Toubabs in Saint-Louis

4th of July.
Senegalese people call white people "Toubabs." We hear it several times a day. Yesterday, a woman leaned out of a bus, patted joe on the head and said, "Bonjour, toubab." We are constantly amazed by how nice everyone is here. Children stop us on the street to shake the toubabs hands, everyone waves at us, etc.
We are now in Saint-Louis, Senegal; a city on the North Atlantic Coast, near the border with Mauritania. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city is on an island in the Senegal River. It was the French administrative capital of French Colonial Africa for 200 years. It is beautiful and the architecture is picturesque but also looks like it is falling apart. The food here is great - all over Senegal, we have been impressed by how good the food is. The hot sauce is incredibly, mouth-burning, too, which is fantastic! In Saint-Louis, we are staying at a beautiful hotel on the river- La Louisiane. We are currently the only guests. When we arrived, a Dutch family traveling with their teenage daughter for 2 weeks (and all by public transportation- they are an inspiration to us!) was also there. We drove north from the southern Petit Cote to Saint-Louis 2 days ago. We paid a driver 180 dollars for the 4 hour cab ride (Felipe Orrego told us that we were going to have to get a driver in West Africa but we did not take him seriously at the time, we thought we were hard core public transport travelers, but the busses here go so slow and look so packed!). We still have not braved public transport, but are thinking we might try it next week when we go back to Dakar to fly out to Mali.
Saint-Louis is famous for its Jazz Festival every spring. We missed it but are going to see a jazz show tonight. It will be the first time we are not in bed by 10 in a week! Happy 4th of July!
- Erica, Saint-Louis, Senegal