So, sorry about last night. I was tired and cranky, but I could've easily kept that to myself. In any case, it's amazing what a good night of sleep can do! I feel sooooo much better today. And, to top it off, it's raining!!!! Scratch that- it's POURING!!! I guess this marks the beginning of the raining season. I don't know what that entails really, other than it could rain more for the remainder of the time I'm here. I hope so- it's a bit cooler now and windy. It's also exciting because it's like CRAZY rain- ferocious rain, even more so than summer rains in Minnesota, and I thought those were crazy.
Yesterday we spent 6 hours driving back from St. Louis. It should have only taken 4, but we hit traffic coming back into Dakar. Apparently many people living in Dakar take weekend trips outside the city, so Sunday night it is inevitable to hit major traffic. The tiny freeways don't help, but it looks like they are already working on expanding them, so that's good.
I had several mini heart-attacks once we hit traffic because I was sitting in the front of the bus, and our driver was NO BULLSHIT! He was Senegalese, but he spends half his time living in Paris. He owns a driving company, and we were connected to him by Doyen, our landlord. He drove us up on Friday morning and he stayed in St. Louis the whole weekend. We paid daily for his services, but it ended up being only slightly more expensive than a hired taxi would have cost, and it had several more perks, including safety, more space, reliability, etc.
But yes, he was Senegalese, so he knew how to maneuver the tiny crammed freeways, even at night. I had several heart-attacks because of these mini-buses called 'car rapides'- essentially these are what most people use for public transportation; they are like VW vans, like the one my parents used to have when I was a little fella. They are cheerfully painted with all sorts of reds, yellows, and oranges and most of them say on the front and back 'Alhamdulilaay' (thanks be to god). They are always packed with people, and all along the freeway they let people in/out, and people then walk across the freeway (if they're going that way) because there's no real designated zones to do this. So during traffic, it's outrageous, as you might imagine. I wanted to close my eyes, but it was all too exciting to watch! I guess on some level I've been desensitized to this, as riding in taxi cabs through downtown is equally as crazy. In both cases, I'm amazed that no one ever gets hurt, but the drivers do take extreme caution by using their horns endlessly- a little honk here (to let the driver to the front and side know that he's coming up next to him) and a little honk there (to let pedestrians know to move to the side). It's wild- absolutely wild. But somehow it works! Ah, there was one exception- last week on our way to the Baobab Center we saw a kid on the side of the street who had been hit- he was ok, but it looked like his leg(s) might have been broken/harmed. I bet this happened because the kids were playing as they were walking home and one of his friends pushed him toward the street, unintentionally of course, but just enough to put him in harm's way. I can only suspect, but that would make the most sense because I know the kids here are accustomed to the crazy traffic and I know they're pretty savvy about it.
Ok, so I better hurry up because my battery is dying! Damn that Scott! haha... little bastard. Ah well, shit happens.
So, St. Louis, it was great. It is a small beach town up the northern coast, just below the border of Mauritania. Fishing is huge there, and we took a tour of a fishing village. It was the most interesting thing I've seen here- piles and heaps of fish waiting to be gutted, smoked, and dried in the sun. The smell of fish was overwhelming, but I stomached it. I would never go back, but it was worth the visit. It was interesting to watch the women handle the fish- this is their main job, whereas the men are the ones who take the pirogues (like giant canoes) out to sea every morning. So many of the women were obese, and I wondered why- how is that possible? But then I remembered how much the Senegalese love their sugar, and how soft-drinks are hugely popular here (but no Diet sodas, yet). I don't think I talked about this yet, but sugar goes in ALL of their drinks- hot milk (which is delicious with sugar), coffee (at LEAST 4 cubes, which is WAY too much for most Americans, I suspect), tea, and locally made juices. I've heard that because of this, Senegal has the highest rate of diabetes in the world, but this may be rumor, I haven't cross-checked. You can, if you want.
Fishing is such a big business in St. Louis that the Chinese and Japanese actually paid for them to build export stations where they could stack the fish and make it easier to load onto ships (ships that would take the fish to China and Japan, of course).
After the fishing village, we toured the rest of the island (did I mention it was an island?). It was very much like Goree, in the sense that the Colonial presence at one time left an obvious mark on the architecture. I think St. Louis was the first capital of Senegal, actually, and people living in St. Louis attained high status with the French. In particular, there were women, called Signares, that were children of French men and Senegalese women, who became serious players in the economic and political life of St. Louis.
The island was calm, and much more relaxing than Dakar. It was a nice break, but I was happy to be home last night. I started to miss the hustle and bustle. Anyway, here's the link to Wikipedia on St. Louis, if you're curious to know more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Louis,_Senegal
And here's the link to Dakar on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakar
Thought you might like these links!
No comments:
Post a Comment