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Published: December 19th 2010
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Carits latrine
Unsure if I mentioned it but I inspected latrines for Caritas and we did another inspection to ensure all was tip top Dear Family and Friends
As christmass is quickly approaching I am taking some time for reflection. As i talk to you people back home I realise just how fucking different Sénégal is. In Sénégal there is no snow, christmass shopping, christmass music(thank god, not sure if i could take X-mass music in these 25 degree heat), no family, and most importantly no food, well there is obviously food, but its the same shit every day, eg no cookies, stuffing, egg nog, etc. I suppose you really do not notice how much you appreciate something when you do not have it.
So to give you guys an idea of how different things are ill just give you a small update for what the average daily life is like here in Saint-Louis. Now that I am becoming a climitized to the weather and culture that I no longer think it strange to do many of the things that I do. Rather I take them on face value.
There are certain things that do stand out, that still frequently jar with me. For example people’s perception of heat here is very different from home. I have been told by people that
Baobalb tree
They are the national tree of senegal and they are quite distinctive Saint Louis is the cold part of Sénégal, this may be true, but the brutal realist in me cannot be sympathetic to the relativist statement. I mean I think the coldest it has been here is like maybe 20… maybe, and often at much much hotter you can easily see people wearing wooly hats, sweaters, etc. it is truly mind boggoling how one can adapt to the heat. I myself felt rather cold this morning, had to wear a sweater until 9:30.
So for just daily life I have been aclimitized to Senegals weather, but certain things when living in a tropical country there are certain things that you just either become habitualized with or constantly on guard for. By example, water is something you have to carry with you at almost all times. One of the nice things about living in a hot country though is that I never have to go pee, like I mean never! It also does not seem to have a correlation to how much you drink either, alcohol is the exception here. When on the off chance that your bladder does let you pee, it much closer resemblance to crude oil in its
viscosity than the slightly colored water that us hydrated westerners are accustomed too. Another lovely side effect is that the urine reeks like some poisonous gas used in WWI, usually choking me every morning. Thus chronic dehydration has the benefit of rarely having to pee, but unsure if that outweighs the other side effects, let alone the health implications.
Food for me is pretty meager all things considered. Almost without fail every morning I eat knock off nutella called Chocomouse with a baguette for breakfast. Lunch unfortunately is a moving target, since Lies and Yeorie do not eat a regular lunch I am left to fend for myself. I have been alternating between eating burgers, eggs and more baguettes, left overs, or nothing for lunch. While dinner is served quite late at night around 9, and it is usually fairly un-exotic pasta, as it is easy. Thus my cuisine experience is fairly bland and (un)exceptional in Sénégal. Ironically my co-expatriates, who live with Sénégalese families, are often sick and tired of rice and fish and dying to eat something that tastes like home, while I am dying to eat something local and exotic.
How eating out here works
is that in the morning little ladies(often actually rather large housewives) open up stalls outside the several schools that neighbor my house to sell small sandwichs which are quite cheap and really good. Like bread with a spicy bean sauce. Usually by midafternoon the entire town is out of bread and people prepare for lunch which does not entail bread. Thus I cannot pick up a cheap sandwich for lunch.
Another thing just on daily life is that related to meals is that as a foreigner I am woefully ignorant of the going ons of this culture, the streets are often inexplicably empty some days, or portions of the day. I am constantly caught by the mid afternoon call the prayer, especially on Fridays as it closes most buisnesses. And I wander aroun town aimlessly looking to eat something. In this country wandering down the street it is easier to find food at 3 am in the morning than 3 in the afternoon.... It is really quite strange.
Food here is at times startlingly inexpensive, while at others almost on par with home prices. For example a baguette is only 50 cence, a kilo of onions is a
dollar, peanuts are almost free. I think a kilo of raw peanuts is like 25 sence, while a kilo of roasted peanuts is maybe a dollar(that includes shelled and salted). A lone burger from a fast food joint is about 3 dollars, but any kind of proper meal from a restaurant in town is just shy of 10 dollars. Anything that is aimed and marketed at tourists, especially food and commodity wise is quite expensive. For example a beer at the tourist bars is about 2.25, while at the local bars a large beer, double the size, there is only 1.75. Thus imports across the board are quite expensive, cereal is almost the same price of more than home, looking at 9 dollars for a box of corn flakes!
Certain things have started to drive me absolutely bat shit insane though. I have attempted to categorize the things that piss me off the most. At the moment for most annoying environmental factor is tied between musquitos and the sand. My room is covered in dust and sand, all the floors need sweeping ALL the time and the feeling of sand on tile floor is starting to really drive me
nuts, or having sand in my sheets. Our runner up the mosquitoes, happen to be particularly viscious at my house, I cannot sit and read on my balcony without being fuckin swarmed by the little blood suckers. I attempt to ignore them as long as possible but in the corner of my eye I can see their erratic hovering, taunting me and waiting for me to expose a patch of my skin to feast upon, nor do my fits of flawling rage with my book, hands and limbs do much to remove their presence. If I want to sit anywhere outside, eg outside of the safe confines of my mosquito net and sandy bed, I have to put on pants, socks and a long sleeve shirt. The little fuckers are particularly tenacious around dusk, its virtually impossible to be outside to enjoy a drink at dusk and not be molested by them. And I have avoided the 900 hundred pound gorilla called malaria, loitering about in this tirade. I have this constant, quite real fear that one of these bastards will infect me.
A close third to the sand and mosquitoes are the domestic flies, which will swarm your
food, drink and yourself, having no dignity, or shame by preferring to land on the moist parts of your face, eg eyes, nostrils, and mouth. There are few things more irritating and aggravating than having a fly try and crawl into your mouth or nose.
So asside from this tirade, I have little else to update. I mean I have to say that missing Christmass is going to be more difficult than expected; but you know I think I will survive. I think to blunten the homesickness I'll take the day off, go to a nice beach side resort, relax in the balmy 25 degree weather and think to myself as I soak in the rays, drinking a large cold sugar filled alcohalic beverage, listening to the crash of the waves, that this sure beats the fucking rain, sleet, snow, and tesitcal freezing cold Canada that you guys have to endure.
Love
Jan
P.S. but really I am going to miss home, I really am!
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Amadou M. Sall
non-member comment
Hello, Jan
St-Louis is my home town. After reading this post, my only comment is "St-Louis doesn't like you because you don't like St-Louis". Why don't you just go back home? Also even as a supposedly "Francophone" reader I'm shocked by your spelling. Have you ever been to school?