Saint Louis: Our Journey

Ah yes a voyage to the French capital of West Africa. It was stunningly beautiful in a thousand different ways, but for me also a reminder of the colonialists who were taking from West Africa for hundreds of years. The city was founded in 1659 and is in many ways, the same. We did find that the island that was once the hub of French West African business, is now mostly for the tourists and all of the friendly Senegalese that we met, live mostly on the main land.

Our trip began January 2nd from Oussouye to Ziguinchor. We caught a ride with a passing truck and made friends with some Senegalese who live in Cap Skirring. We had a fantastic dinner with Ouffie and Olga Bolie in Ziguinchor and stayed the night at the Mission House.

1/3 we were off to the city of Kaolack the half way point on the journey north. Day number two we passed through the Gambia, yes you are actually in another country and arrived in Kaolack around 4 p.m. We had a crazy driver who the other passengers said "Had hot young blood." We found the city of Kaolack to be, well, rather dirty, fly ridden and FULL of mosquitos. But they do claim to have the second largest covered market in West Africa. We did not try to verify this fact.