This first weekend in Dakar has been awesome. Just flying here and looking at the people around me was such an eye opener, and me being the people watcher that I am, you know I was soaking it all up. I kind of rolled my eyes when my Intl Business professor told me how African people (and pretty much every culture except Americas) truly care about appearance and dress up when flying or doing pretty much anything out of the ordinary flow of daily life. I only noticed two other Americans on my entire flight and they also happened to be the only people in sweats. I love being in a culture where it is appropriate to dress nicely on a daily basis. You could tell that people were coming home from either a European or American vacation and wanted to look as nice as possible when getting off the plane to prove this. On top of that, people all around the city wear some really beautiful clothes, whether it be more traditional Senegalese style clothing (which always includes really beautiful prints) or just sharp suits for the men.
Whenever I got into Dakar everything went really smoothly at the airport, but I quickly realized that some French lessons are going to be a massive asset here. I am quickly becoming an expert at nodding and smiling following the use of phrases such as "no thank you" "thank you" and "hello how are you" :-) My brother came to get me at the airport but it was night time so I couldn't really see too much of the city as we drove back to his place before dinner. We dropped my stuff off and went for amazing tapas on a roof top restaurant. The temperature here is amazing so I pretty much want to be outside as much as possible in order to soak up the sun before I am thrown back into winter. I'd say it is going to to remain between 70 and 85 degrees pretty much the entire time I am here and it is incredibly dry with a nice breeze coming of the ocean. Way better winter weather than in the states.
My brothers place is awesome especially his garden. He lives in an apartment owned by this French woman and the garden is a common area between the two places. It is pretty much exactly what I picture a relatively wealthy French woman to be living in as she does work in Africa.
As you can see it is really a nice place. Across is his landlords house and his apartment is to my right up a really nice stair case. His place is very cool too. Very european in terms of appliances and what not.
We saw some sites around the city and have begun to plan what we are going to be doing over the next few weeks and it is going to be amazing seeing some of the seaside towns and old colonial cities. One of the more notable things in the city is this is the African Renaissance Monument built by the current leader. It is a pretty controversial thing due to the fact that it cost (and will continue to cost due to maintenance) millions and millions of dollars to build in a city that lacks a lot of infrastructure, schools, and medical facilities. It is built from bronze and is currently the tallest statue in the world outside of Asia and the former Soviet Union. It looks out over the Atlantic ocean and features a man a woman and a baby. It is truly an amazing statue but it is questionable as to whether it really represents the senegalese people as the woman is relatively scantily clad and the baby seems to be reaching out over the ocean in the direction of America or Europe. It is definitely an interesting piece of work surrounded with controversy but I can't imagine any major statues in the past did not have similar implications. Here is a picture of the African Renaissance Monument
I spent New Years at a party with Brians landlords with friends which was really nice. I rang in the New Year with a massive amount of delicious food and what seemed to be an bottomless fountain of French wine and Champagne. The kids were setting off fireworks as well as neighbors and everyone was really friendly (although again French would have been a huge help when socializing). Brian, Mattheo and I had some interesting conversations and definitely had a nice time. (Wine + Food + Warm African night is a pretty no fail equation)
We also went down to a beach bar where we had some beer and watched the sunset before crossing the street to eat that their favorite Crepes restaurant. That was really nice and it was cool because there were people surfing outside of the bar and it was just a perfect view of the sunset. I forgot what it is like to be on a west coast beach and being able to see the sunset over the ocean. There are surf lessons available there as well so I am thinking I might try and sign up for some of those. The popular beers here are Gazelle and Flag which are just relatively light beers (flag being the heavier one). Abby I know you always told me how PBR's always taste different because the beers are brewed by independent breweries. Well it must be the same with flag because everyone that I get is a little bit different and even the bottles of the two that I had yesterday were a different height and color. They are good though and pretty cheap which is nice. We all know how I love my beer :-)
I love it here so far and I am excited to explore the beaches where my brother lives, see some more of the city including some markets and more bars and restaurants and of course see more of this country. Later this week we will be meeting with a Senegalese family that he is friends with so I can experience some Senegalese food and just learn more about what it is like here.
Till next then
Bonne Année!
T.J.
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