Jewel – Page 5 – Jewel's Travel Adventures

Cairo’s Mazaher Ensemble: The Zar Musicians

Cairo offers an opportunity for visitors to see Egypt’s remaining vestiges of an East African practice known as a zar ritual. It is no longer legal in Egypt to conduct zar rituals; however, it is still possible to see performances of the music used for them.

About the Zar Ritual

A zar is a spirit which is believed to inhabit people, especially women. When the woman’s life is in balance, she and the spirit can coexist in peace. However, sometimes the woman begins to suffer stress, become irritable, or fall ill. In those cases, in order for her to recover, it may be necessary to appease the zar spirit. The purpose of a zar ritual is to perform that appeasement.

In a traditional zar ritual in Egypt, a woman would surround herself with other women who are a meaningful part of her life: sisters, cousins, friends, etc. They would sacrifice a chicken, and engage a band of musicians capable of performing the specialty music required for the ritual.

According to tradition, there are many different zar spirits which can inhabit a person. Each such spirit responds to a different song and rhythm. The musicians would perform several different songs, aiming to find the music required to appease the particular spirit that has inhabited the woman. As the music progresses, the participants are drawn into a state of ecstatic dance.

The Mazaher Ensemble

The Mazaher ensemble are among the final zar practitioners in Egypt. Although the law no longer allows them to conduct full zar ceremonies, it is possible to hear them perform concerts of the music that accompanies the ceremonies. I have seen them perform several times at the Makan Theater in Cairo. It is a captivating show, and I always enjoy seeing it again whenever I return to Egypt.

The lead singer, standing in front, is Rayyisah Madiha, often known as Umm Sameh (“mother of Sameh”).

Show Format

The show has varied a bit from one time I’ve seen it to another. The primary segment consists of Cairo zar music, with vocals by Umm Sameh, accompanied by the other women on drums. Another segment I have seen every time is described as a Nubian zar, which features different music and instruments in order to reach the different regional spirits associated with southern Egypt and Sudan.

Other details of the show have varied from one year to the next. For example, when I saw the show in 2016, Sameh performed a solo of Sufi music, but other times when I’ve seen the show he did not do so.

Nubian Zar

Nubia is the region spanning southern Egypt and the Sudan. The Nubian zar uses different instruments from those used for the Cairo-based zar, and the spirits it targets are different.

The tamboura, a type of lyre, is shown in the photo above. It is particularly typical of Nubian music; not only for Nubian zar rituals, but also for secular folk music.

For the Nubian section of the show, one of the musicians picks up the tamboura to play it, as shown by the man seated in the back, wearing the white gallabiya. The belt that the two other men strap around their hips is known as a mangour.

I took this photo of one of the musicians wearing a mangour when watching the show at Makan Theater on February 10, 2016.

The mangour is a percussion instrument constructed from attaching many small goat hooves to a backing of fabric or leather. The men shake their hips in a rhythmic fashion, causing the goat hooves to strike each other, producing a rattling sound.

In the photo below, the men are not only shaking their hips to make noise with the mangour, they are also using handheld rattles.

Posing with the Star

When I saw the show in 2016, Madiha graciously agreed to pose for a photo with me after it was over. It can be difficult to get a photo with her, because of how many people swarm her after the show seeking photos as I did!

About the Makan Theater

The Makan Theater, which hosts the Mazaher Ensemble’s zar music shows, is at 1 Saad Zaghloul St. El Dawaween 11461 Cairo. Their telephone number is +202 2792 0878, and email address is [email protected]. In addition to presenting the Mazaher Ensemble shows, they have also offered other shows of traditional Egyptian music, including Sufi music, Nubian, and more.

To Learn More About Zar

There is a series of three music CD’s that I recommend if you’d like to listen to zar music in your home. Each of these CD’s comes with a different informative booklet with detailed information about zar traditions. If you search for them online, look for the artist name of Awlad Abou al-Gheit:

Zar: Trance Music for Women
Zar 2: Tumboura
Zar 3: Harim Masri

Also, I recommend the book Trance Dancing with the Jinn: The Ancient Art of Contacting Spirits Through Ecstatic Dance by Yasmin Henkesh. Yasmin is a meticulous researcher whom I respect highly.

About My Egypt Travels

For several of my trips to Egypt, I have traveled with Sahra Kent, through her Journey Through Egypt program. The Makan Theater is one of the places I have discovered through traveling with her. I highly recommend the Journey Through Egypt program to anyone who is interested in a cultural perspective of Egypt.

Cairo’s El Dammah Theater: Rango Band

In 2016, I went with a group to El Dammah theater in Cairo to see a show featuring top Egyptian-Sudanese musicians playing Nubian music.

About El Dammah

El Dammah is a small black box theater with about 100 seats that features musicians playing authentic traditional music. The organization that operates it is El Mastaba Center for Egyptian Folk Music.

El Dammah presents a show every Thursday night. There are several different musical acts that it rotates through the lineup. So far in my trips to Egypt, I have seen 3 different bands there. One of them was Rango.

El Dammah is located at 30 A El Belaasa St, Abdeen, in downtown Cairo, Egypt. The phone number is +20 115 099 5354, and email address is [email protected].

Rango

The photo at the top of this post shows Hassan Bergamon playing a musical instrument called a rango, which resembles a xylophone. The small version that was played in this show could be called a kamba. It’s a very traditional instrument from the southern part of Sudan. It nearly died out in the 1970’s, but the art has been kept alive. According to our contact at El Dammah, today there are only 7-8 people left in Africa who still know how to play one.

This photo shows up closeup view of the rango:

The musicians also played additional traditional instruments from Egypt and the Sudan. Below, one of the men is holding a rattle in each hand, which is known as the shukh-shaykh.

Below, we can see Hassan Bergamon playing another instrument, the simsimiyya. It is a type of lyre, which resembles a larger, similar instrument known as the tamboura.

The angle of the photo above makes it difficult to see what a simsimiyya looks like. The photo below provides a clearer view. In it, a member of the El Dammah staff holds up two examples of a simsimiyya.

The drummers served a vital role in the show. They were excellent, and worked very well together with the others as an ensemble. It was truly a memorable performance.

The show opened with a performance of songs while everyone listened, then the musicians started recruiting audience members to get up and dance with them. By the end, the event felt more like a party than it did a music performance, but that was part of what made it such an entertaining evening. The quality of the music was definitely world class!

I’m already looking forward to my next visit to El Dammah, to enjoy whatever music they offer the next time I’m in Cairo!

About My Egypt Travels

For several of my trips to Egypt, I have traveled with Sahra Kent, through her Journey Through Egypt program. El Dammah Theater is one of the places I have discovered through traveling with her. I highly recommend the Journey Through Egypt program to anyone who is interested in a cultural perspective of Egypt.

Cairo’s Agricultural Museum: The Wedding Scene

The Agriculture Museum in Cairo, Egypt is a treasure that most tourists visiting Egypt have never heard of, and never been to. It resides inside a former palace, so even the architecture is well worth taking a moment to enjoy. I think maybe the museum opened in the 1950’s, but I could be wrong about that. It’s very kitschy, in a way that I find very appealing! The museum is near the Giza zoo and the Cairo Opera House.

On the ground floor, there is a series of tableaux showing what a rural wedding was like as of the 1950’s. It provides insight into what people wore, and what their customs were surrounding weddings.

Wedding Preparations

Fortuneteller in Agricultural Museum — A fortuneteller casts the stones to view omens for an upcoming wedding.

The above photo shows a fortuneteller casting the stones to view the omens for an upcoming wedding.

In Muslim tradition, weddings do not involve a religious ceremony the way traditional Christian weddings do. Instead, there is a legal contract, which is signed by the men of the two families with witnesses. The photo below shows the men conducting this business.

While the men of the bride and groom’s families complete the contract transaction, the women of the households prepare for the wedding party that will follow.

The tableau pictured below shows a woman bringing a tray of drinks from the kitchen to serve to the other women as they wait.

As the women wait, one of them goes to the roof to the pigeon hut, to select a pigeon to serve for the meal at the celebration.

The photo below shows a belly dancer and a drummer performing for the bride and the women of her family while they wait for the men to be ready for the procession. The dancer, of course, is the one with the most vibrant makeup!

A dancer entertains the bride and her family in this tableau of a wedding at the Agricultural Museum.

The Procession

One of the wedding-related exhibits shows the zeffa (bridal procession) in which the people of a village carry a bride in a howda to the wedding party.

The photo below shows the men leading the zeffa, playing musical instruments and doing balancing tricks. Behind them is a camel carrying a large decorated wooden box known as a howda with the bride sitting inside.

Wedding Procession — Performers lead a wedding procession in this tableau at the Agricultural Museum.

This photo shows a closeup of the camel bearing the front part of the bride’s howda.

The next photo shows the bride inside her howda. This angle of the photo doesn’t show it, but a little boy is inside it with her. His role would be to leave the howda and fetch anything she needs.

Wedding Procession Bride — In this tableau of a rural Egyptian wedding procession, the bride is carried inside a litter.

I have visited the Agricultural Museum several times, and it’s always fun to see it again. In addition to the scenes of rural life, the main building also houses many other exhibits, including farm animals, insects, and more. A separate building is dedicated to exhibits of Syria, referencing a period from 1958 to 1961 when Egypt and Syria banded together to create the United Arab Republic.

About My Egypt Travels

For several of my trips to Egypt, I have traveled with Sahra Kent, through her Journey Through Egypt program. This Agricultural Museum is one of the places I have discovered through traveling with her. I highly recommend the Journey Through Egypt program to anyone who is interested in a cultural perspective of Egypt.

Exploring Nilometers in Egypt

A Nilometer (Nile-o-meter) is a structure in Egypt for measuring how high the annual flood of the river Nile rises each year. Before the 20th century, each year the Nile River would flood in the spring, spreading silt across the land it covered. This inundation brought life to the region, because the silt it deposited enhanced the fertility of the soil.

The government used the Nilometer readings to determine the taxes for that year. If the flood level was measured as low, then taxes that year would be low, due to reduced rich silt deposits and possible drought. If the flood level was medium, taxes that year would be high, because medium was the ideal level. If flood level was high, there would be no taxes because the flood was destructive and people needed to recover.

In my travels to Egypt, I’ve seen 3 different Nilometers. There are others that I have not (yet) had the opportunity to see, but perhaps I’ll get to see them on a future trip! I’ve seen reports that as of today there are fewer than 24 known Nilometers which have been found by archaeologists.

Cairo

The Nilometer in Cairo is on Rhoda Island, a short walk from the Oum Kalthoum Museum. If you visit Cairo, it’s worth a trip to the island to visit both.

Photo copyright 2018 by Jewel. All rights reserved.

This Nilometer is one of the oldest structures in Egypt built after the Arab conquest. The original building at this site was erected in 751 CE, though archaeologists believe there was probably an older Nilometer at this site in Pharaonic times. This initial structure was destroyed by a heavy flood in 861 CE, so the Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil commissioned the current building to replace it.

Although the subterranean portion of the ancient building still stands, its dome was destroyed in 1825 by a nearby explosion. A restoration was created, using a painting by Fredrik Ludvig Nordenas to provide guidance on what the original looked like.

This is the interior of the dome of the Nilometer in Cairo on Rhoda Island, next to the Oum Kalthoum museum. This section was destroyed in 1825 and reconstructed. Photo was taken from surface level looking up into the cupola on February 9, 2017.

The instrument for measuring the water’s height is an octagonal column divided into cubits located in the middle of the square stone-lined shaft. This photo shows the central shaft, as you look down from the street-level entrance:

Today, the tunnels leading from the Nilometer to the Nile are blocked off, and therefore water no longer comes in.

It is possible to descend a flight of stairs into the shaft. There are no handrails along the stairs, so it requires an adventurous spirit to do it! The interior is beautiful.

Kom Ombo

This Nilometer is located at the temple in Kom Ombo, Egypt, a town that lies between Luxor and Aswan. This is one of the temples that Nile cruises stop at, and it’s a very interesting one to tour because it’s dedicated to TWO gods, Horus the Elder and Sobek.

The Nilometer at Kom Ombo is a deep, cylindrical opening into the ground. At ground level, it doesn’t look like much, just a small circular wall.

It has a tunnel at the bottom that reaches outside the temple walls to allow the flood water to come in.

Aswan

I have seen this Nilometer near Aswan from a boat on the river, as we floated past Elephantine Island where it resides. I haven’t yet set foot on the island to see its entrance from above. Archaeologists believe it is the oldest Nilometer in Egypt.

For most of ancient Egyptian history, Elephantine Island was the southern border of the Pharaonic kingdom. For that reason, the flood waters would reach this Nilometer first, before flowing downstream to the rest of the kingdom. It provided early insight into what growing conditions the country as a whole could expect.

This Nilometer at Elephantine Island was mentioned in the novel River God, by Wilbur Smith.

Ones I Haven’t Seen

Someday, I hope to see other Nilometers in Egypt. There’s one in the Nile delta at the ancient city Thmuis, which is near the modern city of El Mansoura. Archaeologists estimate it was build in the 3rd century BCE. I learned about this one from a National Geographic article about it.

The beautiful temple of Isis that resided on Philae Island had two Nilometers. However, in the 1960’s, because of Aswan Dam constructions, about 1/3 of the temple’s buildings became flooded year round. The Philae temple was dismantled and moved to Agilkia Island as part of the UNESCO effort to save temples threatened by the completion of the Aswan High Dam. I don’t know yet whether Philae’s surface-level Nilometer structures were moved and reconstructed when the temple was moved. I have toured Philae about 5 times on my various trips to Egypt, and the guides didn’t point out any Nilometer remnants. Even if they did, it would be only surface level, without the deep hole down into the ground. I’ll ask about it the next time I go.

Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank Wael Mohamed Ali for assisting me with my questions about the Nilometers in the Aswan area. I’ve appreciated Wael’s services on some of my visits to Upper Egypt as a tour guide and a translator. He’s very knowledgeable, and a pleasure to do business with!

Airport Moments of Beauty

We usually don’t think about airports as being beautiful places. And, usually they’re not! But every once in a while, something gives me pause to smile, linger, and appreciate the moment. Here are some I have enjoyed.

Chicago O’Hare, March 16, 2016

An airline crew member plays the piano at Chicago O’Hare on March 16, 2016.

When traveling to California on United Airlines in March, 2016, I stopped to enjoy listening to an airline crew member play the piano at one of the departure lounges. I no longer remember what he was playing, but I remember he was a good pianist, and he gave me a smile!

Chicago O’Hare, Polaris Lounge, October 5, 2017

Entrance to Polaris Lounge, Chicago, O'Hare Airport — United Airlines remodeled its international first class lounge in Chicago O’Hare Airport in 2016-2017, and renamed it the Polaris Lounge. This photo shows the entrance to the new lounge. Taken on October 5, 2017, en route to Senegal.

I flew business class on United on my way to Senegal in October 2017. When I entered United’s new Polaris Lounge on the C Concourse of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, I took a moment to simply appreciate the beauty of the ceiling art. It consists of many twinkling lights, and was designed to give an impression of the night sky. This photo doesn’t do it justice, but it’s the best my phone could produce.

Lisbon, Portugal, November 4, 2017

I saw this rainbow at the airport in Lisbon, Portugal on November 4, 2017 on my way home from Senegal.

Arriving at the airport in Lisbon, Portugal was actually a very miserable experience for me on my way home from Senegal in November, 2017. I was already sad to leave my IBM colleagues and new Senegalese friends all behind.

When I deplaned in Lisbon, I had to stand in 2 different passport control lines and go through security before being allowed to go to the gate for my flight to the U.S. The whole process took well over an hour. It was a relief to finally arrive at my gate. The rainy weather outside echoed my miserable mood. When it was time to board, this rainbow came out, as if to say, “Things will get better from here!” And they did. The rest of my trip, though long, was reasonably comfortable and pleasant.

Chicago O’Hare at Christmas, 2017

Connecting through O’Hare on American Airlines on December 12, 2017, I saw these holiday decorations.

When flying American Airlines on my way home from a business trip to Boston on December 12, 2017, I connected through O’Hare Airport. It was a delight to see that the concourse had been beautifully decorated for Christmas. Although I was tired from a very intense business trip, it made me smile to see it.

Chicago O’Hare, January 11, 2018

One of my favorite airport sites for many years has been the tunnel at Chicago’s O’Hare airport that connects the B concourse and the C concourse. These two concourses are used by United Airlines flights.

This tunnel at Chicago O’Hare airport connects the B and C concourses.

I always enjoy going through this tunnel when making connections. Sometimes, if I have a long layover and the tunnel isn’t too crowded, I’ll walk back and forth through it several times just to get some exercise. I enjoy both the cascading light show and the accompanying background music.

Gorée Island and the Door of No Return (Île de Gorée et la Porte Sans Retour)

Because of Dakar, Senegal’s location on the western tip of Africa as shown on the map above, it served as one of many ports along West Africa used in the trans-Atlantic slave trade from 1536 through 1848. Just off Dakar’s coast is Gorée Island, one of the locations where captured Africans were kept before loading them onto the ships. Its name in French is Île de Gorée. Academic sources differ in their views of how prominent Dakar and Gorée Island were in the slave trade as compared to other West African locations, but most agree that some level of trafficking did occur here. Today, this UNESCO World Heritage site stands to remind us of the atrocities of the African Holocaust.

Barack and Michelle Obama visited Gorée Island with their family in 2013. Nelson Mandela visited it in 1991.

Getting to Gorée Island

I went to Gorée Island on a Saturday, and found that it wasn’t a optimal day of the week to go. Many tour groups go there on the weekends, and consequently the process of touring the island and its historical sites can be a bit chaotic. Some of my coworkers opted instead to go on a Wednesday, and they enjoyed much lower crowd levels.

A ferry boat runs several times a day to take visitors to Gorée Island. On a Saturday, it’s important to arrive at the ferry ticket counter at least 45 minutes before the ferry’s departure time, because the lines to purchase tickets are quite long. If you don’t allow enough time, the ferry might leave while you’re still standing in line waiting to buy your ticket.

Gorée Island, as Seen from the Ferry Approaching It — This is the view of Gorée Island from the ferry on the way there.

Reflecting on History

When the ferry docked, one of the first sights we came to was the Statue of Liberation. France gave this sculpture to Senegal in 2006 as a gift to commemorate the abolition of the slave trade.

Gorée Island, the Statue of Liberation — The Statue of Liberation stands on Gorée Island, just off the coast of Dakar, Senegal.

The House of Slaves (La Maison des Esclaves)

The primary feature that people visit on Gorée Island is the House of Slaves. This is a museum that memorializes the African people who were imprisoned there awaiting their passage to the West. Although the first record of slave trading at Gorée Island dates from 1536, the building that is known as the “House of Slaves” was built in 1776. It is the last remaining such structure on the island.

Some academic sources challenge whether this building was ever actually used for the slave trade. There is also a debate over how many people were shipped out from Gorée Island as opposed to other West African ports. I am not qualified to judge who is correct. Therefore, for purposes of this blog which is about my travels to Senegal, I will describe what the Senegalese people believe about their own history, which is that the House of Slaves was indeed one of the places used as a place to keep prisoners until they could be loaded on ships bound for the Western Hemisphere.

The building is a two-story structure. Wealthy European slave dealers lived with their families on the upper floor, while the captives lived on the ground floor in misery.

Holding Cells

According to the guides at Gorée Island, men were held in one cell, adult women in one, girls in one, and young children in a fourth. The photo below shows the room that was used for the men. Its dimensions are approximately 8 feet (2.6 meters) long by 8 feet wide, and up to 30 men would be crammed into it at once. The men would need to stand or crouch all the time, with not enough room to lie down or sit. The room contains no toilet facilities, and therefore its occupants were forced to live in their own filth.

Gorée Island's House of Slaves, the Men's Room — This room in Gorée Island’s House of Slaves (Maison des Esclaves) was used to hold men awaiting their departure on the slave ships.

Parents were separated from their children. Adult women were held in one room, and young children in a separate cell for children. Young girls were kept in a special room with slightly better conditions than the others. Men would come to that room to select a girl for an evening of sexual assault.

All of the captives were kept chained and shackled, and fed once a day. The unsanitary conditions led to many problems with disease. The narrow windows allowed in very little light.

When I later read claims by some historians that enslaved people were never kept in the Maison des Esclaves awaiting passage to the West, I remembered gazing at the thick walls and narrow windows, thinking at the time how perfectly constructed they were to prevent escape. The architecture definitely brought to mind some sort of dungeon. Historians may be correct that this site hosted less trafficking activity than others in West Africa, but I believe there was some.

Prisoners who attempted to escape or rebel were moved to the “room of the recalcitrants” as punishment. This was a small, damp, windowless room that lay beneath a stairwell. The tour guides said that few made it out alive.

Historians estimate that prisoners were typically kept at the House of Slaves about 3 months before being loaded onto ships.

The Door of No Return (La Porte Sans Retour)

Tour guides at Gorée Island state that this door led to a wooden wharf used for loading the captives onto the slave ships.

According to tour guides, as prisoners were led through this door and onto the walkway to the slave ships, they were shackled in pairs, each with a 3-pound iron ball attached to his or her leg irons. Prisoners who tried to leap off the walkway to escape would drag along the companions that were shackled to them.

A rocky beach (shown below) lies beneath the walkway. According to tour guides, if a prisoner managed to make it to the water, the iron ball would prevent them from swimming to freedom. Still, guides say some people did make the attempt, often choosing suicide as being preferable to the fate that awaited on distant shores.

Closing Thoughts

There are many additional things to visit on Île de Gorée besides its House of Slaves museum. There are small beaches, picturesque colonial buildings, restaurants, and more. However, I did not visit any of these things.

While visiting the House of Slaves, I felt a strong sensation of oppression, of suffering. The last time I felt something like that was when I visited the concentration camp at Dachau, Germany. A feeling that great evil had happened there. I felt a very strong pull to get away, and return to the mainland. Was it lingering spiritual energy of those who suffered there in the past, or simply an overactive imagination? I can’t say. Whichever it was, it was strong enough to draw me to the ferry, without exploring the rest of the island.

Despite the debate by historians on this island’s history and role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, I highly recommend it as a place to visit if you are visiting Senegal. I recommend walking through the House of Slaves, looking at the holding cells with their narrow slits for windows, listening to the tour guides, and gazing out through the Door of No Return. Doing these things brings a strong awareness to the history of the African diaspora that simply reading a textbook does not. It’s a place to reflect, and to honor the memory of those who suffered.

I hope someday to return to Senegal for another visit, and if I do perhaps I’ll return to Gorée Island to see the parts I didn’t visit on this trip.

In case you’re wondering why I was in Senegal for a month, I was there as part of the IBM Corporate Service Corps. You can read more about that here: https://roaming-jewel.com/2017/10/17/ibmcsc/

My Packing Assistants

Whenever I pack for one of my trips, I have help. Here are photos of my assistants. One moment I’ll be alone in the bedroom, placing the empty suitcase on my bed to pack. The next moment, I’ll have at least one assistant, and sometimes more than one.

I can always count on Blaze to help me pack. Once he settles into a suitcase, it’s hard to get him out. If I try to lift him out, he’ll simply plop right back into it.

October 2017, as I was packing for a month in Senegal.

Ashley often glares at me while I’m packing. I think she’s scheming about what kind of trouble she’ll make for my husband while I’m gone.

February 2015, as I was packing for 3 weeks in Egypt.

Blaze is especially fond of the small size of underseater bags. They’re just the right size for him to curl up. Though, perhaps they’re too small for his 14-inch tail.

February 2017 as I was packing for 3 1/2 weeks in Egypt.

Sometimes two of them try to help me at the same time. That’s always interesting.

February, 2016 as I was packing for 3 weeks in Egypt.

Blaze seems to be telling me that he thinks I’m done packing, whether or not I agree.

Ashley is finding my brand-new suitcase interesting. She’s making sure I pack it with some cat hair.

She helped me pack for Morocco in September 2017.

I thought it was a suitcase. But he thought it was a bed or a bathtub!

November 2017, as I was packing for a business trip to Washington, DC.

It appears there’s no room left for my computer….

December 2017, as I was packing for a trip to Boston.

A Terror Threat Warning

In my travels over the years, I’ve visited many places that had experienced issues with terrorism, including London and Paris. I live in a country, the U.S., which has experienced many terror incidents as well.

When I received word that my IBM Corporate Service Corps assignment would be in Senegal, my husband immediately jumped online to investigate safety and security issues. He found that in Senegal, petty crime such as pickpocketing provided reason to be cautious, but violent crime was not a serious problem there.

I felt comfortable with the idea of going to Senegal. I expected it to be a wonderful adventure. (And it was!) Still, it was somewhat disconcerting when a terror threat warning was issued while I was there.

Our First Inkling of a Possible Issue

On October 19, the U.S. government issued a travel warning for citizens visiting Senegal:

The U.S. Embassy advises U.S. citizens to be vigilant when visiting establishments and staying at hotels frequented by Westerners due to a credible threat related to potential terrorist activity in Dakar.

U.S. Embassy personnel are not permitted to stay at seaside hotels in Dakar until the first week of December. U.S. citizens should expect to encounter increased levels of security screening while traveling around Dakar.

Review your personal security plans, remain aware of your surroundings, including local events, and monitor local news stations for updates. Be vigilant and take appropriate steps to enhance your personal security.

The warning was issued while our group was at dinner, and at the time we didn’t have any way of knowing about it. When we returned to our hotel, we noticed that the security measures for entering the hotel compound had been heightened, and we thought it odd, but we didn’t know why. Once we were inside with wi-fi access and checked email, those of us from the U.S. received the above email notification from the U.S. Department of State. Okay, now we understood why hotel security had tightened.

I was concerned, of course, but not frightened. The tone of the alert suggested people should exercise a practical level of caution, but didn’t sound alarming.

Receiving Additional Detail

The next day, we learned a little more. There were unconfirmed reports that security forces had thwarted an alleged extremist plot to target a seafront hotel in the city of Dakar. The reports alleged that three suspects linked to this plot with ties to Al-Qaeda had been arrested in an unnamed country near the Senegalese border, and were being held at an undisclosed location.

These new details did not appear on the U.S. Department of State’s web site, nor was I able to find anything about it in web searches of English-language media. The only articles I could find in web searches of English media were reports saying the U.S. government had issued the ambiguous warning I quoted above and the Canadians had shared it.

It was a bit concerning to learn that the thwarted terrorists had planned to target a seafront hotel, considering the fact that we were staying at a seafront hotel! We sent a note to IBM’s program manager for Corporate Service Corps to ask for an opinion about this, and waited for a response.

What We Did About It

The next day, IBM assembled us for a meeting. IBM Security told us that they had assessed the situation, and had determined that we were not in immediate danger. We would be allowed to stay in Senegal and continue working on our projects. However, we were required to move from our seafront hotel to a different place that was more inland and offered tighter security. We were given only an hour to pack.

IBM Security told us that we could not go to restaurants along the beach, nor could we go shopping at the Sea Plaza mall, which is seafront.

At the time, we were forbidden to tell anyone outside of our group that we were moving, not even the staff at our original hotel. For security reasons, we were also told not to disclose what the contents of our briefing were.

The Lost Weekend

A couple of outings we had planned for the weekend of October 21-22 were canceled for security reasons. I now think of this as The Lost Weekend.

This did affect our morale. We felt kind of imprisoned at our new hotel, since our weekend plans had been canceled. We still had each other, and we tried to make the best of it by hanging out together and working on our job assignments. We enjoyed each other’s company, but we would have preferred to enjoy it having adventures together! We started to explore the neighborhood near our new hotel, and found some restaurants with good food.

Some of us told our families about the terror threat, while others didn’t want to worry them. I did tell my husband. I felt it would be best that he hear about it from me, rather than stumbling across the articles in the international news media. It seemed best to let him know that I was aware, and that IBM Security was involved.

Hotel Stuff

Our original hotel had been a beautiful seafront property with its own private beach. The new one was a dump. The hallways of the new one smelled bad, and the carpets were old. In my room, there was a stain on the floor about two feet long and one foot wide.

The new place’s conference rooms were already fully booked for another group’s meetings, so there were no conference rooms available for our use to work on our projects. We tried working in the hotel bar, which was very noisy and distracting. We tried working in the hotel’s “gold club” lounge, which was not air conditioned, and was noisy. All in all, this new hotel provided a poor environment for doing the work we were in Senegal to do.

And After That…

After a week, IBM Security decided to let us go on outings that met their safety criteria.

I was so happy we received the approval to visit Pink Lake, Gorée Island, and Bandia Reserve. Read about our trip to amazing Pink Lake and our photo safari at Bandia Reserve elsewhere here on my blog. I’ll post about Gorée Island soon….

A nearby, nicer hotel became available after a large event finished and its attendees left. IBM Security approved moving us to this place, which also greatly improved our morale. I appreciated having a guest room that smelled clean and didn’t have a large stain on the floor. It was much easier to work on our project in the new place’s well-equipped, air-conditioned conference room after dealing with the second hotel’s problems. The third hotel’s security provisions were similar to the second place, but it was a much better environment, both to work and to live in for the remainder of our trip.

Although this newer hotel was not seafront, it was close enough to the ocean to provide this beautiful view of the sunrise.

The sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean at Dakar, Senegal.

Closing Thoughts

It was strange finding ourselves in the midst of a terror alert. I was concerned, which I think was a sensible response, but I was not fearful. I felt that if the threat was truly serious, IBM Security would have decided to send us home immediately. IBM Security conducts reviews of Corporate Service Corps locations before approving an assignment, and they tend to be very cautious about our safety while we’re deployed.

Of course, Dakar is a large city, and it’s always important to be mindful of personal safety when in a large, unfamiliar city. I took the same precautions there that I would take in San Francisco or Chicago. I felt safer in Dakar than I have in certain U.S. cities.

Would I consider going back to Senegal for a visit in the future? Absolutely. And yes, I would consider staying at a seafront hotel again. According to a November 2017 article in The Telegraph, Senegal still is considered to have a low level of risk compared to the United States and many European countries.

In case you’re wondering why I was in Senegal for a month, I was there as part of the IBM Corporate Service Corps. You can read more about that here: https://roaming-jewel.com/2017/10/17/ibmcsc/

Photo Safari at Bandia Reserve in Senegal

The Bandia Reserve is a wildlife park about 65 kilometers from Dakar, Senegal which features a variety of animals from throughout Africa. Although some of Bandia’s animals are native to Senegal, others were transported in from South Africa and elsewhere. The park isn’t big enough to accommodate the hunting needs of large predators such as lions; therefore, it features only herbivores such as giraffes, antelope, zebras, etc. The exception is that there is a hyena in a fenced area, and some crocodiles in a stream that’s some distance from where the rest of the animals live.

The Bandia Reserve offers trucks that can be rented, with drivers and guides. Our guide had been with Bandia ever since it opened 20 years ago, so he was able to share with us a large amount of information about the park’s origins and history. The backs of the trucks are open-air and outfitted with benches which can accommodate up to 9 passengers. It was the perfect size for our group.

A network of gravel roads runs throughout the park. The drivers and guides are quite familiar with all the routes. They use phones to stay in touch with other colleagues who are taking other trucks through the park, which is how they know where to find the various types of animals on any given day.

Dirt roads such as this one run throughout Bandia Reserve in Senegal.

Throughout the park are a variety of trees that are native to West Africa. These acacia trees have vivid reddish bark, which contrasts beautifully with the surrounding vegetation. Senegal lies just south of the Sahara desert with a dry climate whose rainy season runs about 3 months. The acacia trees and other local vegetation are adapted to these dry conditions.

The acacia trees inside Bandia Reserve have a vivid reddish bark.

When Bandia Reserve was first started 20 years ago, the owners brought in 4 giraffes from South Africa to start their herd: two male, two female. Today, the herd contains about 50 giraffes. The guide told us they occasionally bring in males from the outside for breeding, to add some diversity to the gene pool. The giraffes are surprisingly comfortable with the truckloads of camera-toting tourists that pass through. Our truck was able to get rather close to them.

There were several mother giraffes in the park with their babies. I found myself wishing that my late college roommate, Tammy Dudley, could be alive to see those with me. She had always loved giraffes, and owned a collection of over 100 giraffe figurines.

This mother giraffe and her calf brought a taste of family life to Bandia Reserve.

Many of the giraffes stayed together in a herd as they moved through the trees, snacking on the leaves.

There are a variety of species of gazelles in Bandia Reserve. We didn’t get close enough for me to snap good photos of all of them, but here are the ones I was able to capture.

The giant eland living in the park were rather spectacular to look at!

This is one of the species of gazelle that lives inside Bandia Reserve.

There are a few small monkeys living inside of Bandia. I only saw this one.

This small monkey near the entrance of Bandia Reserve is near a giant baobab tree.

We saw a group of about 3 ostriches near the herd of giraffes.

The day we visited Bandia Reserve, the ostriches were gathered near the giraffe herd.

It was surprising to see how close these zebras allowed our truck to get to them.

A family of zebras lives inside the park.

When Bandia Reserve first started 20 years ago, a pair of white rhinocerous (one male, one female) were brought in from elsewhere in Africa to populate it. However, they never produced any young, so today they remain the only two rhinos in the park. The guides and truck drivers use their mobile phones to keep each other informed of where in the park the rhinos are relaxing on any given day. It took some time for us to find the corner of the park where they were the day we visited.

A pair of white rhinocerous live in the park.

Bandia Reserve contains many large baobab trees. These and the acacias are both very representative of the African landscape. Near the end of the tour we saw this massive baobab tree. It is estimated to be 1,000 years old.

Mauricio Andrade and Marcel Furumoto explore the area around the base of the baobab tree’s trunk. Note how small these full-grown adult men look compared to the tree’s trunk.

The insides of baobab trees are hollow, and this one has been used for many years as a graveyard for the griots (storytellers). The tree is known as the tombeau de griots. The griots were the elders of a tribe, the keepers of its oral history. When they died, their bones were carefully placed inside this large baobab tree.

These skulls are actual human remains. They were griots (storytellers), and were honored as the keepers of the oral histories of their tribes.

This photo, taken from a bit of a distance, shows the large size of the baobab tree.

This 1,000-year-old baobab tree serves as the tomb of the griots (storytellers). Look carefully, and you’ll see the skulls under the tree to the left.

At the end of the tour is a restaurant and a gift shop. In the water next to the restaurant lives a family of Nile crocodiles. They were shy the day we visited, but we did manage to catch a glimpse of one.

The crocodiles at Bandia Reserve were brought from Egypt.

We visited Senegal in October, which is typically a very hot time of year. The day we visited Bandia Reserve, temperatures hovered around 93 F (34 C). By the end of the trip, we all wanted to take a siesta. Our friend Mario Villalobos decided to go ahead and do so while others shopped or picked up snacks at the restaurant!

All in all, I was very enthusiastic about our visit to Bandia Reserve. I’ve been told by people who went on photo safaris in South Africa and Kenya that Bandia is smaller and less impressive. However, I have never been to these other countries, and Bandia impressed me a great deal! I’m very glad I went. For me, it was well worth the time, money, and effort!

In case you’re wondering why I was in Senegal for a month, I was there as part of the IBM Corporate Service Corps. You can read more about that here: https://roaming-jewel.com/2017/10/17/ibmcsc/

African Sunrises and Sunsets

Traveling offers many opportunities to see beautiful sunrises and sunsets. In this blog post, I’d like to share my photos taken in Morocco and Senegal. These are all my original photos, and my property. Please do not steal them.

Sunset in Essaouira, Morocco

Essaouira is a seaside community in Morocco, facing onto the Atlantic Ocean. It offers beautiful views of the ocean, and also of sunsets. I was there for Funoon Dance Camp, which was organized by my friend Nawarra.

Sunset over Essaouira, Morocco — The sun sets over Essaouira, Morocco on September 10, 2017.

Sunrises in Dakar, Senegal

These two photos were both taken at sunrise (approximately 7:30 a.m.) in November, 2017, from the Pullman Hotel in Dakar, Senegal.

Sunrise in Dakar, Senegal — The sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean at Dakar, Senegal on November 1, 2017.

In case you’re wondering why I was in Senegal for a month, I was there as part of the IBM Corporate Service Corps. You can read more about that here: https://roaming-jewel.com/2017/10/17/ibmcsc/

A Nod to Egypt

I’ve taken so many photos of sunrises and sunsets in Egypt, that I’ve given Egypt its own page. However, I wanted to include at least one photo of Egypt on this page since, after all, Egypt is in Africa! Here’s one I took in 2016, and if you’d like to see more, follow this link to my Egypt page!

The sun sets behind the pyramids of Giza, Egypt on February 10, 2016. Photo copyright 2016 by Jewel, all rights reserved.

Other Sunset Photo Galleries On My Blog

Sunsets and More on a Caribbean Cruise. The Caribbean Sea offers spectacular sunsets, as well as beautiful views of the ocean waves themselves.
Sunrises, Sunsets, and Moons in Iowa. Sometimes I like to take photos of sunrises, sunsets, and full moons close to home in the U.S. state of Iowa, which is where I live.
Egypt by Night: Sunrises, Sunsets, and Moons. Enjoy additional African sunsets via these photos I took in Egypt.