February 6, 2011
It’s been way too long since I actually wrote a blog entry! Oh dear! Anyway, Dakar life has been really great so far, if extremely tiring. Every night when I go to bed, I’ve been falling asleep almost immediately, even if I’ve just been relaxing all day! At the moment, four of us are sitting in MyShop, which is a bizarre little extension of the US in Dakar: it’s a little convenience store, plus burgers, pizza, and ice cream, and American music constantly playing. A lot of toubabs hang out around here, and it’s near school, so it’s a convenient meeting place. Also there is free wifi, which is a great incentive! Yesterday Regina and I spent most of the day working on our schoolwork in restaurants, which went well until one VERY DRUNK Senegalese man kept harassing us (keep in mind this was at about three in the afternoon). It was really inappropriate and wouldn’t have happened if we had been Senegalese instead of white and blonde. On our walk home, we saw the cutest little lamb in the road, and someone had tied a baby’s bib on it. We stopped and started to take a picture, but a man just ran out of the nearby house and started shouting, “Il faut payer!” (You have to pay!) We were again really shocked at this and just kept walking instead of taking the picture. It’s very strange to be immediately judged just because we are toubabs, and to have people try to take advantage of us.
Mostly this week has just been a lot of getting more comfortable with Dakar and everything. On Friday, Megan and I took a walk around Mermoz, and ended up managing to get to Katie’s house in Liberté 2 (without a map and without getting lost!!) It was great to just hang out at her house in the afternoon when we don’t have class.
All of us have been spending a lot of time at the beach, which is really nice, as the weather has been wonderful lately (if a little chilly sometimes—all you Midwesterners can laugh at my wimpiness).
Oh, also I’ve been honing my bartering skills at markets and taxis, where most things are ridiculously overpriced and you really have to work to get the prices down. But it really does help if you have a Senegalese person with you when you are trying to negotiate a taxi, and they can get you a much better rate than you would normally be able to get. Taxis are everywhere! I would say almost half the cars are taxis, which are yellow and black and look like they have parts taken from at least four different cars.
Anyway, I am getting quite sleepy so I think I will leave it at that for now! But if I can I will post something in the next few days. Look at my facebook for pictures! Heather
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