Dakar: First Impressions

Here wr are: Day 5 of 35 days in Senegal. I'm having a great time so far. Although it may not have been the most financially responsible decision I've ever made in light of the fact that i won't have a job for the next 2 years while i'm in school, this was the perfect ime to come for several reasons. First I have a friend here. In a spectacular coincidence, I learned a few weeks ago that a friend from college not only just graduated from the grad program I'm about to enter, but also won the fellowship that i was granted back in May. As a result of the fellowship, she's interning at the US Embassy here in Dakar and has a whole house to herself in downtown Dakar curtousy of generous tax-paying Americans. So I've been staying with her this week. Having a place to stay has been great of course, but another great part is that she somehow knows so many people here. We've been taken around town and invited to eat in the homes of several Senegalese families just in the few days I've been here. It's been great. That's stuff that I would have not been able to tap into had I been here on my own, which was the original plan.

Secondly, this was the perfect time to come because I don't think I would have been able to appreciate it here had I come before now. Looking back on my time in Austria and China and even as recently as my trip to Japan this spring, i needed those experiences to get me ready for Africa, which is where I've been really wanting to go all along. I believe that some people are born ready to spend time in Africa, some are probably never ready to come to Africa, I just needed some time to learn how to really appreciate life outside of the US before I came. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed being here. But this is still the first week. Let's see how I feel in a month.

So enough about me. Let's talk about dakar. First, the Senegalese are beautiful. Of course, not everyone is gorgeous, but many many are. Both men and women alike. They tend to have tall, slender, naturally toned bodies with absolutley beautiful very dark skin. I find myself going off course following people walking down the street because they're so beautiful and I'm not ready to stop looking at them yet.

The food. The food is so good. The meals seem very simple (fish or chicken, vegetables and rice), but it is so good. Since it's right on the coast, there's an abundance of seafood, and I don't know how they cook it, but it's so very tasty. I just had a whole fish today for lunch and I think I may have another one tomorrow... or maybe even later tonight. This is food at a restaurant that's so good. When we go to someone's home, it's even better.

Contrary to my impressions beforehand, Dakar ain't cheap! Many things are pretty much on par with the US in terms of price. My meal today (fish, rice, a bottle of local beer) cost me about 10 or 11 dollars. The same meal at a comparable restaurant would've probably cost me about 15 or 16 in Baltimore and maybe 20 in San Francisco ( as an aside, SF is expensive, in my opinion). While it's cheaper than the US, it's really not all that cheap. I was expecting China prices, and I was clearly mistaken. Talking to one of my friend's (very wealthy) Senegalese friends, I also learned that real estate in Dakar is very expensive. Maybe more expensive than much of the US. Other things are really cheap, however. For example, my language class is only 200 dollars for 100 hours of instruction (i.e. 2 dollars an hour). The programs I was looking at in France wanted 230-250 dollars a week for about 20 hours of instruction. So some things here are rather pricey, while others are pretty cheap.

Not only is this my first time in Africa, but it's also my first time in a predominately Muslim country. Although I get the impression that Senegal is a rather secular Muslim country (more of what I imagine Turkey to be as opposed to my impression of Saudi Arabia), I find it all pretty interesting. I took the bus home after class today, and on the way home I saw the faithful flooding the streets and outdoor markets as the Grand Mosque emptied after, I presume, the conclusion of Friday afternoon prayers. There were men carrying prayer rugs and beads everywhere. Some were adorned in traditional dress while many just had on a t-shirt and pants. It was pretty cool.

Dakar, not unexpectedly, is very homogenous. I'm sure there are different tribes that make up the population here, but with my untrained american eyes, I just see a lot of black people. I mean, that's great and part of the reason i came here, but still, it's not very unlike Tokyo or Beijing in that regard. Interestingly enough, also not unlike Beijing and Tokyo, the Senegalese can pick me out of a crowd in an instant. Eventhough I feel like I blend in here a lot more than i ever could in Beijing or Tokyo, i'm as much a foreigner to the Senegalese as I was to the Chinese or Japanese. Of course the fact that I don't speak french is a dead giveaway, but i don't even have to open my mouth for people selling stuff on the street to approach me with what little English they have.

Just a few moments ago, I a Senegalese woman tried to pick me up in the internet cafe. Although she broke the ice asking me whether I worked here, she knew good and well that I didn't work here the moment she laid eyes on me. In China there was a very interesting dynamic between Chinese women and foreign men. Many women in China saw the potential to lure a (presumed) wealthy foreigner (which i imagine is common in many developing countries). I'm interested in seeing whether it will be a similar dynamic here in Senegal.

So that's my take on Dakar so far. One other activity of interest that I've taken part in is a trip to the Pink Lake a few days ago. It's literally pink and hella salty! Apparently, there are minerals in the water that provide favorable conditions to a certain type of algae that glistens pink when the sun's rays hit it. But the other cool part is that it's so unbelievably salty that you literally can't help but float. You can't really even swim because almost your entire body is floating on top of the water. It's pretty cool, but if your unfortunate enough to get some water in your mouth or, even worse, in your eyes, the whole experience instantly becomes a lot less enjoyable.