Discover Dakar with your senses

Today I will introduce you to Dakar with the five senses. I find this fitting since my nose has been in hyperdrive here; both smelling, and sneezing, the latter due to the surplus of sand in this country coupled with taxi exhaust.

Smells:

• Right now I smell fish frying in the kitchen. The very nice maid is making it for the family. (Most middle class families in Dakar have maids who come from rural areas to make a better living than selling themselves as prostitutes or begging in the streets. So unlike what is often the case in the US, being a maid here is a pretty respectable job.) We will be eating this with spaghetti around 9 tonight for dinner from a platter that everyone shares while sitting around a table. I will be eating with the girls upstairs and the boys will eat the same thing but in another room downstairs.
• On my walk to school I smell vendors on the streets roasting nuts to sell to passersby. They are very tempting and one day I will have to buy some. I will wait until I know how to bargain in Wolof though because then I will get a better price for them.
• When I took a car rapide, which is a rainbow bus that is stuffed with passengers wishing to get somewhere cheaply, all I could smell was exhaust from the many cars squeezed together along the road. Dakar is truly a city like I've never lived in before.

Tastes:

• Lots of onions! One of the main agricultural products in Senegal is the onion, so many of the dishes we eat here are full of onions. And not just onions that we put in our dishes for some extra flavor, they are the principal vegetable in some Senegalese dishes and one probably eats 2 whole onions in one meal.
• Sophisticated spices. When I was speaking with one of the Senegalese professors here he articulated the difference between Senegalese food and American food. The difference is that in America, every bite of a dish tastes exactly the same, whereas in Senegal every bite, and even within one bite, you taste a progression of flavors. It doesn't matter if it is the Senegalese tea, ataya, or the famous dish tièboudjeun, every meal contains spices with little time-bombs programmed to go off at different times in your mouth.
• Fish, beef, and chicken. The staple meats of Dakar. The fish because Dakar is on the ocean so lots of people make their living here as fishermen. We took a walk along a fishermen beach the first day we were here and there were so many boats and fish, it was crazy! And you really had to watch where you walked so as not to step on a dead fish. Since I've been here I've eaten all sorts of cuts from a cow, including the liver. Dakar is not like Denver where you are not allowed to have livestock in the city. In fact, one of my neighbors has a goat and a chicken in his back court yard, they are named magique and magique 2 respectively. The chicken is also not like in the US because it does not come boneless, so I am learning how to eat from the bones; somebody should give me lessons...
• Some of you will be sad to hear that I have not tasted yams here yet, but I have had cassava root.
• Bizarre but delicious fruit juices. Examples include baobab fruit juice, bissop flower juice, ginger juice, ditakh juice (google it), and more well known varities like mango, guava, and pineapple.

Sounds:

• Call to prayer. It starts at 6 am, lasts an hour each time, and happens five times each day, finishing around 11 pm. I live next to a mosque so I hear the call to prayers when I wake up and when I go to sleep. But I must say, Senegal has a special gift because Muslims and Christians live, eat, and socialize together in peace. For example, most of my host family is Catholic, but my host cousin who live with us is Muslim. They say that since they were brothers and sisters before Islam and Christianity began influencing the country, they are still brothers and sisters after. A lot of other countries need to learn from Senegal.
• Honking. Pedestrians do not have the right of way here, that is saved for the taxis. If you are in their way, they honk and won't wait for you to move. This is even more complicated when most of the streets do not have sidewalks. Stepping on the break is their last resort. For a country full of people on African time, drivers always seem to have somewhere to go, and fast! I think there is even more honking because I am white, and all the taximen want to drive us around. (But don't worry, I am very attentive of my environment and will not get run over.)
• Toubab. This is the Wolof word for white person. It isn't pejorative, but just states the fact of my skin and the fact that I have to lather myself in sun screen every day. I hear this word uttered amongst children when I am walking to school with the two other girls in my program since we stick out like a sore thumb.
• Asalaam Malekum. Malekum salaam. Nga deff? Maangi fi rekk. The traditional greeting here that is important to exchange with EVERYONE that you know, otherwise you risk suggesting that they are not worthy of possesing their humanity.

Sights:

• The ocean! Dakar is a peninsula, which means I often find myself stumbling across the ocean when I least suspect it at the end of a street.
  
• Touba. Not to be confused with Toubab, Touba is a city in Senegal where the Muslims go for their pilgrammage. This word is written on everything, from buses to hair dresser shops and as far as I can tell it is like writing kosher on everything.
• Trash. Senegalese don't have trash cans along the road, so you just throw your trash when you are done with it. Eventually it is burned when somebody collects a pile of it and sets fire to it, which adds to the smells I sneeze at.
• Soccer! There are people playing soccer everywhere, and there are lots of soccer fields (made out of sand). Plus, right now the African Soccer tournament is going on so we watch the games on the television at night. It's a good way to learn African geography.

Feelings:

• The sun beating down with vengence.
• Potholes galore when you are riding in a car. Most of the roads in Dakar are not paved. This makes driving around very interesting and if you get carsick, you should not drive in Dakar.
• Cold water showers. Very few families have hot water in their houses. If you want to take a hot shower you have to boil water first. I am too lazy for that, so, like a true Senegalese, I brave the cold and hold my breath each morning when I take a shower.
• Sore muscles. I have done a ton of walking since I've been here. It takes about 45 minutes to get to some of my classes and an hour for other classes. Sometimes walking is the best way to get there because the traffic is so bad that you would get there faster if you walked.

Hopefully that gives you a better mental picture of where I am living and learning.
A plus tard,
Colleen