Toubacouta

For our first overnight excursion as a group, three of the American programs at our school went to Toubacouta for two nights and to a rural village about an hour from there for one night. Toubacouta is south of Dakar, on the coast in the Sine Saloum delta region of Senegal’s Petite Côte. During our two day stay in Toubacouta we explored the town, visited the local fish and oyster operations and took a pirogue ride through the mangroves.

The brackish, tidal, mangrove environment around Toubacouta makes it an ideal place for fish and oysters to thrive, along with the exploitative practices associated with such bountiful natural resources.  Most of the fishing is done with nets, though I also saw one boat fitted with multiple hook-and-line set-ups. For me, the process of harvesting the oysters from the mangroves (and, recently lines set up for oyster farming), smoking and drying them, and then grinding up the shells to be mixed with water and used as a less expensive alternative to concrete for houses and other local buildings.