Toubab Dialaw

I spent this past weekend at Toubab Dialaw with everyone from the CIEE. It is about a 45 minute trip outside of Dakar, although it took us well over two hours to get there (and back) thanks to traffic. Toubab Dialaw is this great artist colony right on the beach. It was paradise. The beach was beautiful, the hotel was amazing, and we met tons of great people.

We got to the hotel around noon and settled into our rooms. The rooms had mosquito nets and shower curtains, which was very exciting as my house (and most of the houses that CIEE kids are staying in) doesn't have these. After putting our things away, we headed down for lunch and then to the gorgeous beach. I spent a lot of time resting on the beach this weekend reading and hanging out. The people in Senegal are very friendly, so I talked to a lot of random musicians and artists while laying on the beach.

We also got to take some classes while we were at Toubab Dialaw. I chose to take dance and batiking. They were both so much fun! At batiking they gave us stencils and we got to make some really awesome tapestries. Later on in the evening was dance class, where we did traditional Senegalese dance. That was among the most fun I have had since I got here. I really loved it, and now I have signed up for a weekly class through school.

Overall it was really nice to just spend a relaxing weekend by the beach, reading, swimming, and napping.