Zach’s Travels

After an email from my mother saying I need to update my blog about my trip to Touba, I’ve decided to overcome my brief plague of laziness and actually write something.  That and I’m currently sitting in my room not doing much of anything else.

We left last Wednesday afternoon – myself, Doucoure, Baye Fall, Amadi, Madjigen.  I was originally told we were going to be taking a bus, but at the last minute learned that Baye Fall was driving his car.  I didn’t know Baye Fall had a car up until this point, but was happy to be taking a car instead of being cramped on one of those tiny little busses.

My happiness ended once Baye Fall started to actually drive.  Within the first few minutes I was flashbacking to my most recent driving experience with my grandmother – sharp turns, quick lane changes, random speed changes, continual fear of this being the end.  This, of course, combined with the general driving environment of Senegal, where driving lanes are really recommendations and solid lines that, while in American would mean “do not pass,” take on the meaning of “I think you can beat that oncoming bus of people that is only 100 yards away and traveling at a speed as fast as you.”  I tried to check our speed, but the speedometer was broken.

And then it started to rain, both outside and inside the car.  Drip. Drip. Drip.  At this point I’m actually having a great time in the car because I just couldn’t stop imaging the scene as though it were a movie.  Africa road trip.  Five people in one small car.  Random white, English speaking American sitting bitch as it rains and the car begins to leak.

And then, true to the screenplay being written, we crashed into a tree after a classic case of over correction, hydroplaning, and a 360-degree spin across the lane of incoming traffic.  It was one of those things where you’re spinning, you see the tree, and the only thing that pops into your head is “shit.”

Everyone was fine.  Doucoure immediately turned back to me to make sure I was alright, probably due to the fact that he had been threatened by everyone at the Goree Institute with death if anything happened to me.  But what happened next just absolutely shocked me.  I thought the trip was over. Cancelled.  But instead everyone got out of the car, we grabbed our bags, and Baye Fall began to drive the car back to the last city while the rest of us waited to catch a bus the rest of the way to Touba.  No more than 5-10 minutes had passed between the car crash and our waiting for a bus.  No mourning the loss of the car. No phone calls. It was just a car - certainly not something worth stopping our trip over.

So there we were, standing on the side of the road in the pouring down rain trying to catch a bus – an impossible task since everyone and their mom was heading to Touba at this time.  But while we stood there, huddled together under a tree, I couldn’t help but start to chuckle, once again, at the sheer absurdity of the situation.  Doucoure noticed and began to laugh himself, saying, “Hey.  At least now you have good story.”  And then all of us were laughing, drenched, and Madjigen asked, “Are you happy?”, one of the few inside jokes we all shared and I realized that I was remarkably happy to be standing on the side of a random road in Africa in the pouring down after just having crashed into a tree.

Part II coming tomorrow.