Want to start posting some pics from my 2010/11 trip...

"Free Up"

Imagine if you were running alone in the middle of the Sahara. Suddenly, the location of all your thoughts and emotions would become clear. There is no longer the entanglements of modern life, and any happiness, bitterness, joy, or pain you will find exists somewhere inside of you, in your mind, heart, body, soul. Yet still God has chosen you to exist, and in spite of it all, there you are alone jogging in the Sahara and interacting with the environment. Somewhere in that you find yourself. That's how I would describe my feelings on mornings I had the chance to jog the beach of the Atlantic ocean at sunrise.

For people familiar with the region, on a good day I would jog all the way from Senegambia up to the Sheraton Hotel. I think it was maybe approximately 8 miles.

Along the way there would be other young guys training along the beach. It seems a typical day for many Gambian men consisted of early morning training at the beach just after sunrise. They are big into calisthenics, and any athletic training that improves flexibility, strength, agility, and skills used to perform at a high level in the sport of soccer.

Because some would train in the morning, then during the day, they would perform some work. Then by the time the sun began to fall they would be back at the beach for soccer matches that were scattered out all across that coast of Gambia around the Serrakunda region.

Generally the best way they describe their methods of training, and the phrase I find most fitting is "Free Up". They would always describe their training as "Freeing Up" the body. They turn, twist, jump, even shout, roll their heads, swing their arms, and so on... all to "free up" the body.. and often it frees the mind as well. And what better place to do it then overlooking an endless ocean on the Atlantic Coast.

Flow- One Week to Departure

Just trying to get back into the flow of things. Author James Redfield writes about how we all follow a path in life, and how it is important for us to stay conscious of divine coincidences to push our personal evolution forward. So I'm starting to get back into the flow of things with just a week till departure.

I'm feeling the energy of my upcoming trip as it approaches me, and as I draw closer to departure I'm starting to take notice of coincidences surrounding me. Thoughts that have rested in the mud of my mind, have now emerged to the front and center. Lingering issues and questions are surfacing. People who were mere acquaintances are now becoming key figures in my life.

I've been slowly keeping up with all my contacts during my time away. But now my contacts here in the states and in Africa have been mobilized. Some friendships will stay the same, some will be forgotten, and I hope that most are being enhanced with every passing moment as my trip approaches and is giving life.

Recap

My path, my place, my life, my love, my writing, my reading... just seeing the sun.
I remember this feeling
I felt it before...
It's like a child
when he first realizes he's "alive".

...That is a little something I wrote upon my arrival in Africa. It gives you a feeling of Deja-Vu, because the environment is so new and different, you can actually feel like a kid again. Another reason Africa has this affect is that before my generation became adults and isolated ourselves with ipods and iphones, we used to be out in the heat, sweating all day. In Africa even when your inside you are really outside. Air conditioning is rare, and homes and shops are not the closed and locked fortresses we find in America.

The first song I listened to was "Breathe" by Nas. He is one of my favorite rappers, and his new album didn't vibe with me as much as I had hoped. So I just put it away for a month or so, and waited till I was in a new environment to see if it opened my senses. And it did. Because when we listen to music its often the images they produce in our mind that make the song enjoyable to us. So I needed some new sights and sounds and memories.

But soon I would be looking forward to ditching my American music and trying on some new sounds of Gambia and Senegal. I was reminded of an interview I read by Nas' father in which he said the world would be a sad place without music. That music was how we communicate, and if you want to know the history of a people then listen to their music.

More then anything else I listen to the music and sounds of Africa when I'm there.

Saly, Senegal

A lot of people had recommended I see Saly while I was in Senegal. The beaches in Saly were immaculate, as you can see in the pictures. They are tended to daily by the hotel staffs that work the beach and also heavily patrolled in a way the Gambian beaches are not. There is an upside and and downside to this, as I will go into...




I remember the last day I tried to go to the beach in Gambia. It was unusually cloudy that day, but it was my last available day for going to the beach there so I was determined to make the most of it. When I arrived the beaches were FLOODED with people. You could hardly walk. Basically what I found out was that there was one day a week when Gambian locals were free to spend their day at the beach, and the rest of the week the beaches were primarily for tourists and Gambians who worked along there. However throughout the week you will still find locals who don't have liscence to be there. Some are treated harshly, for example I've heard when the soldiers decide to they will take in some of the Rasta's hanging along the beach and chop off their dreadlocks leaving them bald. But the good news is many pass freely. I say good news because they really add to the culture and atmosphere along the beach. It would be lonely with just tourists.





A lot of times in Africa they have laws just the same as we have in America, the difference is a lack of resources and organization to enforce those laws at times.

Anyway, in Saly, Senegal the beach is beautiful, yet lonely. it is perserved mostly for tourists. They don't take kindly to locals hanging around. There was a time in gambia and senegal, just 10 short years ago when tourists rarely came and couldn't even walk the beach freely without being harassed and hustled every step of the way.

I visited some of the local shops in Saly. I stopped at an internet café to check my flight schedule, but it was no luck on those french keyboards were kind of frustrating.

I arrived at the beach and took some pics and video's, swam in the ocean to cool off at sunset, stopped at a restaurant just offshore over the ocean.

































The hotel I stayed at in Saly for a night was easily the most comparable to what you find in an American hotel, as far as air conditioning, cleanliness, toilet, shower, even television. The top was made of straw so they all looked like about 20 individual cottage huts surrounding the lobby and swimming pool.




The only thing that it was lacking by American standards was a cash register, I remember I had to look around for a clerk, and nobody really seemed interested in taking my money. I told one of the staff I'd just leave the money on a table there in the lobby and he just kind of shook his head that that was okay and wandered off in another direction.









Anyway, I was grateful for the hotel because it allowed me to get cleaned up well and sufficient sleep, because I had a long trip ahead of me back to America.

I Get 2 days In Senegal Before Leaving

Accompanied only now by my friend Idiboy, I would leave Gambia for Senegal. Idiboy told me on the way back with a sigh,

"It's going to be different going back to Gambia (after dropping you off at the Senegal airport). And I know your going to feel it when your headed back to America."

What he meant was him and I had been like brothers for a month straight, hanging real tight everyday. I could picture him and I making our way back to our respective homes, him in Gambia, myself in America, both feeling the void seperation from a dear friend.

***************

In Senegal, once again we visited the home of my friend from back in America, Shiek: and ate and relaxed there with some of his family and their friends, Khady, Ibrahim, Matee, and the many people coming and going from their home, which also housed a salon that Shieks wife had bought for the family to have work.

There we were met by idiboy's cousin Dawda who rolled up on a motorbike, and appeared angry...

"You are bad", he said. "I've been calling you guys, you never call back, or anything."

I tried to explain, he argued with idiboy briefly in Wolof, told me he about some difficulties he was having at work that day, but promised hed try to get off early so he could spend the evening with us.

He made good on that promise and that evening and night we went to see the capital biuldings of Dakar, Senegal. On the way we stopped for something very important to me. I had to get a cd of the music i'd been hearing throughout my trip. Something I could listen to in America when I wanted to escape into my memories of Africa. One song had been playing everywhere we went, from cell-phones to ringtones, and car speakers everywhere and that was Titi "Musica". Also I had to get some songs from my favorite Senegalese artist Viviane Ndour. It seemed like Titi was the alternative for people who had grew tired of Vivianes overexposure, but for me being a tourist I didn't feel that way and it was clear to me Viviane was the number 1 artist in the country. Ofcourse Yosou Ndour is the most popular choice of the locals young and old in Senegal and Gambia, and also their most well-know artist worldwide. He even appeared on the Bullworth soundtrack with Wyclef John and Canibus (a soundtrack I'd actually had since 1998 when it came out, but of course I knew nothing of him then, or of Senegal. It was interesting to realize Id actually listened to him years earlier). Still though, for me Viviane Ndour is the number 1 musical artist of Senegal and Gambia.

But getting the music wasn't easy. its not like going into best buy in America and looking up the album.

There everything is bootlegged, so a record store is a very small, messy place, where the owner digs and digs for a half hour to hopefully come up with what your looking for. Then idiboy and Dawda insisted he play it for us to make sure it was what he said it was, then there was arguing over the price, and so on.

In the meanwhile some guys were hustling me, telling me to come with them and that my friends were bad, "lol". Like I would just take the word of a group of strangers and leave my friends Id been with all along.

Anyway finally we left there and got a bite to eat at a lebanese resteraunt. There is and has been for a long time a thriving lebanese community in Senegal. I was impressed to see how fluent the store owner was in Wolof, he was really like one of them.

We sat for dinner and listened to some songs on Dawda's cell-phone. I shared a nice moment with Dawda in which I told him it was nice to know whenever I came to Senegal I had a good friend I could trust. We all talked about future plans and all the things we wanted to do in gambia and Senegal in years to come. Dawda said, "Yes, idiboy and I fight and argue, weve always been like that, but he is my boy, we used to be in the village together..."

They told me some stories of their youth, Dawda had me visit with his mom on the phone and I promised Id visit the family next time I came.

We visited the capital biuldings of Senegal, and then made our way to the aiport around 10pm at night.

Leaving Gambia, Destination Senegal

There we are. Crowded onto the bus. Headed back to Senegal. Ironically we had the exact same bus driver as we had coming into to Gambia. We just barely caught the bus. If you don't catch the bus it's bad news, because then you have to ride in these group cars that always break down. I had to deal with that in 07'.