Even though Senegal is mainly a Muslim nation the levels of persecution in the country are very low. The pressure we felt in Morocco, Egypt and Mauritania to stay under the radar was now suddenly relieved and it felt great!
But walking around St. Louis we felt other pressures mounting. Especially that of poverty. It was evident all around us, clearly seen in the big number of small children hanging around the streets begging. We then randomly met a Muslim man who was working with some of the children's homes in the area and took us to some of them. For some reason St. Louis is really struggling with big numbers of orphan and homeless children.
After our day in St. Louis and spending a 2nd night in the Catholic Church hall we decided to move on to Dakar. This was our first introduction to a typical Senegalese taxi/bus. Very colourful and bright on the outside, very uncomfortable on the inside, and very, very slow. Firstly we probably waited an hour for the taxi to fill up before we could leave. Secondly the 250 km's to Dakar took us probably 6- 7 hours! We were exhausted by the time we got there.
Our next challenge was once again: accommodation. After two days of searching all across the city and staying in a place that was way to expensive we finally found a camp site on the southern end of Dakar at a boat club. Finally a place that was in our budget. In Dakar we had to apply for our Mali visas. We also needed some rest after the intense few days of travelling from Dakhla, Western Sahara, and the team could prepare and pray for their Luke 10 laying ahead.
One of our highlights during this time was our visit to the Ile de Goree. A very small island visible from Dakar. The island was used during the years of the slave trade as a place from where slaves were loaded onto the ships. The island is famous for its House of Slaves with a door opening out onto the ocean. The slaves knew that once through that door your chances of ever coming back was zero.
I wanted the team members to know about the horrors of slave trading and it hit a cord within all of us. Especially since we watched the Amazing Grace movie about William Wilberforce earlier on our journey.
Soon we had our visas for Mali and while Detlef and I stayed behind for a few more days the team departed on their Luke 10 into Senegal. We would only see them again 10 days later in Bamako, the capital of Mali.
Photos below from top to bottom: 1. HP and Wanyne on the cannon on Ile de Goree. 2. Detlef not the best guy to take sightseeing! 3. Elzet with a few colourful Senegalese woman. 4. Madeleen with a typical colourful Senegalese bus. 5. Me trying out some Senegalese wrestling on the beach in Dakar.
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