This morning, Sunday, I set off to go to the place where Catholic Mass is held in Tivaouane. There is no Catholic Church here anymore because the Muslims shut it down. I’m still trying to understand that one since I’ve been told over and over again that Islam is a religion of tolerance. The reason I’m seeking the Catholic community in my town is because they seem to be bit more liberal than the Muslim community here. Not to mention I’m trying to make some Senegalese friends here; the more people I meet the more opportunity I have for that.
So, off I go across town to the meeting place, which is a ramshackle building, to find some workers in front rebuilding the gate. I ask if mass is here and they say no because the building flooded from the tempest yesterday and now they are repairing some stuff. I ask if mass will be somewhere else and they pointed and told me to keep walking that way, past the white van and turn right, everyone is there.
I didn’t find anyone. So either it wasn’t there or I didn’t understand correctly. I decided to just take a walk into town and see if the market I like was open since I wanted to buy some fruit. I felt the wind whip up and I looked at the sky, and realized that there is another tempest headed this way. Against my better judgment, I headed towards town and farther from my house. The sky kept getting darker and the wind stronger…but I was almost to the shop.
It was closed, of course. I turned around and started heading back home and it seemed like the storm was blowing over. Wrong. The sky opened up! I picked up the pace. I was about 20 minutes away from the house and on foot. I was wearing white today, and since my tops were doubled up, I opted to forgo a bra. Soaking wet and in white clothes I continued walking home. I got many offers from folks in shops to come for cover. Since I could hide nothing in my wet, white clothes I declined the offers and kept heading for home. I just wanted to be dry and I’m sure my wet, white outfit was now completely inappropriate attire for this country. And if today’s storm was anything like yesterday’s, I’d rather get home than wait it out for hours in some cramped boutique.
Being soaking wet made me feel nice and cool; I loved that since that doesn’t happen much here in Senegal. But the rain here mixes with all the stuff on the ground and makes veritable rivers and puddles (and ponds) of dirt, animal crap, trash, animal crap and general grossness. I tried to stay away from that stuff, but it’s impossible. I apologized to my beautiful Bjorn sandals as we trudged along home doing the best we could while jumping over rivers, puddles and poop.
My host mom was at the front door and met me with a big laugh. I’m sure I was a sight. Alas, I had made it to the house. She had me take off my sandals and then let me in. First order of business was to get into some dry clothes. Second order of business was to hibiclense my feet and Bjorns. Hibiclense is a super-duper, strong antiseptic/antimicrobial soap. It can burn if you don’t rinse it all off properly, but that’s better than the multitude of things that would love to make a host of my skin and body.
Well, I can try again next Sunday…
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