Advertisement
Published: September 22nd 2011
Edit Blog Post
ZERO femmes de plage
some of Madame BinBins counterparts: full of beads, and beans ;) Shocks:
Here is a short glimpse into my very polarized presentation of "good" and "bad" development.
Let it be known, my jaw was generally on the floor the first five days, and exasperations were often followed quickly by my barraging of locals, friends, hotelers, etc. into how certain developments happened and how they feel about them. even if it's not so polite to ask questions in Senegal...this toubab was the pesky interlocutor this time 'round.
Favorite development stories:
"good" 1) sidewalks! hoorah! a simple walk to the local patisserie used to mean several minutes of areligious hail Mary's while dodging swerving taxis, loose-cannon scooters, clacking metal heaps of bus, occasional kids and dogs underfoot, and hopping of rainy season mudholes. now, one plods along a cement sidewalk, complete with pedestrian dips for ease of crossing. almost doesn't feel like i have earned those 2 pain au chocolat and pain au raisin once i get there now.
"bad" 2) malls! barf! in 2005, i saw the first version of an indoor "mall" there. it was 3 stores joined by a hallway and roof, with quasi climate control. neon lights in glass windows, the clothing, sports and high-end
BAD shopping mall
watch out Mall of America. grocery store had awed me then, and left me feeling slightly uncomfortable among all my toubab counterparts.
now, one can cruise this jersey mall among rich of all colors, offering everything from Diesel to Samsung (though how soon the threads wear and how soon the screen flash, who knows). luckily, this monstrosity is hidden below street level along the main coastal road in the city...tucked beneath the Radisson 5-star hotel, its subterrain posititioning allows it to open up almost directly to the ocean.
if not the mall, one can also pay about 20 euros to drape oneself along the Radisson pool...which seems to flow almost seamlessly into its ocean horizon.
"zero development" 3) my favorite kind.
this was one of my favorite moments of my trip...so listen up! ...some you may recall from my travelblog in 2005, a certain
Madame BinBin who sold me not only these cheap sexual belly beads, but also a necklace strung of coffee beans that I have been pretty much wearing ever since.
http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Senegal/Cape-Verde-Peninsula/Dakar/blog-25257.html yep, 6 years i have had this thing around my neck. watching the clasp green with oxidation each time i need to remove it
GOOD fairtrade
the first time i see a Fairtrade product on a shelf in Senegal for a back adjustment. it has been my promise to myself to keep Senegal with me. blah blah blah.
well, on day 5 of Sojourn, i had it viciously ripped from around my neck by a kid who has been rotted by aforementioned flat-screen t.v....at his unexpected violent pull from behind my neck, somehow the fishing wire snapped at the clasp instead of choking me, and the little coffee beans went flying across the white, Mendici royal couch.
i soothed myself with:
oooooh, the irony.
there were tears and scoldings, and then 30 minutes later with my heart still heavy and composure shaky, i got ready to go the beach as planned that day.
kilometers later, while pottling around in shallow ocean water, facing my old house (oh, how i miss thee simple family and simple life), i was still broken up about my necklace, and honestly still recovering from the shock of the mal-intent. when...a strange prickling on my neck this time had me turn and gaze beachward at the late afternoon sunbathers.
it was a group of voices wafting over beach murmurs and low tide lappings that had drawn my attention beachward.
ZERO power still gets cut
unannounced power cuts all around. the good thing is, it drives t.v. and facebook (yes!) addicts to rooftop hangouts and rock games. lookie here i thought, smiling:
after 6 years, though the beach is now "developed" with lounge mats and umbrellas, there are still those Madame BinBins at least...trolling the beaches, hawking their cheap sexy belly beads and what-not. there they were now, using their bosomly soothing voices and pleasant stubborness to sell their colorful goods.
but wait...didn't I know that one particular swagger? even without my contact lenses, i was sure that cacophonous behind and broad laugh was one i knew.
she was busy shoving her woven basket of wares under the noses of some well-off french filles, but i couldn't contain myself.
i padded up quickly to her through the wet sand...
"Madame BinBin?"
...i choked back my american, puppy dog enthusiasm...
she glanced up at me, curiously. I muttered out in broken french something about "il y a 6 ans" i had bought her coffee bean necklace and that just "ce matin" it had been "casse" by some little boy.
like Tom the tomcat, with her left eye making sure the french filles has not lost interest in her wares, she locked her right on me, confirmed what i had just said, and
GOOD Skype Saves the Korite
...and families. it's all too common to have the fathers far from home, some whom have never met their young children. but with skype in the village, holidays are spent...errr, together? let just one teardrop go. had i really remembered her after 6 years? how could it be?...she choked back showing her nostalgie. as Senegalese often do...
i plopped myself down on the sand beside her, secretly signaling her that she had time to swindle---i mean---sell to the two french tweens.
i wanted to assure her we'd have time to talk, because i was going nowhere. as i, so so so thankfully, was glad she too, had gone nowhere. at least someone was stuck in time with me.
...though i couldn't help weeks later, as i fingered my new coffee beans necklace, wondering...if... MadameBinBin...has been to the mall?
.
.
.
see bottom of page for more fotos!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.204s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 15; qc: 74; dbt: 0.0874s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb