Ready for some time outside of the city, we took the public bus downtown to the Port de Dakar, an impressive harbor by any standards, to catch a boat to Gorée Island. Gorée is both well- known as one of the first places settled by Europeans and infamous for the geographic role it played in the slave trade. The Maison des esclaves is one of the oldest buildings on this UNESCO site. Slaves were kept there until embarkment and it now serves as a monument to the horrors of the African slave trade.

You may recognize the famous pink staircases from many textbook photographs. Standing in such a place brings "story" fully into history and is what I love about SST. Beyond the colonized icon is a network of barred holding cells and tunnels leading to a view of the ocean through the "door of no return." Jonathan demonstrates the size of a small windowless cell under the stairs where "unruly" prisoners were placed for up to 3 months. It seemed difficult to reconcile the casual contemporary commerce of Gorée, now an island full of vendors and artisans, with the gravity of it's past. There was ample time to search the island, refresh our minds, and meet the people. An abundance of school children playing and enjoying the beach brought an ironic balance to the day at Gorée.