4 Dudes One Blog (Aaron, Abe, Brad, John): Adventure Time- Abe

This past weekend, myself and two other Kzoo students (Abby and Joe)went to a nearby cheap bar for a chill night. on the way their we stopped by the baobab center, there are security guards posted all night if we need anything. A couple guards on duty chatted us up and showed us to a senegalese traditional wrestling event occurring in the streets. There were male adult drummers playing around a ring made of rice bags filled with sand and probably 60 children of various ages running around and challenging one another to duels. We continued to the bar after we attracted a bit too much attention and here perpetually asked for money from the children. The bar we went too is an outdoor tiled bar about two blocks from our school. Bars and drinking are both more common that i thought. The alcohol is cheap but is not good or much variety, there only exists 4 beers that ive seen so far ranging from light to lighter.

On our way home from the bar we run pass by the baobab guards again. this time they introduce us to a woman passing by in beautiful orange senegalese dress. She had organized some sort of traditional senegalese street dance for women a few blocks away. Around midnight, she guided us to a gathering of 200-250 people including children but mostly 18-30 year old. In the street the crowd formed an oval with 5 male drummers and a speaker on one end. One or two at a time women would run into the center and dance to this fast paced drumming. The dancing involved mostly aggressive but rhythmic foot pounding. The longer we stayed the more women would enter the circle at once and the dancing became more sexual, the women brought chairs as props and danced with the male drummers. At this point me and my friends became more noticed, its hard to not be noticed as a toubab (white person.) Abby, my female friend, was persuaded to go into the center. A man with a micro phone started asking her questions, her name, age, and if she was married. Misunderstanding the later question as if we was with anyone tonight, she pointed at me and joe. I was then forced into the the center of the circle with abby and joe with a couple hundred people yelling in wolof and one guy speaking rapidly into a mic. Abby, joe, and I along with a couple senegalese women started to dance when another american group from minnesota showed up and joined us. For the next 5-10 minutes myself and 8 other americans danced to a korean pop song and fast paced senegalese drums while the crowd took pictures and sang along.

Here are some pictures from a visit to Ngor and Goree, two islands off the coast of Dakar.

Decorated doorway on the Island of Ngor, there is an art festival on the island each December