a.k.a bread fruit, can't recall its Wolof name. All good and refreshing and never served with the meal. The fruit juices arrive at the end when everyone is finished eating and represent a type of desert since they contain a lot of added sugar.
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her fruit that is of particular interest - because it is completely new to me - is Ditakh. It is pronounced with a harsh scratchy sound at the end.
Ditakh looks like a potato and I have seen it a number of times in the marketplace and never really took notice. It was not until someone brought some to the house and invited us to make a batch that I slowly brought myself to taste this green potato-shaped fruit. We opened a couple and tasted the pulp to get an idea before immersing a dozen or so in a basin of water for a few hours. What emerged was a delicious, very green beverage that is high in vitamin C and tastes a little like Kiwi. Very flavorful but too acidic for my stomach. I recommend it to anyone traveling through Senegal. One more adventure to add to the list of more to come.
My departure to Ziguinchor has been delayed still another day. I hope now to fly to Casamance on Thursday morning. I was informed that my bags were too heavy for the small 20-seater plane that flies from Dakar to Ziguinchor, so I went to the port today to drop off my bags and hope to retrieve them on the other side. I have had bad experiences with luggage in Africa, with luggage handlers frequently stealing the contents of bags between the plane and the arrival depot. Sending my belongings unaccompanied for an 11-hour boat ride took a leap of faith. Everyone assured me that the company is responsible and takes care of all personal belongings, so I will allow this new experience to be another opportunity to change my perception of travel and security in Africa. The ferry is enormous and transports thousands of people on the overnight journey.
I look forward to giving the journey a try when I have more time on my hands and a partner interested in exploring Senegal with me. That time will certainly come in February when my girlfriend Jenny joins me here for 10-days or so. That day is still a long way away. I have a lot of work to do before a time comes when free time and leisure will be affordable. There are still many eyes on me. Looking forward to my arrival but also anticipating what I may or not do. I am looking for them to make the first move and I have received an invitation to meet the local authorities to talk briefly about why I am here. We as a team have had to work out a series of "Questions that may enflame" and have gone over potential answers to ensure that we are given a chance to earn the trust of the communities that have seen many people come to the region waving banners of peace and simply counted the days until their departure. My intention was to ask them what they are trying and starting by reinforcing existing efforts. But there are lots of cooks already stirring that soup with similar or contradictory intentions. Leaving the road most traveled is, I believe, the only way to make a difference here. It will take time to convince my staff of that. If I cannot gain their trust in our approach, we will have a rocky road ahead for sure.
In the meantime. A votre soif!!! (To your thirst)
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her fruit that is of particular interest - because it is completely new to me - is Ditakh. It is pronounced with a harsh scratchy sound at the end.Ditakh looks like a potato and I have seen it a number of times in the marketplace and never really took notice. It was not until someone brought some to the house and invited us to make a batch that I slowly brought myself to taste this green potato-shaped fruit. We opened a couple and tasted the pulp to get an idea before immersing a dozen or so in a basin of water for a few hours. What emerged was a delicious, very green beverage that is high in vitamin C and tastes a little like Kiwi. Very flavorful but too acidic for my stomach. I recommend it to anyone traveling through Senegal. One more adventure to add to the list of more to come.
My departure to Ziguinchor has been delayed still another day. I hope now to fly to Casamance on Thursday morning. I was informed that my bags were too heavy for the small 20-seater plane that flies from Dakar to Ziguinchor, so I went to the port today to drop off my bags and hope to retrieve them on the other side. I have had bad experiences with luggage in Africa, with luggage handlers frequently stealing the contents of bags between the plane and the arrival depot. Sending my belongings unaccompanied for an 11-hour boat ride took a leap of faith. Everyone assured me that the company is responsible and takes care of all personal belongings, so I will allow this new experience to be another opportunity to change my perception of travel and security in Africa. The ferry is enormous and transports thousands of people on the overnight journey.
I look forward to giving the journey a try when I have more time on my hands and a partner interested in exploring Senegal with me. That time will certainly come in February when my girlfriend Jenny joins me here for 10-days or so. That day is still a long way away. I have a lot of work to do before a time comes when free time and leisure will be affordable. There are still many eyes on me. Looking forward to my arrival but also anticipating what I may or not do. I am looking for them to make the first move and I have received an invitation to meet the local authorities to talk briefly about why I am here. We as a team have had to work out a series of "Questions that may enflame" and have gone over potential answers to ensure that we are given a chance to earn the trust of the communities that have seen many people come to the region waving banners of peace and simply counted the days until their departure. My intention was to ask them what they are trying and starting by reinforcing existing efforts. But there are lots of cooks already stirring that soup with similar or contradictory intentions. Leaving the road most traveled is, I believe, the only way to make a difference here. It will take time to convince my staff of that. If I cannot gain their trust in our approach, we will have a rocky road ahead for sure.
In the meantime. A votre soif!!! (To your thirst)
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