Jazz Fest! Woo hoo! Even though I sadly had to miss the
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival I was able to get my down home late night dancing fill in St. Louis, Senegal at the jazz fest there.
St. Louis (pronounced Sant loohee) is the old french colonial capital of Senegal and French West Africa. So its got a pretty unique vibe and architecture. For some reason it reminds of French/African
Duluth, MN. Its in the north of the country near Mauritania and has two islands and lots of bridges, beaches, and a huge market. I stayed with this British guy named Tim who is working for the Belgium in Senegal. His apartment was right in the middle of the big market.
I hadn't ever really kicked it with Belgians before but I had a great time with Alexandra, Francois, Michelle, and
Lucia (not Belgian). The language situation there was awesome, slipping between English, French, and Spanish like we were all refined Europeans.
We were supposed to stay with these chill dudes Dev and Marco in some Mauritanian tent but phone trouble got in the way, still we kicked it with them and saw some chill music.
Probably the coolest part of the weekend I do not have photographed. It was the 11-2am bar scene in St. Louis. Awesome African
bands, with tons of drums really loud and all of the Senegalese favorites, everybody
dancing (I'm getting better every time I go out to dance Senegalese style). Dancing Senegalese, for me, is a lot of imitation, courage, and laughs. I always have fun. This is at the festival itself which was sort of a let down, we only went one night.
Life at AMLD is good, back in Ngor, the internet stinks at my house but there is enough for this one post. Funny story, so Leanna and Ben were at Ben's family's house in Keur Massar and they were eating, watching tv and they just told the fam that I was in St. Louis, and then 30 seconds later, there is the news story on the local RTS 1 channel about the festival and there was a clip of me. Basically now I am a celebrity. Just kidding. But seriously no one has ever called me and been like "you're on tv!" before, pretty sweet. Alright, PEACE yalls.
I hadn't ever really kicked it with Belgians before but I had a great time with Alexandra, Francois, Michelle, and Lucia (not Belgian). The language situation there was awesome, slipping between English, French, and Spanish like we were all refined Europeans.
We were supposed to stay with these chill dudes Dev and Marco in some Mauritanian tent but phone trouble got in the way, still we kicked it with them and saw some chill music.
Probably the coolest part of the weekend I do not have photographed. It was the 11-2am bar scene in St. Louis. Awesome African bands, with tons of drums really loud and all of the Senegalese favorites, everybody dancing (I'm getting better every time I go out to dance Senegalese style). Dancing Senegalese, for me, is a lot of imitation, courage, and laughs. I always have fun. This is at the festival itself which was sort of a let down, we only went one night.
Life at AMLD is good, back in Ngor, the internet stinks at my house but there is enough for this one post. Funny story, so Leanna and Ben were at Ben's family's house in Keur Massar and they were eating, watching tv and they just told the fam that I was in St. Louis, and then 30 seconds later, there is the news story on the local RTS 1 channel about the festival and there was a clip of me. Basically now I am a celebrity. Just kidding. But seriously no one has ever called me and been like "you're on tv!" before, pretty sweet. Alright, PEACE yalls.
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