Downtown market craziness

Hello all,

it is almost 11pm my time, and I am about to take a cold shower to cool off. I am covered in dust/dirt from so much walking today, and I'm a bit sunburned, too. This morning's Wolof lesson was followed by a trip to downtown, where we spent the majority of the day. We walked around for hours looking at sites, including the President's house and office, but must of our time was spent in the grand markets. This experience was too much. Why? Because I'm a Toubob (two-bob). This is the word that Senegalese use for white people/foreigners. It used to have a negative connotation to it (when they used it to refer to the French), but now it can also be used playfully. In any case, being a white tourist says, "Approach me, I have money." So, going through the markets today was this, constantly. And, vendors are determined, so even after saying no, I'm not interested, they will persist until you are firm. It was too much. That combined with the heat and the sheer amount of people (which was plenty), made me entirely ready to leave downtown after almost 5 minutes of this. But, we stuck around and saw the different stalls and products. There were so many interesting things- African masks, traditional and modern clothes (many of the modern clothes are imitation designers, which could be fun if one were in the mood for browsing), food, bags, shoes, fabric, and countless other things. Anything you want, you could find it there. It was like the grand bazaar in Istanbul, but unlike the vendors in Istanbul, the vendors here were way too pushy. In Istanbul, you could browse, window-shop, etc. without any pressure to buy anything. But here, the second you stop, dozens of vendors crowd around you to try to sell you their goods. And all of them are persistent, like I said, so you can see how this becomes exhausting. I think if I weren't such a visual person it wouldn't have bothered me nearly as much, and maybe I could have pushed through it without much problem, but I simply couldn't. That being said though, I don't think any of the other students had a good time either. Some of the vendors were so pushy that they would follow us for several blocks. That was uncomfortable. And, because we were with a Senegalese woman as our guide, they worked hard on her, trying to get her on their side so that she would take us to their stall. But, because she knew this already (she's done this several times as a guide), she was pretty stern with them. Even then, they stuck around until we walked far enough and then they gave up. But then they were just replaced by another aggressive vendor!! haha.. oy vey... too much...

When we were done with downtown, our tour guide asked if we'd like to see her workshop/studio. She has her own non-profit org that helps single women to develop craft-making skills (baskets, clothes, etc) so that they can make a livelihood before getting married. It is good for them to have this, because there's a high likelihood that after they get married, they will have to provide for themselves. This is because men are allowed to take second, third, etc. wives and once they do this, there is no guarantee that he will provide equally for all wives. He may choose to focus on one wife and their children only. If this happens, then the wife who is not supported is screwed if she does not already have a skill/trade. So, this is the purpose of Adama's (our tour guide) organization. It's a good purpose. We agreed to visit her studio, and I found a beautiful boubou (the traditional outfit worn by men here- a very long and flowing shirt that comes down past the thighs and matching pants). It is maroon with some lighter patterns. I can't wait to wear it. I will be the Toubob in the boubou. It could either arouse laughter or appreciation from the locals- or both. We'll see. This won't be the only one, though. I will probably buy some fabric and have one tailored- it's not that expensive to have that done, and our tour guide can hook us up. Yemi will have a dress made- she bought some beautiful fabric today at the market. I'd like to have an all white one, and maybe a baby-blue one. These are popular colors. There's also a lovely shade of green that's common- kind of like a very light emerald. I'm sure there's a name for it. Chartruse? Whatever. It's gorgeous.

Tomorrow we're going to the church and Lac Rose. Looking forward to it! I think that's all for tonight. I'm dead tired and still need that shower. So, for now, asaala malaakum! (peace be with you).