Gorée island is senegal's most popular tourist attraction. Ok so here's the story in a nutshell. Europeans occupied and lived in half of the island while they used the other half as holding cells and prisons for stolen African men women and children. They were all kept in cramped unsanitary conditions, beaten, raped, tortures, punished, killed, until the slabs ships returned from the Americas to pick up a new batch of victims. The Europeans threw the daily dead/ murdered bodies into the ocean to keep the ocean shark infested this in addition to heavy chains and weighs on each person ensured certain death for anyone who tried to swim home to freedom. All of this cruelty was out of view from the mainland Africans and the Europeans were able to commit whatever horror in that island while other Europeans worked at colonizing and torturing the ones still on the main land. No one could save anyone there was a mass invasion violent lunatics, the continent and the America's would never be the same again.
Ok so once the taxi dropped us off we bought our boat fare tickets and wee quickly helped by a soft spoken gentle tour guide. He oferres his services, we gladly accepted. While waiting 49 minutes for the next ship to sail he went to pray at the nearby mosque and we waited outside in the cool air while many other people rolled out their mats to pray. Dude was impressed that so many people "did yoga like mommy" but was quickly corrected and taught about island prayer times.
Boat named Georgia... Following those signs!
The boat ride was full of action, including a musician playing something called a Kess Kess. He tried to teach the kids and sell us the hand held maracas but I promised him unwound have to pay our guide first and eat before I bought any souvenirs. He understood.
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