Day 2. The dance festival. By Mafer

     On Saturday I woke up early; I usually can’t sleep until late and the music and laugh of some women woke me up.  I had slept perfectly; a huge storm lowered the temperature early in the morning.  When I went down, I saw the women that were laughing and was amazing to see that they had music and were singing and dancing while cooking.  There were like ten women, cooking in big pots some orange and green food than later I realize was delicious.

     Since I was the only one awake, Camille invited me to join him to bring some food to the school of the church. There I met Nima Coly, a tall, slim, beautiful Senegalese lady that instantly became my friend. I can’t speak French - which is causing me some communication trouble with the people here; but I’m doing my best to learn – so she tried to teach me Diola, the language of the region.  It is very difficult for me to remember all the expressions, but something like “Cazumei” is “How are you?” and “Cazumei kub” is “I’m fine”.  She also taught me that “Carabú?”is “What is your name?”and you answer “Carasom (your name)”.  I don’t know how it is really written, but it sounds like this; I hope it's fine.

     When I came back everybody was already awake and having breakfast. Half an hour later we went to the dance festival. Besides, they were celebrating the inauguration of a square dedicated to Émile Badiane, a former leader of Casamance. It was very interesting that for this festivity, the people from different religions get together and pray each of them to their god - that as they say, is the same with a different name – for the peace of Casamance.  We saw again the typical dances from the villages of Casamance, with the hairy character and the women, part of the dance communities invited us to dance.  

I found Nima again, and it was quite funny that she asked me if she can take a picture of me, apparently I am weird (let’s say exotic, haha) here, they don’t usually see brunettes. After that, we had a beer in a small and not that nice bar, a local beer called “La Gazelle”, a super cheap but not that tasty beer. Then, we went to a parade and more dances, related to the same festival.  People are so friendly here, they all ask you how you are and your name; and they are always smiling. 

     At night we went to a Disco, or that is what we thought, but apparently it was also a party of the church, since all the priests were there. It was amazing to see the people from Casamance dancing, the music was super energetic, and everyone moved so naturally and beautiful. Is like the sound of drums run in their veins. We stay there until almost five, having a lot of fun.