Les Aventures Sénégalaises: Shell Island Love

The last stop of our extremely long day of tours (so long that it has taken me weeks to upload pictures and tell you all about it haha) was the village of Joal-Fadiouth. Joal-Fadiouth is located south-east of Dakar - pretty far down there, I was surprised that we could get there in such a short amount of time - and is at the end of the petite côte of Senegal. Joal is part of the mainland, and Fadiouth is an island connected to the mainland only by a long bridge. There are actually several small islands, and they are all made mostly of seashells! Therefore, Fadiouth is also known as Shell Island. There are also big groups of mangroves growing in the mixture of salt and fresh water where fish, birds, and other wildlife reside (the guide said hyenas... not sure how that is possible since there wasn't really land, it was just water and trees, but... *shrug*).

Besides being made mostly of seashells, Shell Island is an interesting location because 90% of the population is Catholic and the residents are predominantly Serer (one of the smaller ethnic groups found in Senegal). Therefore, my Wolof greetings were not quite as helpful here, you could buy full-on liquor in some of the shops, and there were a ton of pigs running around the island. There was also a pretty Catholic church, a mixed Muslim/Catholic cemetery on a separate island, and many other statues and tributes to the Catholic faith. Overall, the island was quite picturesque, and a very interesting melange of people, animals, traditions, religions, and languages all living harmoniously together.

Other interesting facts about Joal-Fadiouth:

Léopold Sédar Senghor, the first president of Senegal, was born in Joal. Although we didn't see it, wikipedia just told me that you can visit his birthplace which carries the name Mbind Diogoye, "Lion's Mansion" in Serer.
The first missionary that died in Senegal is buried in the cemetery here.
Our guide pointed out the burial site of an African American woman in the cemetery - serious mixture of cultures going on here.
The water surrounding the islands is mostly very shallow, so when the tide goes out, a big open space appears surrounding the bridge and kids gather here and play soccer.
Seashells are used in local architecture and many local crafts - I picked up a few shells for a souvenir - I'm pretty sure they won't be running out of them any time soon!

Climbing into the pirogues... slightly scary! They were very narrow!

This was our guide, he was pretty awesome. He did the whole tour in English and then in French, and that was a great little French listening exercise. His favorite phrases: "Shell island love. Shell island dream."

Shell island from afar

So our guide said that the Serer used to store their food in these little huts, and they would cook it in/near them also. But there used to be a lot of fires (duh) so they don't use them anymore.

Now they serve as an interesting reminder of the past.

The main, big mosque that the Muslim residents of the area attend.

This is the mixed Catholic/Muslim cemetery. It was very beautiful.

Muslim grave sign

Crosses and signs mixed together

Bodies covered in shells

It's really sad how dirty this island is. Might make a good volunteer project to clean it up. Don't know if the locals would keep it up though... right now it doesn't seem like they mind the trash.