Hitchhiking

Thursday, 3 April 2008

Yesterday I had my first real hitchhiking experience. I biked from Tamba to Missira with some other volunteers, but they were stopping there, so after that I was biking on my own to my village. But before I had gone very far one of the cotton company trucks pulled over and offered me a ride. It was hot and I was tired (plus hitchhiking is normal here), so I said yes.

They threw my bike in the back and I sat up in the cab with the two cotton company guys. I can't even remember when the last time was that I sat in a nice vehicle with real seats (rather than on a bench in the back of an Alham), but it was heaven.

The driver only spoke Wolof, so I couldn't really talk to him, but the other guy spoke French and he told me how he'd tried to immigrate illegally to Spain last year. He took the land route through Mauritania to Morocco, and then he took a small boat to Spain, where he was immediately taken into a Red Cross reception center. The trick there is to convince them that you are from a war-torn, unstable country, and then they can't deport you. But this guy made a mistake: they organized soccer games at the reception center, and while he was playing he accidentally spoke Wolof, tipping them off that he is from Senegal. So he got deported. Soon as he saves up enough money he's going to try again, though.

After only about 20 minutes (what would have taken me 2 hours on my bike, or an hour on an Alham), we got to my destination village and I got off. I really hope I can hitchhike again soon.