There were three of us who traveled by taxi from the SIL Center to the
port where we would board the ferry. We had quite a bit of luggage, since one
would be staying in the Casamance for a month or two and was also taking some
things for others. Getting three of us, plus all of our luggage into the
four-passenger car that served as our taxi took some doing. One suitcase ended
up by the door on the backseat, and each of us carried one of our smaller bags
on our laps. Fortunately, the ride to the port was not overly long.
I had a suitcase that I wanted to check, plus a roller bag, a computer
bag, and my pillow, all of which I intended to keep with me as hand luggage.
First stop was the baggage check. That was pretty straightforward. My suitcase
weighed in at 13kg, and that figure was scrawled on the back of my ticket. Next
we went to billing, where a lady converted what was written on the back of our
tickets into an amount that we had to pay. From there, we proceeded to the
cashier, who collected $1.80/kg of checked luggage. I didn’t have exact change,
nor did the cashier apparently, so I was instructed to come back a bit later to
collect the 35 cents still owing to me. Instead, I proceeded to the next stop
and just let him keep the change.
Next we showed our tickets to gain access to the room where we would
wait to be allowed to board the ferry. But we had no more than sat down there
than the doors opened and people began moving toward the boat, so we got up and
took our belongings in the direction of the “on” ramp. Once inside, tickets
were again checked, and the passengers moved through a door to the left to a
set of stairs that led up into the interior of the ferry. I, however, got special
treatment because I was carrying more than one bag. I was allowed to keep my
computer bag, but I was required to part with my roller bag and pillow. I
explained that I needed two pillows—which was why I had brought my own
along—but I got no sympathy from the man who insisted that I could take only
bag with me. Finally, I had to get what I needed out of the roller bag and cram
it into my computer bag to keep with me. I didn’t even want to think about how
dirty my pillow case would be when I retrieved it after it was put with the
other baggage.
I had been booked into a “cabin of 8” for the trip; this cabin had
eight narrow beds, one of which was mine for the night. Tim, my traveling
companion who had flown down from England for this workshop, graciously gave me
his pillow to supplement the one in my bed, thus allowing me to breathe
adequately to sleep. Thus, I was able to get a good night of sleep.
After finding our bunks, Tim and I made our way onto the upper deck,
where we sat watching the other port activity until it was time to begin our
journey. It was 8:13 on my phone, only 13 minutes after the promised departure
time, when the ferry began to move away from the dock and we were underway. By
then it was dark and the breeze was cool enough to be uncomfortable, so I went
down to my bed, read for a short while, and then lay down to sleep. I dozed a
bit, but my body wasn’t really ready for sleep yet at 9:00—maybe I’m not quite
adapted to the local time yet after all—so I turned my light on and read for 45
minutes or so before trying again. I got plenty of sleep that night because
there was nothing else to do really.
I awoke before dawn and wandered up to the deck, but it was so dark
that I could see nothing apart from the wake the ferry was creating, so I
returned to my bunk and drifted in and out of sleep for another hour or two
until some of the other occupants of our cabin began to wake up as well. Tim
and I headed up to the back of the boat at 7:00 am, having been told that
coffee and croissants would be available there at that time.
It was still mostly dark and pretty breezy, and I was glad I had my
jacket. Slowly the darkness gave way to dawn as we turned to leave the ocean
and enter the Casamance River. We had one stop before reaching our final destination:
Carabane.
As we continued on our way, I kept my eyes open for dolphins, having
been told by everyone who heard that I was making this trip on the ferry that
the highlight of the trip was watching the dolphins as they jumped out of the
water. But alas, none were to be seen. I contented myself with photographing
the gull-like birds that were fishing in the ferry’s wake. I took a number of
still shots, then put my tablet—which doubles as my camera—away in my bag. Then
all at once, a novel idea popped into my head: Why not shoot video of the
birds? That would be a much better memory of them fishing than the still shots
I had taken that, based on what I could see on my tablet’s screen, hadn’t
turned out all that well. So I took my tablet back out of my bag and headed to
the rear rail once more.
A few moments after I began videoing the birds, some dolphins appeared
a bit to the side of the wake. So I adjusted where I was aiming my tablet and
got some video of the dolphins in the same clip. I was glad to have seen them,
as apparently they are not spotted on every trip. The video is too big to upload, onto the blogger, but I can send out via google Drive.
A dolphin in the waves
A few hours later, we arrived at the dock in Ziguinchor (or Zig for
short). We had to wait for some time to disembark, as the vehicles that were on
board were unloaded first. When we did get off, I went to pick up my roller bag
and pillow, which had been “confiscated” as I embarked. The pillow was there,
but the roller bag was not. After inquiring of one of the staff, I was told
that it would be taken into the building later along with the other baggage,
and that I could pick it up there.
So we made our way off of the ferry and into a very large room, where
we awaited a “green light” to move next door to claim our bags. The baggage
handlers had a lot of items to unload from the boat. We watched as cartloads of
bags were wheeled into the part of the building next to the room where we were
waiting. Finally, the door connecting the two rooms was opened, and we were
allowed to search for our bags.
The waiting room next to the baggage claim
The bags had been spread out all over the room next door, and all of
the passengers had to navigate over or around lots of other bags before finding
their own. It took a short while to find our bags, but in the end, they were
all there. We then had to take our bags out of the building and to the guard at
the gate 50 yards away. There the name on each person’s ticket was compared to
the names on the pieces of luggage they were trying to take out of the
entrance/exit gate. After having verified that we were the correct owners of
the luggage we had with us, we were allowed to exit to the street.
The port of Ziguinchor
David was there to meet us, and he got us into a taxi that would take
us to the places where we would be staying—Tim at an apartment owned by a
mission group and I at David & Janet’s house. Actually, we just dropped off
Tim’s bags at the apartment where he’ll be staying, and he then came along to
David & Janet’s, since they had prepared a meal for us. That meal was very
welcome because I had not eaten or drunk anything for more than 18 hours by
that point.
I am grateful for David & Janet’s hospitality, which I expect to
enjoy for the next two days, as we plan to leave Zig (Ziguinchor) to travel to
the workshop location on Monday morning. Unfortunately, I did not think about
the fact that there would be consequences to having exposed my face to the sun
all morning. It was chilly enough with the breeze that I had kept my jacket on
the whole time, and I certainly hadn’t thought about sunburn. Now, however, I
have a very red face, which may prove to be quite painful when I wake up in the
morning.
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