The Monestery

This Sunday, I went to Keur Moussa, the Catholic Monestary in Senegal, with a few other PCVs.  It’s about 40k away from Tivaouane.  Mass was lovely.  The music was played with African instruments with the words in French.  It lasted about 90 minutes.  There were as many monks as attendees.  The incense was strong and sometimes it appeared very smoky.

The grounds were beautifully kept and the church lovely.  It was very tranquil and serene.

There were a lot of French people there, so I didn’t feel like quite the minority that I usually do.  There was a little Senegalese girl, maybe 5 years old, in the pew in front of us.  She kept giving us the stare down.  It was pretty funny.  We tried to get her to turn around and face the front, but to no avail.

After mass, we shopped in the boutique at Keur Moussa and bought goat cheese, fresh pressed juice, dried fruits, jellies and wine.  All these items are made on the premises.  It was a lovely picnic.  I took home some lavender water and some grapefruit wine, ingredients: grapefruit juice, white wine, alcohol and sugar.  That sounds more like a wine cooler, I suppose.  It’s chilling in my ‘fridge now, waiting for me to open it up in the very near future.

Following that that we headed into Thies to sit at a restaurant, Big Faim, to relax and have some cold beverages and snacks.  We all talked about our experiences so far and as I was listening to all of us, I realized that it sounded like we were doing a lot of complaining (me included).  As I reflected on that, I realized that we were not complaining at all; we were sharing and comparing stories and talking about our bizarre experiences here.  We are helping to validate each other’s’ experiences and let each of us know we aren’t alone in this and we are here to support each other.  Some things that happen here are so bizarre that you need to talk about it with others in the same boat.  I am thankful for the network of friends that I am developing right now.

Then, we headed home.  I hit the sack early after my dinner of sweet peanut butter soup with millet.  It was so delicious!