Nairobi

 I arrived at Nairobi airport early in the evening with lot of foreigners ready for their safari games. A local friend took me to Marble Arch Hotel where my Kenyan experience started. The hotel was just in downtown and although the sound of a near music was enticing me a lot, the scary reputation of this big city along with the heavy security measures, south-African style, discouraged me to go out and enjoy my first African night...such a pity!
Nairobi, as most of African capitals, has many interesting things to see and do but you really need a local guide who take you to the most interesting spots. We only visited the Karen Blixen Museum which is nice and interesting. This danish woman author of Out of Africa (that became a film with R.Redford ) and other books lived in this marvellous house from 1917 until 1931 when after she divorced from her husband she returned to Denmark because her Coffe plantation was not successful at all. The house interior is quite interesting with some original old furniture (some of it had been sold when she got bankrupt) and some not original received as a present from the Out Of Africa movie production company. However what really impressed me was the marvellous garden, with its huge old trees and colorful flowers.
Nairobi is a chaotic city, mostly affected by huge traffic jam and sadly polluted, but it also seems a vibrant, frantic city where you can find plenty of small African restaurants (where you can eat with a few thousands of shillings), many pubs and also many sandwich bars. No doubt that after 10pm the city center gets desert and most of tourists rush back to their hotels or to their favourite disco-pub protected by a strong security service. I do hope I can visit it one more time with a reliable kenyan friend.

A taste of Kenya

Before leaving I was asking myself if I would have enjoyed in Kenya as much as I did in Senegal, if I could feel the same emotions. During this trip I realized that this was a wrong doubt because you can not compare Kenya to Senegal as much as you would not compare Italy to Finland. Both are in Africa or in Europe, but each of these countries has its special "taste", its culture shock, its favourite meal, its traditions, in other words its good and bad sides. The tourist will continuously complain of local crap food, of light shortage, of road potholes, of hawkers while the traveller, the real one will try as much as possible to find the best in every situation, even the most difficult, even the annoying. Lets say that in the first part of my short trip I acted as a fucking tourist, while in the second I finally became a real traveller appreciating every drop of energy that Africa let fall in my tongue.

final thoughts

What can I say? I left Italy in the middle of a cold winter with a strong puzzled because I was not returning to Thailand  with its gentle people, delicious food, wonderful landascape and safe atmosphere. Not to mention the crazy atmosphere of Phnom Pen by night where I also have a good local friend. Instead I had very little information of West Africa, my only contact, my friend Yousuf totally unreliable (in fact he didn't answer my phone calls a few days before my departure). Lot of Italian friends telling that I was totally silly to travel to a country inhabited by wild beasts, looters and monkeys. What were I doing? Where where I going? Our new friend Sofia from Norway asked me what were my expectations of this trip and I candidly replied "I had no expectations". No doubt it was a totally positive surprise. The highlight of my vacation were: African people that I met, Senegalese food, Dakar nightlife and Yoff beach, but also the birds' sanctuary of Djoudj, but also Casamance and Bijagos islands. On the other hand I didn't like Gambian frontier police nor some persistant and impolite Gambians, I also disliked Malian food and the terrible means of public transport (bus and septplace) used in this part of the world. I know that's a part of the "African adventure" I also know that locals use them regularly and withmuch less complains, but next time, because there will be a next time, I'll strive toward travelling by a rented/private car. I would be happy if with these posts I was able to transfer you even a tiny amount of the feelings I experienced during these 2 months in Africa.

African women

"Les femmes africaines sont tous belles parce qu'elle sont naturelle"(the African women are all beautiful because they are natural), this is a sentence of our Malian guide Baya Tourè. Everywhere I travelled in West Africa I saw so many beautiful women, not only in the conventional meaning. Of course they are extremely pretty and sensual but also rich of a deep candidness and humanity: Taking care in a effective no frills amazing way, of their children, preparing their meals on the "street kitchens",  cleaning their house, or praying covered with a headscarf during the Magal. In any case more than beautiful they were charming. When I started to chat with some of them they were always open-mind enough not to see any difference between me and them, in other words they were far more friendly and simpler than most of westerners are when talk about Africa and Africans. For all these reasons I do loved African women.

African kids

We often went to the beach of Yoff Tonghor to buy fresh fish and among the many fish cleaners, all of them absolutely professionals, we used to give our fish to a young woman. She worked very well and very fast with her sharp knife with no protection gloves. As usual in Africa, she was working with her nice kid on her back and everytime I tried to smile to him, he started to cry franzily toward the ugly toubab. Carlo told me "it's so strange because African kids never cry". Well, he was absolutely right even during the most difficult, the most unconfortable, the longest trip the few months old babies or small boys travelling with us were stoically silent and bravely relaxed. Yet these kids were along with Thai ones the most  disciplined and well educated I have ever seen in my trips. When we needed any info, a bottle of water or some fruit Ale used to summon one of these kids who immediately, as good soldiers only would do, rushed toward us and in a few minutes fetched us whatever we asked. Why? Because we are older than them and in their great culture older people, WHOEVER they are, deserve respect and obedience. Even those children begging on the roads and exploited by dishonest marabout were extremely polite, educated and lighthearted. Also I am no afraid to say that they are the sweetest and most beautiful children on the earth.

Mon frere Ale

When you arrive for the first time in a new country you often have to cope with some unpleasant if not harsh surprise; the taxi driver who overcharge you, persistant sellers, small theft and so forth. No need to complain about it, that's part of a new travel and of a new experience, in other words it's the toll we usually have to pay to get into a new experience. A useful instrument that can help us is to be assertive enough toward learning, or picking up, as much as possible of the local language, as a general rule. But to learn Wolof is not the easiest task of the world although I enjoyed to speak a few sentences, anyway at least this time everything was much easier than in other new country I was and the reason has a name: Ale Mboup from Kaolack. I didn't know what to expect of Senegal, I had just talked a few times in my Italy with Ale (who is the brother of another Senegalese friend). Yet I didn't know until which point I could trust him BUT I soon, step by step, discovered that Ale was much more than a friend, he became a good, sincere, strong, reliable and positive frere (brother). He taught me some wolof words, he patiently answered my many questions, he introduced me to Senegal and Senegalese way of life, to the differences between Italian (he's been living in Italy for 20 years..)and Senegalese culture, he followed me and endured a very tiring and difficult African travel. On the Bijagos islands he endured not only an allergic powder allergic attack, not only the lack of Internet connection nor mobile reception. But above all he endured the absence of his beloved wife Djenaba. Djeredjef mon frere Ale, thanks with all my heart!

Iles du Saloum

Our last excursion was on the Iles du Saloum which is the estuary between the rivers Sine and Saloum on the north of the Gambia. Here are a huge number of small isles, mangrove trees, baobabs, fromagere trees and lot of bolongs (swamp canals) with a mixture of salt and sweet waters. This is another wonderful wildlife sanctuary inhabited by over 250 birds species (herons, pelicans, terns) but also wild pigs, snakes, monkeys, manatees, dolphins, hyenas and turtles. We found quite easily an unconfortable "SeptPlace" ( collective taxi) where I had a nice talk with Mami Sonko, a pretty girl living in Dakar. We then searched in Toubacouta for a pirogue to take a visit of this beautiful park. Toubacouta seemed a quite desert hamlet, with many artesanal huts, almost no tourists. Probably the end of February means that the tourist season is almost finished anyway we spent lot of time to bargain a pirogue ballade at a decent price which was around 15.000CFA (something more than 20 euro) despite the first 30.000CFA request. The ballade was nice althought we lost the best time which is the early morning, we skipped the birds' isle (because we wished to finish the tour before the sunset, when the birds return to this isle) and headed to Ile de Coquillage (shell's isle). This Isle is wonderful, entirely made of shells, where there are beautiful beaches, clear waters, many trees and some huge baobabs, one of them used by the local sorcerers.
Returning to Kaolack was a completely different task, really difficult to find a minubus which stopped too many times and finally was even fined (thus a longer stop) because loaded some passengers from a local garage, stealing work to the SeptPlace.