Curious Images

After we unloaded from the Coaster bus on our first day in Senegal this oil drum caught my eye. Sitting between the huge training center generators, the garden and the clothesline, this OiLibia drum was probably empty before Libya's revolution. Its situation signifies several differences between the US and Senegal. Waste removal here is complicated and recycling does not occur, to my knowledge; generators are necessary, located anywhere people have money and they are thirsty for petrol; and, finally, that oil is not just measured in barrels, it also arrives in barrels.

 This tire-topped cinder block cairn is actually a goat fence for a mango tree. Goats in Senegal wander unfettered in the streets and anyone with plans to garden or raise a tree must take strong precautions.

This nighttime rainstorm in Mbour caught our host family by surprise. April is the halfway point in the hot, dry season but things have been unseasonable this year. Hopefully, this indicates an early wet season--for the sake of the farmers whose wet season last year arrived late and ended early--but also for the sake of volunteers living in Kedougou not far from Mali, one of the hotter corners of Africa.



This picture is of the back of an Alhamdoulilahi bus, or Alham in PCV-speak. These buses, their associated sept-place long-range taxis and many freight and dump trucks are run by the Wolof-majority Mouride Brotherhood and their typical age must be near 30 years.

 This picture shows someone's forgotten British Berkefeld 7-liter water purifier standing at full height. These fixtures of volunteers' huts accomplish many a task: the top can serve as a mirror, a plate or a frisbee and the rest of it is useful against water-borne disease, so I'm told. Though I've used my purifier to clean all my water, I've still been sick three times. Maybe food is to blame.

A baobab tree, nature's very own shade-hut, Pepto-Bismol dispensary, and road-side stand sign. These trees seem abundant in western Senegal, maybe because they stand-out on the horizon and make landscape shots interesting (my blog background pic sports a few of these), but as with most plants and animals in these parts, they are probably not as abundant as they should be. Apart from their shade and beautification value, their fruit is delicious and effective at slowing diarrhea. During volunteer visit, I drank two large glasses of baobab fruit smoothie before learning about its stool-binding properties. I wasn't regular for a week. Small price to pay for one of the best fruits in the world.