Our last few days in Dakar

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November 20 2005

It’s been awhile since we wrote in the blog, and a lot has happened. First of all, we have interships for sure! After a long week of incessant phone calls and meetings, we finally have things organized. We’re working for Africare on their Maternal and Child Health program called Tambacounda Healthy Start Program. The process we had to go through is incredible…it just takes so long to do things here. A lot of employers at home really want their employees to have experience in the developing world, and I think that while work experience is an important part of that, a lot of it is also experiencing how things are done here. For example, it takes two weeks to organize something that should take an afternoon. We were told to call back in the morning once everyone had had a chance to look at our resumes, and after five phone calls, were able to get a definitive answer of “call back tomorrow”; the next day we heard similar directions. Regardless, we are working on something that we’re really excited about and will give us some good experience. Marian and I are going to be organizing a questionnaire to ask women of reproductive age questions about why and how they do or do not access health care during pregnancy and while their children are young. Then we’ll be going out to small villages in Tambacounda and, using an interpreter, conducting focus groups to get answers. It should be really interesting. We’re leaving on Tuesday, and since the trip takes almost 8 hours in the car, we should be there by Tuesday evening. We are staying in the ‘guest house’ that Africare owns, but we’re not really sure yet what that means. We talked to the lady who we will be working with about what we can find in Tambacounda in terms of food, and the answer was not what we’d been hoping for. We had already decided to bring up four large bags of pasta, the pasta sauce and oatmeal, but after our talk with the Ekoupa, we realized that we’d need to bring everything we’d need. She said that she takes all of her food there, milk and all, because it’s really hard to find stuff there and if you can, it’s a lot more expensive because it’s shipped in from Dakar. She told us that they get fruits and vegetables every two weeks (at the most frequent times), and in between the only fruit available is whatever came in on that last shipment, so it’s not in good shape. She said that there is fish, but that it’s “dodgy” and she wouldn’t eat it. It comes from Dakar, where they freeze it, then put it on a truck (non-refrigerated) and it thaws the whole way to Tambacounda. Disgusting. So, in real Tubab style, we headed down to the grocery store and started stocking up. We have had to hit up numerous stores, because they never stock enough of what we need. Our current stock looks something like this:

- 5: 5 kg bags of pasta
- 9: bags of oatmeal
- 27: jars of pasta sauce
- 54: cans of tuna
- 3: boxes of Crystal Light (compliments of my mom!)
- 12: bags of popcorn kernels
- 1: bottle of olive oil
- 3: boxes of tea
- 4: 24-packs of cheese that we believe to be the French equivalent of Cheeze whiz, but is also the only cheese able to be stored un-refrigerated

The irony for John and I, is that the first place we’re going after we leave Tambacounda (we’re staying there until we leave Senegal) is Milan for two days, before heading down to South Africa. Like we’re really going to want some more pasta then…

Other than setting up our incredibly bland and boring diet for the next five weeks, we’ve also made our final travel plans. After leaving Tambacounda, we may travel through the Gambia on our way back to Dakar to leave. We’re leaving Senegal January 4, and will be in Milan for one night before heading to South Africa for three weeks. We’ll be on our tour from South Africa to Nairobi for a month, then once back in London, we’re going to Amsterdam to see Aaron Van Leusen for a week. We’re heading home March 6… just in time for Sarah’s birthday!!!

Other exciting news… we found out a few days ago that Jayme and Tim are engaged! I’m sure all of you know by now, but it’s definitely still exciting enough to mention again!

In terms of things that we’ve done in the past few days… we’ve been trying to see whatever of Dakar we can before we leave. We headed out to one of the national parks in Senegal, one right in Dakar. It also has a zoo, which we thought would be interesting…wondering if the ‘exotic’ animal section would consist of raccoons or maybe some deer. We walked down to the park, which was free to enter. We found out why. It was terrible. There was concrete and garbage all over the place, the whole thing smelled of raw sewage and the zoo was a joke. We walked around the whole thing in about an hour, kind of enjoying the trees and the break from car fumes, but mostly avoiding huge puddles and a couple of potentially rabid dogs. After encircling the entire thing, we walked through to the zoo. It only cost 35 cents to get in, but from what we could tell, it wasn’t worth it, so we left.

One of the last days before we left Baobab for Tambacounda, I received an email from Magueye telling me that the package my mom had sent five weeks earlier had finally arrived! John and I took a taxi up to Camberene Deux, to meet Magueye and go to the post office. When we arrived they were eating lunch (AHH!) so we were forced to sit down and have some. It was a nice little reminder of why we shouldn’t be complaining about our current pasta-only diet! Cheikh was really excited to see us, which was really cute. We had to take two ‘clando’ cars to get to the post office. I asked Magueye how we would know that the car was a clando car, and he told me that they were the ‘really old ones’. This is a hilarious comment, since the average year of a car in Dakar is probably 1990. Regardless, we made it to the post office, and it was, of course, closed. Luckily, it reopened at three, so we waited in the unbearable mid-day heat for awhile. After getting my package, which involved me having to show my PASSPORT, we were off and back to Baobab, happy to have two new skirts to add to my very limited wardrobe and tons of crystal light to add to our normally boring water.


On the Saturday before we left Dakar, we headed down to Cap Manuel, which is just south of the city. We finally found the place where the Lonely Planet guide book took all of its pictures to trick people into going to Dakar. It was really beautiful. There were tons of nice hotels, with restaurants overlooking gorgeous beach views. We took a long walk along the coast, making our way back up to Dakar. The views of the city were incredible (Dakar from a distance looks very different!), and the beaches were pristine. We definitely would consider staying in this region when we return to Dakar before our flights.

During this week while in a taxi, we suddenly pulled off the road and parked. We went through the usual scenarios…could it be that the driver spotted one of his friends and wants to have a chat (happened all the time)? maybe the car was breaking down? the driver wanted to buy something from someone on the side of the road? Then we realized that all the cars had pulled off the road. An entourage of about 5 black SUVS with dark tinted windows drove by, followed by 7 or 8 similar looking cars, followed by more SUVS. Apparently it was the president driving by. It was really neat to see, and kind of funny that all of a sudden all the cars in Dakar actually abided by some common rule of the road. After the president passed, we continued on our way home. This day was also the day that we realized how weird some of the stuff is that people sell on the side of the road. While you’re in a car or taxi, and stopped at a light, people constantly come up to the window, to ask for money or try to sell you something. We’ve seen everything from curling irons to sunglasses to laminated posters of fruit. We’re not sure what those are for, but our best guess is that it’s an oversized placemat (because all meals are eaten on the floor, not at a table). It’s really weird to see, and we often wonder what they think a bunch of tubabs would want with a big water-proof picture of a pineapple.

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Photos

View of Dakar
View of the city from Cap Manuel

Plage des Enfants
"Children's Beach"

In da club
John and Alex at the club. We went to hear some Senegalese music...and apparently 'try' the beer

Comments

[Cathie Flynn]

Another great Shot of John in a Bar
I think this is the best face ever John!!!