12/24/2023 Bikepacking Senegal Day 138 : The camera and the damage done.

Today I crossed a thermocline. After weeks of hot days and cool nights, it suddenly became very hot, peaking at 103F. Up until now, highs had been 95F each day. About 45 minutes before I stopped riding, the air suddenly changed. It suddenly felt like riding through a persons mouth. Even as the thermometer dropped below 80F, it felt hotter. Along with the humidity came all sorts of biting bugs. This literally happened when I turned a corner in the road. It was so sudden, I almost considered turning around to spend the night in the drier air, just a half mile back.

I also passed through a “peoplecline” today (that one is a made up word).

From Ogo to Bokolako, a distance of 237 miles that took 4.5 days to ride, the people were 100% amazing (apart from an interlude in the city of Tamba). Suddenly, from Bokolako to Bransan, the people were completely different. I got suspicious looks, the motorcycles no longer stopped to say hello. The difference was stark like night and day.

In previous episodes where sections like this appeared, I fabricated explanations… Tourism, Foreign Aid, whatever… This time, I’m at a loss because the route has all of the attributes of what I thought would make it good: remoteness; inaccessible by car, etc. Maybe it was the heat that zapped people? I kept my camera put away, and avoided some of the wells. Perhaps because of the heat or the remoteness, I saw more naked children and topless women by the wells.

I did stop to talk to some men who were fluffing big piles of cotton. Not knowing what the plant looks like, I had some curiosity, and one of the guys even invited me to join in on the work. I asked, “what should I do?” He pointed at the workers, as if to say, “copy what they are doing.” They were crouched around the pile, kind of fluffing it with their hands while one guys tromped around the middle of the pile with his feet. None of this seemed to be making any difference to the cotton; it just sprung back.

Like I always do when wanting a photo, I asked the guy, “can I take a picture?” He said “yes”. It felt OK because out of the corner of my eye, I saw two guys busy taking photos of me with their cell phones. I snapped the photo, and another guy walked up to me. “You can take a photo of the cotton, but it is not good if you take a photo of the people.”

After 4.5 days of people clamoring for me to snap their photos, I realized that I had gotten a little too comfortable. The guy was sincere and not upset. I respect his wishes, and cropped the people’s faces out of the photo.

This set the stage for me feeling guilty about the last few days. I reflected on how I’ve been doing all the irresponsible tourist things: Handing out sweets, and (albeit with cheerful permission), taking photos of people. It’s just another one of those internal battles I have. I don’t want local people to think, “oh great, here comes another one of those guys who treats us like zoo animals.”

I was going to talk about scarification in one of the previous posts, but deleted what I wrote because I realized that content would be along those lines. Queue up Morgan Freeman’s voice: “And here we have a specimen demonstrating the scarification practices of the Fulani people…”

When the people are laughing that I make a certain gesture, speak French like a dolt, or spill cous cous in my lap, those are OK mistakes in my book. I’m happy to laugh at myself too.

A mistake that isn’t OK is If it gets weird when the camera comes out. It’s difficult to backpedal on that one - even if you don’t snap a photo. In certain groups, the moment can be ruined - even if they are already taking photos of me! I’m glad he said something; it would have been worse if someone was annoyed, but held it in. This experience also shows that there may be mixed opinions amongst the group.

In Bransan, people felt distant and apathetic. A couple guys started to talk to me, and after some time warmed up and became friendly. Once I left Bransan, it seemed like the smiles were cautiously returning. Suddenly, I was on a relatively busy dirt road with some dump trucks. Not my favorite day, but looking forward to being in the highlands soon!

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