Au Revoir, Dakar

In Senegal, you can walk by a cow tied to a tree one night, and not twelve hours later you can be sitting against that same tree, sharing that cow with dozens of other people celebrating a baptism.

Here, a breakfast of chocolate spread on a baguette with a side of instant coffee and powdered milk is what gets you out of bed in the morning.

In Senegal, you can be tired and ready to leave the club at 3am, but be forced to stay and dance until 5 so that your father will have already woken up for morning prayers by the time you get home and will be able to let you in the house.

Here, you can walk a mile just to wait for some delicious street donuts, only to become so engrossed in conversation you miss the first round and have to wait another ten minutes.

These ten days have been both eventful and relaxing. In addition to the baptism and dancing mbalax at a night club, we saw an outdoor hip hop concert, went to the Senegal v. Tunisia youth soccer match and visited the homes of relatives and friends, which can be exhausting at times- as I write this our three year old neighbor is attempting to strangle me. At home, much to the amusement of my sisters, I’ve helped cook such Senegalese classics as fataya (dumplings) and cheebu jen (fish and rice) (check out the pictures to the right, more to come soon). On my own, I’ve been visiting old haunts, a sort of nostalgic pilgrimage; Suffolk campus, the Mermoz beach to see the sunset, the Ouakam mosque, and the markets of course where I picked up some treats for the bin-bin enthusiasts at home.

Tomorrow morning I leave for Lusaka. Out with the somewhat familiar, bring on the completely unknown. I’m happy to be overlapping with the current fellow, Jamie. Hopefully I’ll absorb at least part of his accumulated wisdom. Looking forward to having new experiences and photos to share soon.

(Bird's eye view of the baptism)