Flying fox---actually a bat---above us in the restaurant, Toubacouta.

 

Hornbill. These birds are loud. They travel in pairs.

 

Hornbill, Toubacouta

 

Sippo Island, Toubacouta, Senegal. Gathering wood is important on a daily basis.

 

Business making and selling cooking equipment.

 

Mosques are everywhere.

 

Street vendor.

 

This is meat, likely zebu cattle, for sale.

 

This scene plays out all over Senegal. Bricks are made with clay or cement, poured by hand into molds.

 

The top of the minaret at the Mosque in Touba.

 

The people you see are Baye Fall---a part of the Mouride Sufi Sect of Islam. They are very different however. They consume a variation of coffee called Café Touba. Their religious practices include NOT praying 5 times a day nor do they fast for Ramadan. They do other work, feeding poor people at the end of the day during Ramadan---also building Mosques---believing that this work opens the door to paradise in lieu of traditional Islamic practices.

Billboard, Touba

 

These folks made us lunch and opened their home to us in Touba.

 

More goats.

 

Goats are everywhere.

 

Image of Bamba in the home where we eat lunch. We meet his(Bamba's) great-granddaughter here---kind of a big deal.

 

While in Touba, we eat lunch at a local home. Yassa Chicken.

 

These women in blue are volunteers sweeping the Mosque.

 

Chanting and praying inside the Mosque at Touba.

 

Touba Mosque

 

Interior with rolled up prayer rugs at the Touba Mosque.

 

Fellow in the Touba Mosque....the variety of style and color of dress is amazing.

 

Sign across the street from the Mosque in Touba. This the residence of the current Cheikh.

 

Ceiling in Touba Mosque

 

My shoes are off. My mother would be worried I will wear out my socks.

Man in the mosque at Touba

 

Touba Mosque

 

Entrance to the main Mosque in Touba. You remove your shoes before entering the compound. Women in our group are covered extensively head to toe before being allowed to enter.

 

Traditional Islamic architectural feature. Road to Touba.

 

"Bamba" on the door of a truck on the way to Touba. The Mouride founder's name and singular image are everywhere.

 

Sunrise on our bus ride to Touba

 

Our guide at the Holy City of Touba Mosque, Amadou. This Mosque is built upon land sold to representative of Cheikh Bamba. It was a farm 100 years ago. Bamba began the construction but it was completed after his death.

 

Cheikh Bamba, the spiritual leader of the Sufi Mouride movement was exiled twice by the French Colonial authorities---for several years in Gabon and also Mauritania. His underlying philosophy emphasized a peaceful Islam.