Blogs from Senegal, Africa - page 5

Mardi après-midi a été marquée par mon entretien avec M. le Directeur et une journée au bureau assez longue : de 8h à 19h30. Mon entretien s’est vraiment bien passé. Cet ancien colonel des forces spéciales parachutistes, un homme brillant et fort, laisse cependant transparaître beaucoup de sollicitude et un vrai paternalisme. Mon passé au Prytanée Militaire m’aide à comprendre le personnage. Il veut que je sois son bras droit, un bras droit parmi les autres, cependant le seul qui puisse vraiment le rejoindre en esprit dans ce lieu où nous restons étrangers. Il me fait l’honneur de sa confiance, une confiance presque au-dessus de mes compétences j’en ai peur. Cependant je n’ai que des opportunités ici et des soutiens partout. L’homme de bonne volonté a déjà les bonnes armes pour réussir, je veux en faire ... read more

Distance travelled from Cape Town: 3,704 nautical miles From Walvis Bay we have been on a North Westerly heading. We crossed over the Angola Basin at a depth of 5000m, just over 3 miles deep, before crossing the equator. Rounding the 'bump' of the African continent we sailed past the coast of Liberia and headed north toward Dakar, Senegal. The day before we docked we received a notice from MSC in our cabin: As a measure of general precaution, as the security and personal safety of our guests is always paramount to us (translated as: we don't want to have the shit sued out of us!!) we recommend you exercise extra caution and remain aware of your surroundings when in the vicinity of any large gatherings or, more in general, in areas that are particularly crowded.'This ... read more

My first day in Dakar!... read more

Last year in Senegal I decided to leave the safe bustling compound of my family and being an independent (budget) adventurer, chose to travel by public (shared) taxi from the depot in downtown Dakar to St Louis in the north, 6 hours away by car; there(theoretically ) I would once again meet up with my sister and The Truck. There are many nuances to this mode of travel that are revealed only as the journey unfolds. First of all one has to wait until the taxi is full before leaving the depot...this can take quite a while as there are not exactly hoards of people making this journey on a random weekday morning. The next problem is that if you want a window rather than a middle seat where you run the risk of being sandwiched ... read more

I had decided to return to Ghana, a country where I volunteered in 2004 and made a number of friends (something which is not hard to do in a friendly country like Ghana) and where I was sponsoring a few schools and libraries. So I wanted to take the relatively rare occasion of a trip to Africa as an opportunity to visit one other African country. Senegal was a pretty easy decision, as I had heard a lot about it - the music, wrestling, fashion, food, and other cultural and natural wonders. Upon arriving in Dakar, I was happy that I decided to hire the hotel's private taxi service (although I found out later they charged me at least 5 times the standard rate), as I was literally mobbed as soon as I walked out of ... read more