May 23 - Touba

PIX

Touba is an interesting city, consisdered to be the heart of Islam in Senegal.  There are no restuarants, no hotels, and smoking and drinking is outlawed in the city (smoking is punished by a rap on the head with a stick).  We saw the grand mosque and the tomb of the Caliph who founded the Mourride brotherhood.  Touba is a place of pilgrimage for the Mourride.  It was also interesting to see the social services provided by the Mourride.  The brotherhood supples the city with water, and also provides a sort of social safey net for people in need.  They have taken over other, less conspicuous governmentl functions as well.

On the way to lunch we stopped at the construction site for a house being built for the leader of the Mourride sect, the Marrabout.  There were hundreds of people in the compond, some working, some watching, some playng music, and some preparing the meals.  As we looped through the site we were followed by the children, hundreds of them.  When we turned to head back for the bus, they descended upon us.  The last 200 yards to the bus, as the kids were out of the supervision of their elders, were a real gauntlet.  Fortunately, our driver Yagga jumped in along with some of the bigger men, to stage a rear guard action so we could all get back.  We left with kids banging on the side of the bus and hanging on the ladder to the roof.  All agreed that it was the first really dangerous time we have experienced.

Because there are no restaurants in Touba, we had lunch in the home of our guide for the day, a Bie Fall member of the Mourride brotherhood.  We were served in traditional Senegalese style, which means there were mats laid on the floor, and we used our right hands to eat from communal dishes full of rice, fish, meat, and vegetables.  It was especially nice to see Yagga in the role of teacher, as he showed us how to scoop the rice, compress it, shake off the excess, and eat it without making too much of a mess.  It was the best meal we've had here by far, and we all appreciated this hispitality to a strange group of toubab, or outsiders.

After this we were on the bus to Kaoleck, our one-night stop.