Senegal: Nioro du Rip and the Ba family

We drove south towards the small town with a funky name near the border and new bridge between Senegal and Gambia.

As we drove past dozens of small villages along the road and spotted small homes we wondered what life was like living there.

We’d booked an Airbnb apartment for 1 night so that we could be at the border first thing, and had been given a contact for Cheikdhou Ba, a friend of the host.

Once in town late afternoon, we found him, dressed in a fine yellow suit with large flowers, on the Main Street through town which seemed pretty remote and a little wild west to us.

With our ropey French and his English not much better, he directed us to the fancy new build 4-storey apartment block which did stand out against the surrounding small concrete buildings and dusty tracks.

We took our overnight bags inside and then Cheikdhou showed us where to park Lenny in front of a friend’s house along the same road.

As we hadn’t spotted any restaurants on the way in, we asked Cheikdhou and his friend if they could recommend anywhere. We talked about the Senegalese dishes we’d tried (Yassa fish & Yassa chicken, with a spicy onion sauce with Dijon mustard and Mafe, beef with an intense peanut sauce) and I mentioned we hadn’t yet tried the typical Thieboudienne (pronounced chay-bo-din) fish and spicy rice dish.

Cheikdhou said he’d walk with us to a place that serves Thieboudienne, so we followed him and after a while it seemed he was taking us to his home to eat.

He took us into his spacious family courtyard with multiple doors facing inwards, children and elders sat around chatting and chickens, goats and cats roaming around.

He then introduced us to his wife, Marie, elegantly dressed in an elaborate red and gold outfit and in much better English than her husband’s, she invited us into their small room to sit on two chairs in front of low table with a huge silver dish of Thieboudienne.

So many questions arose, how had Marie prepared the dish I’d mentioned just 15mins before, was this actually their lunch we were sat in front of, how would we pay, or would that actually cause offence.

She wished us bon appetite, went outside and left us to demolish the delicious spicy, crispy rice, whole fish and vegetables.

Then she asked if we wanted to sit outside for tea (ataya), astringent green tea which is made by pouring the tea many times between tiny glasses until it’s frothy, which we watched Marie doing repeatedly for members of the family although she told us she doesn’t drink tea herself.

Before heading off to the mosque to pray, Cheikdhou told us the Ba family is large, long-established and well-known in the town of 26,000. Rob asked about his stylish suit and he offered it so that Rob could wear it to the office in London.

We were introduced to the children and elders, some of the young guys wanted to show off their English “I speak English very well” and we tried out our Wolof “Nangadeff” – hello and “Notodo” – what’s your name?

One of the young guys had one really distinctive light grey/blue eye which he agreed made him very special and Marie explained is hereditary in the Ba family.

Marie told us Cheikdhou has two wives, she is the 1st and best one, the princess. Again, many questions were spinning round in my head.

We asked where she’d learned such good English and she said she’d lived and worked in (English-speaking) Gambia, making hair before she married Cheikdhou.

After spending about 2 hours with the family, Cheikdhou walked us back to our apartment, absolutely refusing any payment or even a small gift for the meal.

It was totally unexpected and one of the best experiences of the trip so far.