F Z

So. St. Louis. Friday after our first class we head out to St. Louis. We grabbed two taxis to the gare pompier and before getting out of the taxe peiople were already harrassing us trying to get us to take their cars. Our plan was to take two different 'sept-places' (station wagons with added seats to take seven people) because there were eight of us... but the first guys we talked to we bargained to get 3500 CFA for our own ' mini-bus' with 15 seats. We all piled in just in time to realize as the guy we bargained with spoke wolof to our only wolof speaking driver over me and laura that he wanted us to pay 3500 per seat (i.e. too expensive). So us and ou luggage exit the car. We are hounded some more and get a 'deal' for 2800 per person in another mini-bus, here they are called Ngiaga-Ndiaya's. We follow the him across the car lot and get in this bus with shady curtains. Laura and Josh end up getting off cuz of the PB and D's to take a sept-place... we asked the driver of the bus how long to St. Louis... he says the bus going direct to St Louis in 3 and a half hours.... So we wait on the bus for more people to fill it up. In the meantime we watched a fight in Wolof, and a guy who came on that was saying that if i married him he would take me and Cait to St. Louis for free... also, one of the passengers - we had a hard time figuring out its identity (male or female) so we discussed that for a long time and realized that the correct pronoun is zee (fun fact by Mairead). After about an hour or so later we finally left (the guy thatsold us the seats said that we were ready to leave when we had gotten on... clearly he lied) so we asked Zee how long it would take to get there and zee said 11pm at the latest... it was then about 3 pm.....

So we leave the lot and head North. Keep in mind that any time the bus slows down or stops people jump on the bakc of the bus or shove their arms through the window trying to sell us stuff. So we start getting out of Dakar a little and into traffic (there's alwasy traffic) and at some point another bus drives by, hits ours and takes out the driver's side mirror. We stop, both drivers get out and yell at each other, i'm sure there was an exchange of money...and we continue on our way. So even though the driver had said direct to St. Louis, he really meant a stop every 20 minutes... so thats how it was, basically a stop anywhere there was a lot of people. At one stop soon after however, a lady jumps on selling donuts in a bag that looked delicious! for 100 CFA (about 25 cents) so Mairead and I had to buy one... best purchase ever (it ended up having nutella in the middle... amazing). Another 'only in senegal' moment happened a while later - only in senegal does the driver in a public bus stop to get out and pray. A little later while getting gas Mairead and i bought little cupcake things out the window and Cait got a fan...

more time passes till its 7 pm - time to break the fast so we pulled over in the middle of nowhere where there were random food stands. We wandered and found these big tables along the side of the road where people were eating. Some guy offers us to sit but we just ogt a sandwich of whatever they were eating and were on our way.

8:30 rolls around and Josh and Laura are already in St. Louis at our hostel. A while later at another stop in the middle of nowhere Dorothy bought some 'donuts' out the window...

Paulina: "How are they?"
Mairead: "They're like donut chicken nuggets."

At some point when the bus stops later we had to be pushed in order to get the bus going again...

Still more time and we're in the middle of nowhere and i hear a blaring car horn... the bus slows down to a stop and most people on our bus get off. I looked out the back and saw a ton of locals at the side of the road staring into the middle of the road where there was on car diagnal across the road... Finally Mairead and i decide we have to get out and see what it is. But when we got ou tpeople where starting to back on... it was dark and i couldn't see much so we asked the ony guy on our entire bus who spoke French (the others only Wolof) what happened and he said an accident... and i said yeah but with what? he said not to worry about it and get back on the bus...

11 pm rolls around. Mairead and i look at each other and say F Zee and F our lives right now...

"You know its been a long day when your water bottle becomes your pillow..." - Mairead

Around 12:30 (8 and a half hours after we left) we get to the station in St. Louis, cram 6 of us in the same taxi to the hostel. We arrive to find Josh and Laura drinking with two Germans. Bienvenue a St. Louis.