Goree

Happy New Year.  I ended up going to the party but sleeping most of the time because every time I moved I felt like I was going to die.  However I woke up this morning and felt fine so we were off to visit Goree Island.  All the Americans and a few Senegalese students met in front of the school and then took the wonderful taxis to the ferry.  We thought that it left at 1 so we arrived around 12 only to find out that the ferry doesn't leave until 2.  To waste time some of us went into a small shop and looked around.  We had our first experience with haggling.  They really expect you to haggle everything.  I got some sunglasses because mine broke and a few postcards.  We then spent the rest of the waiting time inside the ferry station, trying to sleep, and just pass the time.  Finally we got on the Ferry and made our way to Gorree.  The Island was absolutly beautiful and of course my camera died as soon as the boat docked.  After fighting passed a lot of people trying to sell us items the group of us got to a small outdoor restaurant and ordered food and sodas.  It took nearly 2 hours before we were all finished and started our tour by a large baobab tree.  I have decided, being a dendro geek and all, that baobob trees are easily my favorite trees ever.  We learned that they are very spiritual trees and are sometimes carved out (since they are hollow in side) and babies and people that have passed away are put inside to be blessed by the spirits.  They can be 28 feet in diameter and 80 feet tall.  They can go 30-40 years without water, i don't know if that was made up, but it was pretty impressive.  We visited the castle and went into the slave house.  Goree was the main island of the slave trade, so we visited where they were kept.  It was really depressing to see how small the cells were.  The men had it the worst, we fit about 15 people in their cell and i felt like i was going to throw up and that cell held 20 full grown men and lived there for a while.  The nicest was for the virgin women who had a toilet in their cell and everything.  We then all walked up to the fort where there were these massive guns that could shoot over 6 miles.  They were built because there were so many countries that wanted control of the island, but they were only used once to shoot an English ship mistakenly that was full of gold.    We then visited a painter named Prince who made sand painting from sands that were found throughout Senegal.  The artistry was amazing on his pieces that he proudly displayed.

The sun was setting and the we wanted to catch the next ferry out so our group traveled back down to the beach.  For the little time we had before the boat arrived, me and a couple of other people collected some sea glass that littered the shore.  I was still not feeling the best and we were so tired from the sun and walking all afternoon so me and Casey skipped dinner and fell asleep.