Sénégal trip report: Day 1


Just arrived today.  Saliou and I walked down to the beach where Makale joined us.  I went with him (on the back of his motorcycle) to see Ariane, who is currently on the beach, watched 24/7 by some men, and the storage area where the three boat motors and the Jerry cans of gasoline are stored.  The Jerry cans were mostly empty. Ariane needs to be watched as she is vulnerable to being stolen by those who seek pirogues to try to get to the Canary Islands. She needs to be sanded down and repainted before she can go out again.  In particular, she needs to have new product applied to the inside of her hull because these boats do not have covers protecting them from the rain so …they fill up with water, which has to be removed by hand. 


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Don't forget joy - Tabaski in Senegal

Image
A young girl on the day of Tabaski.  This is the Muslim version of Christmas where everyone gets new clothes, the family slaughters a goat/sheep and everyone eats well, enjoys being together.  This is a screen shot from a video that Makale sent me of his family, she was dancing and smiling to music.  The fishermen are all happy to be able to earn money to make these purchases.  
Read more

Sénégal trip: Day 2

Image
  Today Makale picked me up around noon.  We went to see Owen, docked by Île N’Gor for protection against high seas.  It takes about 20 minutes to get there from Yoff, by motorcycle.  By car, much longer due to horrendous traffic.  On the motorcycle, we weave carefully between cars.  No one is going very fast and I feel completely comfortable (I do wear a motorcycle helmet.).  To get to Owen, we take a pirogue with a bunch of other people which goes across the channel to Île N’Gor, then takes us to Owen (who is adjacent to several other pirogues).  Every day, Makale comes here to empty any water which has accumulated.  It’s quite an effort.  Sitting on the pile of nets, we had a long discussion about the fishing business, which opened my eyes to what is involved.   I also learned that many fishermen have left to try to get to Europe and it’s essential to keep the team together.  We are a team of 12 adult fishermen and 3 ...
Read more

Mimi - our third pirogue

Image
We needed one last pirogue, a smaller one which would pull the cord to close the nets around the fish.  We had been borrowing one, and it was just a matter of time before that arrangement would falter.  We started building Mimi April 12 and she was finished in about two weeks.  As soon as OWEN comes back from Kayar, we will return the smaller pirogue to the owner, and start using Mimi.    
Read more