Team Roeckoe in Senegal @HelloSenegal@social.roeckoe.be

2 months in now! Time keeps flying by but we try to make the most of it and live in the 'now'.

Stien and Dries ate/drank something bad during our stay, and suffered from some severe stomach issues the past days. It seems to be stabilising again now ... to some extend it's surprising it took about 2 months for it to happen 🙂

'Family time' might sound strange, but truth be told - it's not always easy to find the balance living together with other people in the house. So it felt really good to just be out and about with the four of us, not having to justify actions or discuss everything.

Last weekend, we spent two days a little further down south - near Palmarin and Djiffer. A very nice and quiet environment, with some very welcome family time with the four of us.

Yesterday we ate our first chicken which we raised ourselves. Tasty for sure, yet sparking some thoughts about meat consumption and how it differs here compared to home.

Today was the first time I (Dries) got to prepare the Ataya tea ritual for some of our friends. Felt quite nice that they let me do it, since normally we (the white ppl or toubabs) would be regarded as guests and there would be no way we’d be preparing tea ourselves.

Chickens are sold at 2500 CFA a piece at the moment, unless someone buys larger quantities at once.

After leaving our pen, they were transported to the defeatherer, who charged 100 CFA / chicken to be processed (intestine and feather removal).

Today we processed our first chicken orders.
Hopefully it wasn’t traumatising for Roos and Stien ... 42 dead chickens in one go was quite the sight.

The filtered water is still very drinkable for us, no major bowel issues so far.
It’s the tap water (eau de robinet) which is to avoid ... although it is drinkable, it does mess up our European bodies.

When temperatures rise above 35 degrees, we consume about 10L of drinking water a day.
Right now we’re making the transition from mineral ‘Kirène’ water to filtered water. A 10L Kirène bottle costs us 1000CFA (€1,50). A 10L filtered water refill costs us 200CFA (€0,30).

Today a new batch of 150 baby chicks arrived. We’ll start selling our other batch within a week ... let’s see how that goes.

Fishing has become really hard for local fishermen ever since large Chinese boats started emptying the seas here. It’s a very disturbing situation, impacting many local people and families.

Yesterday we went to see the launch of a large pirogue. When we arrived the boat was still being constructed, so we saw most of the making process - glad the boat made it to the sea! Let’s hope it brings home plenty of fish for the family.

Last week was rather quiet, noting too spectacular - mostly finding balance in our new social constellation. Since Ibrahima lives with us, it’s not always straight forward to manage expectations.

When talking about this with our Muslim friends later on, it was clear we were overthinking things and should just let people be and do their thing as they please.
Again, an interesting cultural difference ... as situation in which we might feel uncomfortable or offended, but it clearly was not the case in local culture.

The feast afterwards had an odd twist to it, it felt (to us) like a showoff party with a table filled with bottles of liquor and wine. Later on, food was either chicken or pork.
We rarely see ppl drinking alcohol or eat pork here, so it felt a little strange that when it’s a Christian feast this turned out to be ‘normal’.

The mass was nice, a good balance between ‘formal and tradition’ and local interpretation. A super nice Senegalese choir (which filled half the church) and a pastor who addressed the children in a good way.

Yesterday we were invited to a communion. We first went to church, afterwards joined the ‘grand feast’. It was the first Christian thing we attended (most of our other friends are Muslim) ... and it was somewhat ‘odd’;

‘The boutique’ remains a fascinating shop. They have just about anything you might need to live here. Nothing is priced, but there are unwritten price conventions. Also, we always discover something new when we’re there.