and the mystery is solved...

remember nessie? i think about her everytime i go swimming in the river (because the hot season decided to come two months early this year) as i swim farther away from the beach i can't help but wonder what exactly is below me. it doesn't help when i see a six foot eel with teeth the size of a bear claw for sale at the market. being sold by a lady from the village right next to mine. whose husband fished it out of the river that very morning. now between thoughts of nessie swimming slowly and gracefully below me i have thoughts of the screeching eels slithering closer and closer to my toes which look oh so edible. but still, it's hot and the river is blessedly cool. and so i go swimming.

two weeks ago while i was in dakar for our cos (close of service!!!) conference nessie made another appearance in the village. my brothers rushed to tell me this when i got back home. now one sighting is cool, but two? does that mean nessie's made a home? with male-nessie? and nessie-pups? i needed to know what exactly nessie was. is she safe? does she like meat? what would she feel about the pale figure who doesn't stay close to the river bank? so i hunted down my friend oumar who is often not in the village but working in a different one. he speaks english like i speak pulaar; one part cave-man, one part three year old adolescent so i felt that he could answer my nessie dilemma. i find oumar and make him sit down and tell me about this creature, my dictionary in hand. one way or another, nessie's going to have a name. we flipped through a few names to try to match the word with what i remembered and what oumar knew of nessie, because, as he put it, it's a big blobby thing that swims. they're very special.

so i started saying every single word i knew for things that lived in the river. i started small. minnow? no. fish? no. eel? wait, what did you say? no, not eel. but close. hmm...okay... catfish? no. human? idiot who doesn't know how to swim? no, banel. you think of the darndest things. hippo? no. yes. well, not a hippo. it swims. but is big like a hippo. okay. so what is something that is like a hippo but swims instead of walks? think, banel, think. (the would-be marine biologist of my third grade youth would have known this right away.) wait a minute.... and then i drew it out. is this what it is oumar? yes! that's it. very good. how do you say it in english? well, funny you should ask oumar...

manatee.

nessie is a west african fresh water manatee. there have been many sightings of them this past year because of the very successful rainy season. one was accidently killed near the city of bakel, which on the map is as far inland as you can get in senegal, right by the mali and mauritanian border. how freaking unblievably cool is it that i have manatees in my river? soooooo freaking unbelievably cool.

in case you're curious, a bit on freshwater manatees via wikipedia:

West African
They are found in coastal marine and estuarine habitats, and in freshwater river systems along the west coast of Africa from the Senegal River (AKA RIGHT OUTSIDE MY HUT!) south to the Kwanza River in Angola, including areas in Gambia, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, and Democratic Republic of the Congo.

They live as high upriver on the Niger River as Gao, Mali.

Communication
They emit a wide range of sounds used in communication, especially between cows and their calves. Adults communicate to maintain contact and during sexual and play behaviors. Taste and smell, in addition to sight, sound, and touch, may also be forms of communication.

Diet
Manatees are herbivores and eat over 60 different plant species such as mangrove leaves, turtle grass, and types of algae, using their divided upper lip. An adult manatee will commonly eat up to 10% of its body weight (approx 50 kg) per day. Manatees have been known to eat small amounts of fish from nets.[12]

Predation
Manatees have few natural predators (sharks, crocodiles, orcas, and alligators.) Predation does not present a significant threat to their survival. Humans do.African manatee's only significant threats are due to poaching, habitat loss, and other environmental impacts. They occasionally get stranded as the river dries up at the end of rainy season and are cooked for a meal.

In West African folklore, they were sacred and thought to have been once human. Killing one was taboo and required penance.

so now when i'm swimming i will think lovingly of the gentle giants who swim beneath me, munching on river grass and generally loving their beautiful african habitat.

i'll be thinking of them. and the eels.