L’ile de Goree (Goree Island

June, 23 2009

L’ile de Goree (Goree Island)

            A day that started out remarkable quickly turned to chaos. Emily, Becca, Izzy, and I woke up at about 6:30 am to go on a jog. We dressed in our running shorts and tank tops, equipped with our ipods. We began to run our way down the broken streets of Dakar, struggling through humid air. The streets are already full of people and as we turn heads we come to the realization that our attire may not have been the best idea, the stares are piercing diminishing the comfort that we felt when we started our run on campus. If our clothing wasn’t bad enough, running with ipods when there are people and children are sleeping on the streets, it seems wrong in a way, we have yet to run again. After our run we got ready for our trip to Goree Island.

            All 12 of us piled onto the university bus, with Pape, Fatou Mata, Nde Coumba (pronounced pop, fata mata, ne coumab).  Adi, Maria, Dou Dou (doo-doo, don’t laugh) and Dou Dou son came with us as well. We drove to the port and waited for the ferry to arrive to take us to the island. The port had a small gift shop, where I bought post cards, but I am having trouble finding stamps ( I will buy them soon I promise.) Anyways after we got out of the shop there was a line of people waiting for the ferry, the women were dressed in their beautiful clothing, and men were equipped with goods from Dakar that they would bring to the island. The lady standing in line next to me asked me how I was doing, what my name was, and proceeded to introduce her self when I returned the questions. She said you must come to my shop today (at goree), don’t forget me. What I thought was simply a friendly conversation and polite invite would be something I never prepared my self to handle, I had yet to experience the way of the women shop keepers, and ohhhh was I in for treat, all of us were.

All the women on the boat introduced themselves to us, and with their cunning charisma were sure to get all of our names. As the ferry pulled into the dock, the sight was unbelievable, the colors, the beach, the buildings, I was in heaven. We started walking through the Island as we were told the dark and cold history of this place. Goree Island was occupied by Dutch and later by the French, and it was a large part of the Atlantic Slave Trade, where slaves were held in the esclave maison, and exported literally like goods out of the country. It was the first place in Africa to be settled by Europeans. Through all of its sad history it has grown into a gorgeous island, where most of the residents seem to be living fairly comfortably, compared to most in Dakar.

While we were trying to learn the history of Goree and take in how the slave trade impacted the country, there was a constant distraction of the women shop owners, asking if we were going to come to their shops, repeatedly telling us their names, repeating ours, and saying “you don’t forget me now, you come to my shop after your tour.” The beginning of our tour was fairly peaceful but as we were leaving the le maison des escalaves something that would be illegal in the States began, stalking and harassing. Literally 6 women would surround you and say. “come to my shop, my sister,”  you’re my sister, you want a pretty necklace. Despite what I thought was will power I got haggled into buying a bracelet. It was getting a little stressful, but we just kept telling them we had to go to lunch and then we would come back, it was the only way to get away from them. We then had lunch at this nice little outside restaurant I had amazing rice with this weird saucy like thing. During lunch little baby kittens stood under our table staring at me with their hungry eyes. I must fragrant an I love animals odor because they sat right under my chair and stared up at me the entire time, who knew that cats could beg. I had such a hard time not feeding them, but I knew if I did they would never go away, and they could be really sick, so not the safest idea :/.

As we finished our meals, the women were lingering outside of the restaurant and literally waiting for us, the surrounded us and said “my sister, my friend you come to my shop, saying our names, mainly our seneglese names Koddu Koddu you promised you would come to my shop, you don’t like me, and again we had to just deter them for a little while longer, by saying after we swim, after we swim. More women approached us, and we probably told 13 women we would visit their shops, the worst idea ever. We then headed to le plage to go swimming.

The beach was full of beautiful, skinny women, and adorable children. We stripped to our bathing suits and headed for the water. Keep in mind for some reason Senegalese people don’t really know how to swim, including Pape. It was the funniest thing ever, he would freak out if we went to far, and if he couldn’t touch, he is just so darn cute. While we were swimming some boy started throwing dead fish at us, and like little girls we all screamed and swam away, fueling his torture, haha it was pretty amusing, but then Pape started to get mad and way like heeyy booooy (can’t really explained how he said) but the boy listened instantly, I think it might have meant something else, but just sounded like hey boy, it my favorite because of the way he says it. But once again Pape saved our lives. We mingled with all of the Senegalese people, who are by far the kindest people I have ever met. This 4-year-old little girl started swimming with us, and I was throwing her in the air and she was the cutest thing ever (parents no where in sight), until she proceeded to pants Emily, in front of all these teenage girls and boys, haha they got a kick out of it. The ocean was absolutely amazing and we had soo much fun with Pape, words can’t even begin to explain how much fun we were having. As we were in the water we could see our new Senegalese sisters lurking near by close by waiting for us to ascend. The minute we left the water we were again surrounded, and mistakenly again told them we would come, requiring that we fulfill our promise. We layed on the beach for about 20 minutes, and thinking that my 4^th application of sun screen that day, would protect me, wrong again, the burn afterwards, killer I tell you.

            Anyways we then went to get to ice cream and were literally swarmed by the women, I am not even joking like 15 women all trying to get us to come to their shops. They kept saying “did you forget me, you promised, how could you forget your sister.” We all proceeded with the separate ladies that we each promised the most. Unfortunately the lady that stalked me the most, did not have very good things, and was trying to get me to buy everything. I told her I only had a little bit of money, and Pape tried to help me haggle, but then the lady started screaming wolof profanities at Pape, because she couldn’t stand that he knew what was acceptable to pay.

All of the women hated that we had Senegalese people with us, because they wanted to manipulate us in anyway they could. We literally were being pulled by the arms between these women to come to their shops, despite the fact we told them we spent all our money. The kept saying just to look just to look, and then of course wouldn’t let you leave until you bought something. They would really get into our heads by saying, what you don’t like my face, you don’t like me, you promised, we have made no money today, you will help us so much. It was very overwhelming there was no escape. They tried to trade for our bags, the earrings in our ears, our necklaces, anything. One lady spent forever trying to convince me to give her my timbuk 2 bag, she saw a fingernail file in my bag and I showed her what it was, gave it to her in hopes of getting away, while she did leave me alone the others did not. I had only the smallest amount of money left in my hand, and one lady sold me a necklace that she tried to sell for double the price earlier. Seriously the most overwhelming experience any of has ever been through, we just wanted to run, and leave the island. One lady seriously chased Emily down and tried to take the tiny silver earring from her tragus piercing. She kept saying just try just try, while Emily attempted to run away and say I can’t take it out. I finally grabbed her by the hand and yelled “NO MERCI” to the lady, and she got sooo mad at me and yelled very loudly in a language I couldn’t understand. It was insanity.

            What a shame it is that we went to an island to learn about history, and to try to understand how slavery will forever be a part of this island, it could have truly been a humbling and emotional experience, but instead we were overwhelmed and exhausted by being seriously stalked and harassed by these women.  The one thing at the end of the day that makes me realize that the women have good hearts, and their intentions may be pure is the one lady that Alisha traded a toy triceratops man for a beautiful bracelet because she wanted a toy for her children. She was willing to sell a beautiful piece of art, to bring a smile to her babies’ faces.

            All in all I can still stay that the trip was remarkable, astonishing, despite the hell of the last hour. You really have to take every experience here and analyze why things are the way they are.