Senegal

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So difficult to write here but out of respect I will try to. I am here in Senegal, though Mauritania is for all purposes other than geography part of sub-saharan Africa it's not really. Here is the Sahel. I spent some time in St. Louis, and now I am in Dakar. This country is the most touristic in West Africa, and for this reason I really didn't enjoy my time in St. Louis very much. Aside from all the very aggressive people who sell things to the tourists, I also escaped an attempted mugging. Which wouldn't have bothered me normally but I had injured my ankle at a big party in St. Boi in Spain so when I ran away my ankle hurt.
Fortunately when I came to Dakar my friend Amadou had given me the contacts of his family so I have been stayiçng with them for two weeks. I am surprised, as Senegal is one of the richer countries in West Africa, but wow here is poor. I think it's mainly the neighborhood I'm living in, in Pikine commune, it's one of the areas that they tell foreigners to avoid. There are some Lebanese here, but other than that I am the only white person. Wow I've never felt so white! I am probably as tan as I have ever been in my life but today I went to have my hair cut and I was looking in the mirror. I haven't looked in the mirror but one or two times since coming to Dakar and my skin is so white, my lips are so thin and harsh. It's not that bad, it's just strange that I am so phenotypically different.
The first day I was here we went to the beach and we were there for about two hours and I could feel myself starting to sunburn. I told Amadou's brothers that I should probably leave or my skin would burn. They had never had that happen, and I explained that if I didn't go inside my skin would turn really red and then white, and then it would fall off. They didn't really understand, so I clarified, saying that my skin wouldn't fall off completely but would just shed "like a snake" I explained. They looked pretty horrified at first but it was actually funny.
Most of the time is just spent together here. Right now it's world cup fever, which is very exciting, in spite of the useless US team. I was never really interested in English football until I went to some professional matches in France during the cup of france. It becomes very interesting. I read an article about which teams to support if you are neutral this webiste decided which countries were most harmful to the world and it's people and at the top were Ghana and Sweden(for teams you should support) and at the bottom were the US and Saudi Arabia. They used factors like carbon emissions, human rights records, infant mortality, GNP, and a lot of other things to rate all of the teams. You can probably look it up But I still support the US team before any other.
Yeah, in this neighborhood I am in everyone is quite poor, except for immigrants who've returned from europe or the US and marabout. It's a kind of poverty that is not actually worse than tajikistan or Afghanistan but it is more in your face is the only phrase I can think of to describe it. But I like it here better because here I really feel like I am alive, like I know what life is. The other night after watching the last match we were back at the house and the first rain of the season came, it was pouring so hard like it does in the tropics, I saw a 7 gallon or so bucket fill up in 20 minutes. I was listening to someone singing the Koran on the radio and some baby goats were in the room on the other side of the courtyard. I came out and saw the blood and the baby goats, and thought about how maybe I would eat them later on. Earlier that day I had seen a grown woman run down the street, crying, sobbing. She had come out of the neighbors house, and wow, I've never seen someone crying like that. I asked one of the kids who had stopped playing foot to watch what had happened and he told me her father had died. After the goats were born and when I went to the toilet and smelled that powerful odor of shit which becomes less and less noticeable the longer I stay here, it really reinforced in me the notion that this is what life is, and that we've banished so many of these things that are uncomfortable, but that we are so far away from what we are. This is the city, this is urban life in Africa.
The streets are sand, and there is lots of garbage piled everywhere. Lots ambiance as they say. I like having the same quality of life as not so well to do Africans. It can be a little rough but it makes me feel like I am more connected with what the condition of the majority of my brother humans is. Everyone here in this quarter is very friendly... when I walk down the street children shout my name and say Bon Joo! It's a good energy. I have been to the center of town, the city, but I don't like it. It's packed with foreigners and hustlers, and things are more expensive. Same goes for Fann, and the other districts closer to the center. I like to stay in Pikine because in other quarters when I see rich people and BMWs and expensive French style restaurants it is a shock... just crossing town and back is like loving between worlds. And here the beach is ten minutes walk from the house and there are no vendors, thieves or hustlers whatso ever. I like how here everything is together, everything is shared. It's funny because I am in the middle of reading Damien by Hermann Hesse in French and that book is an intensely individualistic book. It's a good book but it contrasts with here quite a lot.
There are some African families here that live just like Europeans, and they don't speak Wolof or Serer with their kids, only French. There are women who use horrible chemical products to try to make their skin whiter but actually make them look like corpses. Wow I understand Frantz Fanon more now, the psychology of colonialism is not going to come undone easily. I am going to try to post a couple of photos from other people journals just to give a short idea of what it looks like, but I will eventually get around to copying my pictures onto disk and I will put them up. Here, time and money are French concepts, and they are expresses in french even by people who don't speak any french. Time moves a little bit slower here. I have had a package for three weeks now that I have been trying to send, but first the customs man was on vacation, and now I think I will just give up on it.
Mafé is the best dish here in my opinion, but everyone like thiebo djene fish with rice but sometimes I think it tastes like carrion. I like it though.
Of course since I am a guest I have very high status. I can command everyone who is younger than me or a oman to do what I want, to go buy things for me or get me water or juice, a radio or a book etc.
And how did children get such a ridiculously high status in the US? No way I am going to raise my kids in a country where if you beat them they call child services. At first I was squeamish about hitting the kids but now if they disrespect me or behave badly I feel totally comfortable walloping them with a stick. And all of the kids love me too because I play with them and occassionally give them pennies. But if I ask them not to do something twice and they do it again... BAM! It keeps them in line. I feel like if I didn't hit them they would lose all respect for me anyway. I think about how badly behaved kids are in the US and how many toys they have. Here the kids toys include... a broken tea pot, a machete, knives, sticks, and old refrigerator grate, brooms, strainers. Why would you buy children specific items as toys when common household items work just as well?
I don't know what more I can say about my life. I don't do much. I train a lot for wrestling. I am a good wrestler. Here traditional wrestling is called lutte avec frappe... wrestling with hitting. It keeps the body and mind tough I suppose. I mostly play with the kids, read, listen to music or BBC or RFI, eat, watch the world cup, sit in the shade with people and talk or don't talk. Or I walk around the quarter. I think that about says it. Right well I am planning a trip soon so then I will write about that bye
Alex

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