La Tabaski, Thanksgiving, FESMAN & more blackouts…

Its been a little while since I blogged, I think. A lot has happened since then. Well for one we got invited to a fête – a muslim festival of sacrifice following the period of Hajj (pilgrimmage to Mecca). It’s Eid el Kebir (in French) but is commonly known here at La Tabaski.  Interestingly they have local names for all the muslim festivals (la Korité for Eid ul Fitr celebrated at the end of Ramadhan which we were here for). Anyways, it happened on the November 17th and one of the things about Tabaski is that there is ram slaughter that goes on. It is celebrated to honor the gesture of Abraham (the father of monotheism as the story goes), whom God had commanded to sacrifice his child.  In the story,(Christians should be familiar with this) the son, Isaac, is saved at the last moment, when a ram was sent from heaven to replace him as a sacrifice. Needless to say for days before Tabaski everyone had a ram tethered to their door/gate, in their courtyard outside their house. There were rams everywhere in the markets. Cris of course couldn’t take the smell of rams anymore. On the day off of course many a lamb was slaughtered. Sometimes you were just driving by a place and would catch a slaughtering session. We thought we here lots of lamb cries or something but it was nothing that dramatic, no ‘silence of the lambs’. So for our Tabaski, we spent the day with a nice Senegalese family that I was introduced to by their brother who lives in the US. The food was really good. The first round we ate turned out to be appetizers ! That was grilled ram, thrown in some olives, onions, and mustard (trust me, it was good) We were yet to eat the main course…that was really delicious too. Everything was ram all day everywhere. People exchanged the ram they cooked with other households. It was a big ram day. Of course this is just a summary. The actual day started off with prayer, which being a muslim country, we found out that because there were big crowds at some mosques they simply prayed on the streets which were blocked off. Stores were closed, streets were empty. It was a rather nice day with good food. I guess we had expected a lot of hullabaloo like big parties or something but it all appeared very subdued from our perspective. It sort of felt like a Thanksgiving in the sense that it was about getting together with family and friends over a big meal.

Which brings me to that. Thanksgiving was really good. We got invited by an American living/working here to her home. She had 2 huge Turkeys and everything you would want/have at Thanksgiving. This is not an easy feat especially since she invited like 20-25 Americans to her house. It turns out that she brought the turkeys from Germany on a trip there for a conference (no place to get Turkeys in Dakar that anyone of us knows of). It all turned out really well and even got to watch the Thanksgiving football game ! 

We’ve since discovered a couple of cool spots. They both happen to completely new and so are sort of on the uber-trendy side, as we’ve noticed a few things (investments) in Dakar are. One is an ice-cream place in the city and the other is a hotel/restaurant in Les Almadies the northern part of the city. We stumbled into the ice-cream place while walking out of the city and it’s proven to be pretty nice discovery — good crêpes; great natural flavors sorbet ice cream (including passion and guava !) service is great and decor is inviting especially since everything is so new. The hotel Le Pointe des Almadies we discovered because we got invited to someone’s birthday. I would recommend this place to anybody visiting Dakar. Again, perhaps because it’s new, appealing decor and really good ambiance, very inviting.

In other news, we moved. We wanted to be closer to the places we frequent and we found a suitable place for our needs. We are now in the Liberté a good middle location to a lot of things. We also got cable — yes, gave in to that one. Interesting programming, we’re glad that worked out. We also get internet at home before Christmas. We now also have a lady who comes by to clean but who also cooks, a great and convenient way to experience Senegalese cooking, so we’re happy with her as well. Of course this is how we found out how much oil they use in Senegalese cooking. Someone had once mentioned it, but we had no idea. You can’t tell from eating or looking at the food, most times that is, but we can tell because we get through a regular bottle of oil in about 4-5 sessions of cooking. Granted she makes food that should last about 2-3 meals at a time. Senegalese always have presentation with their food…I don’t know if this a French aspect of them. Anyways, so the food is good (meaning we have no power to protest the way i.e. amount of oil used to cook it since that’s the way they cook but we may eventually…we’ll see the outcome of all this :=) One other thing I find interesting about the new place is that everytime we take a taxi here (it’s kind of like NY in that way here…you take taxis a lot) they take a different route, to avoid traffic usually, to everywhere. Since we’re in the center of things it makes there tends to be more ways to maneuver within the city — what this is doing for us is we’re getting to see so much of the city in just this way and that’s not bad at all. Seems like we’re finally settling in, right?

OK the big deal FESMAN (Festival Des Arts Negres) or Black world festival is here. It starts December 10 and runs till the 31st. The program will be held in different parts of the city as well as other parts of the country. It should be interesting, for one, because the host country (yes, it’s not Senegal) is Brazil. While I’m looking forward to that we’ve noticed that blackout season is here again ! and guess what ? it’s because of FESMAN. Apparently there is only but so much power and if they are using it for FESMAN related activities then you can’t have it at the same time (??). This has already created some ambivalence about the festival on my part. While I am curious to see how everything will go (and hoping to enjoy some arts myself)…I am not looking forward to 15 or so hours (albeit on and off) of blackouts per day…I mean one has to ask what’s the point in having cable and internet etc at home if you can’t even use it and, you’re still paying for it all? Still, it seems like you rather have it than not…so we do

The weather is even better now than when I last blogged about it. You can see a lot of Senegalese wearing long sleeve shirts, pullovers and so on but it’s really nice (with some heat intensity here and there). Shows you how relative things like that are. I’m was so used to the heat being so intense that now that it’s about 85F degrees with a breeze and I actually feel like I might need a long sleeve shirt myself.  

We don’t know yet what we’re doing for christmas so we’ll see but we want to try and make it north to St. Louis the original french capital of the region (it was at one point part of France, i.e. the residents were considered French citizens). It has an intriguing (relative to other french sub-Saharan colonies) colonial/precolonial history too. We want to be there towards the end of the year and begin the new year there because they have what is know as the ‘Lantern Festival’ or locally Fanal de St. Louis. The festival goes back to colonial times but is actually considered African (or of slaves/the locals and not colonizers). In fact the  festival is suspected to have come from the carribean. There are some interesting things I’ve been reading about the trans-atlantic trade and how some things were transferred in reverse (some from slaves that somehow made it back or were brought back etc). Look it up for better information, but this festival is also held I think in the Gambia and some other country in Africa. In the Carribean it also exists in Jamaica, Haiti, and I believe one other island that I forget right now. Since I’m already talking about it…better go and finalize those plans.

  

This (photo) is after the Tabaski lunch…

Toubab Dialaw

We spent the weekend in Toubab Dialaw about an hour away (50km south) from Dakar. This was supposed to happen the weekend of my birthday but we didn’t plan it on time. We arrived on Friday and it was a great weekend. We couldn’t believe that we were able to rent a villa I found online for the weekend (at a really decent rate, I suppose because it’s off season and well, not in Miami) right on the waterfront. The back entrance opened up to the beach. On our last night we had some invasion of some bugs, not sure which, I haven’t encountered them before but they were little. There was someone on the property to make sure things were going ok and so we reported the bug problem upon which he informed us that for one they’re attracted by light (also it’s some type of season/climate/something). Never a dull moment here. We sprayed a lot of bug spray and went to bed a little earlier than we normally would (so as to turn off the lights) to keep the bugs away. It worked out. Plus, this was actually good for us because we got up early the following morning and had more time in the day to appreciate the beach and being here.

I don’t know if I’ve ever actually spent as much time in water (as I did here) on particular trip to the ocean. I just wanted to stay in the water. I think I was making up for all the hot days we’ve had here that we were not able to cool off in some water body. We went back and forth from the pool to the beach and then back again for the entire stay only interrupted by meals and short walks in the area…

We’ve discovered that the beaches here are better than any in Dakar. They have less people (we only had one other family come to the beach the entire weekend!) they are cleaner, and there are no hawkers trying to sell you any and every thing.

On the first night we ate at a hotel nearby. But the following day while walking spotted a restaurant/bar/auberge (auberge = hostel) sign in the distant and cut across some grass and shrubs to get to it. We banged on the gate to see if there was anyone there and someone did come to the entrance. A French lady invited us in and we followed her through a courtyard where we were transported to a little rusty French bistro-like eating place. We had the best steaks we’ve had since arriving here (OK we haven’t had that many yet anyway because we eat primarily seafood everywhere we go but it was good !). Everything else on the plate was just as good. Needless to say we came back for a meal the following day right before we had to leave town. We even had the best Bissap (a local hibiscus fruit juice) we’ve had so far here !

Good weather is here…and a potpourri of thoughts

So, I was thinking the other day that being in Senegal is really a kind of alternative reality because when you’re in English speaking African countries you still have access to a lot of American shows, British TV, even some local programming tends to be versions of reality TV shows that you are already aware of. The food brands in the store might be familiar and so on. But not here, well there’s coke and other coca cola products and that’s about it, I think. Oh and I guess beauty products.  We don’t have cable and local TV is often in Wolof but there are a couple of channels that have a lot of TV in French. Soaps tend to be from diverse countries, India, Lebanon, Philippines. And the other programming is random French documentaries or so it seems. We don’t have internet at home because we spend the day at WARC often anyway.

Because he has to, for English programming, Cris tunes in to BBC radio via cell phone. In fact, this has proved invaluable for getting news from within the continent and especially the West African region. At least now we are not simply removed from being in the US but actually plugging into what’s going on here. Before that I didn’t really know what’s going on unless I was online. There are times when I watch TV and see Obama and he looks like he’s from another world. Probably because you always have to be in the moment here…and that part of the world is distant compared to the issues you are dealing with in the moment. I suppose initially I was a bit disoriented as well. It’s interesting that before coming here I was glad to learn that they have CASINO the French supermarket chain because at that point it was the only thing I knew for sure/could reference before actually arriving here. So, I guess we are always looking for some familiarity, a point de repère as the French would say…I didn’t want to just assume that because it was Africa that West Africa would just be like East Africa, I wanted to stay open. It feels culturally different in some ways but then again it feels similar in many.  One of the reasons I wanted to Dakar is because it’s similar to Nairobi and yet different at the same time. East coast vs. West Coast, Muslim vs. Christian, former French colony vs. former British colony, different sets of multicultural influences but also different subcultures and ethno linguistic influences. But it is also these very things that also make them similar and comparable such as being their regional economic capitals, diversity, etc 

This reminds me, we’ve been looking for a new apartment that will be closer to everything we do and just centrally located in general to everything. One of the apts we like and will probably be moving into is in SICAP Baobab a neighborhood that has a predominantly Cape Verdean community. Dakar also has a significant Lebanese/Syrian/Turkish population which I’ve learned has been here since the 1890s apparently. It also happens to be the regional destination for French speaking (or non) immigrants hence a lot of Guineans, Mauritanians, Togolese, Burkinabes, Malians etc

It seems a little random to do so, but I’m about to switch to money matters because some things are definitely interesting here in that respect and since we’re speaking randomly about diverse things…I should say that even though the exchange rate here seems to favor someone from the dollar economy (in that you are getting anywhere between 460-510 francs per $1 depending on the day – yes, it’s fluctuating that much!) the cost of living makes up for it. You never know how much you might spend on any given day because you never know how much things are going to cost. When you do, it’s because you’re shopping at Casino, the French supermarket chain which isn’t a bargain anyway, or you’re getting services at one of the major hotels (people do this esp. tourists, foreigners, and expatriates) which are overpriced. Everything is bartered and how much you pay largely depends on your ability to haggle. So the best thing is to do some research before going out to buy anything (where to get it and an estimated price) or as they told us during orientation, bargain things down to one half or even one third of the price they offer you initially (chances being that you were offered the foreigner price).  I usually stop where I’m comfortable because of course I’m thinking that’s only $5, it’s still a good deal even though I might be paying a little more for it. But, don’t worry they expect you to haggle…I think it’s called wahale (sp?) or something like that which explains why when you say you can’t afford it or you don’t have the money right now, their response is ‘that was my first price….’ this is usually your cue to make a counter-offer.

There is a thing that happens often is that people don’t give exact change. They always round it off. And not street vendors, I mean establishments. This happens at Casino (the chain supermarket), restaurants, even the other day to Cris at the bank! It’s a common thing (and apparently not a big deal) and I can’t help but calculate how this could  add up over time…not talking a lot of money here but I don’t know if I should get used to this or not… I also wonder how/whether they balance the cash registers at the end of the day (?) oh well… 

Oh, good news the weather is finally changing. It’s beginning to feel like late spring and they say it’s supposed to stay this way until May/June…yey ! Interesting thing too is that as the weather gets better, there’s been less blackouts. Could this be a new era? someone explained that people are probably generally using power less (i.e. not running A/C and stuff like that)…I don’t know, but I appreciate it !

As time goes…

So, the Youssou N’dour concert that we were looking forward to on Friday was cancelled, bummer…I figure we’ll get a chance to see him at some point anyway so at least its not too disappointing. But we still went to the Insitut Francais to see ‘Retour a Gorée’ (2007) a 2-hour musical documentary featuring Youssou N’dour as he travels through parts of the US and Europe looking at the mutations of modern African music..think jazz, new orleans, etc…we enjoyed it. Great soundtrack too, wonder if its available anywhere. After which we went for dinner at an Ivorien (Cote d’Ivoire) restaurant we had spotted right next to Chez Loutcha, a Cape Verdian restaurant we ate at one night. (Chez Loutcha is a place to try for sure, one of its distinguishing features I would say is how much food you get, phew ! we had food left over for a complete meal the next day !). Anyway, here we had fish, not surprisingly. Cris really enjoyed it. So, we still got a dose of Youssou N’dour and an evening out…

In other news, I’m pretty excited because I’ve started making some clothes using African wax fabric. Yesterday we were at Marché HLM where you can get all sorts of fabrics at really good prices, wax prints, bazin, brodé (a type of lace) etc…. I was in fabric heaven ! I can’t wait to have the fabrics I acquired tailored.  We are of course in Senegal so there are couturieres everywhere you turn. There’s actually a few just on the road we live on. We’ve discovered that different places are good at making different things and some tailors are simply good at one thing, for example, embroidery might be someone’s expertise. All depends on the fabrics as well etc…but of course no one will ever tell you they can’t make anything that well or at all, so you have to figure this part out for yourself by asking the right questions. Plus, we’ve simply looked at the samples they have that they claim they made themselves. I can’t wait to get a few things made !

Back to the market. Of course, there’s lots going on there too beyond fabrics, all kinds of artisans selling stuff. Will definitely be going back a few times…

We recognized the HLM market as being next to the fish market as well. Well one of the fish markets. We know this one because Pape our neighbor, who also takes care of our building, took us there last Sunday. It’s called Yarra market. I looked it up on the map after we got back and it’s in quartier Hann. Lots of species sold at the market including lots of Barracuda and some shark, well I saw mostly shark fins. Was told something about the Asian/Chinese population here buys a lot of the latter. Apparently the coast of Dakar is one of those points (in the world?) where fishing brings as diverse a harvest as they could come. They told us lots of names of fish in Wolof or French (I’m trying to translate as many as I can because we brought a fish cookbook with us, an English one, that is). So anyway, we ended up with lots of seabass, about 10 pieces of fish, or so. We didn’t realize that when they price them, they are referring to the whole lot of fish that one is looking at and so, with that one purchase we figured we had enough :=). It seems most people shop that way anyway because fish is their staple diet and they tend to live in extended families, makes sense. So anyway, we tried a couple of fish recipes and really liked the way the sauces turned out, gave us some confidence. We repeated one on the third day because we had a lot of sauce left over. We are glad that recipes are really simple and try to keep the essence of the fish…so we’d like to try some more…Cris hopes to grill some fish next time. Maybe we’ll make it a habit to go to the fish market on Sunday mornings…

The fish recipe book we brought with us. I think it’s good, only wish it had pictures because there are times it’s just difficult to figure out the fish. But, if it did it would be a much more expensive book, so I’m happy with it

The weather is changing as promised. It’s not as warm as before and they say it stays this way until around May next year. I’m quite happy about that. You wouldn’t know it could get this way when we at the Haitian students welcoming at the African Rennaissance just last week Oct 13. The heat was so oppressive we left about an hour or two after we got to the event and watched the rest on TV. Anyways, if you know a little bit about Senegal you will know that many slaves taken from this region and that passed through Gorée ended up in Haiti, Brazil, Cuba and apparently Louisiana (among other places but these were direct ports). Not surprisingly, they often make the connection (both ways) and there is even a Haitian population that’s settled here. Well, after the earthquake in Haiti, President Abdoulaye Wade initiated a call for applications to the University of Dakar and the result is that 163 students from Haiti will attend school here on scholarship. Parts of the event were moving because of the symbolic nature of all that was happening. An old Haitian repatriate Jacqueline Scott Lemoine gave a long and moving speech before the whole event was over.

Slogan at the event reads ‘Senegal and Haiti; One People’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Senegalese women at the event, always colorful
 

 

 

 

 

 

BTW, This wednesday is my birthday. Don’t have anything planned for it but we are making plans for a weekend getaway in Toubab Dialaw so looking forward to it…

L’UATP Conference, Oct 3 – Oct 7, Dakar

The L’UATP (Union Africain des Transports Publics) / African Union of Public Transport conference went well. It was held at the Hotel Le Meridien which is really nice and the whole conference was opened by remarks from Monsieur le President Abdoulaye Wade. I learned a lot about Public Transport in West Africa. All in all it was a really useful foundational exercise for my work here, just being able to network with local transportation professionals, practitioners, officials and experts from around the continent. I also gathered a lot of invaluable information (handouts, data CDs etc). The timing couldn’t have been better and, I had a good time…

(I managed a photo opp with Madame Nafy Diouf Ngom, Minister of Transport in Senegal)

  

power outages…

Sunday evening after we got back from being out, we experienced a black out at around 11pm. We’ve become accustomed to black outs by now, we’ve had one every day since we arrived for 2-3 hours at a time every evening. This time was special however, when we got up the following morning, Monday, there was still no power. Got back home that evening and still, no power. We thought this was a rather long power outage and we’d been told about such cases where power would be gone for days. Anyway, Tuesday morning and no power left us feeling really frustrated as we left home for the day ahead. By this time Cris was thinking about checking into a hotel because, of course, it’s hot and impossible to sleep without the A/C or fan on. When we got home on Tuesday evening, we decided to call the building caretaker to find out if he knew something more that we did. Of course, he was in shock that we did not have power and was like ‘why did we wait so long to tell him?’ …what??…To cut a long story short, there we were had not been in the middle of a power outage for those two days, something was wrong with a main switch. That thought had not even occured to us.

Anyway, needless to say he called an electrician who fixed the problem ! So, here we were thinking there was a prolonged power outage all this time ! All the while there had been no way to tell we were the only ones because during the hours when one could actually tell, by looking outside, there was real black out. Of course, right in the middle of the electrician fixing our problem, we experienced a black out. And, since he couldn’t tell if it was fixed or not, we all went up to the terrace (rooftop) and hang out there (people do this all the time, typical islamic or arabic? architecture) until the power came back and he was able to tell that it was fixed. I guess it’s all part of the experience !!

All this is why it was so amusing when I came across this blog (pay attention to the title)…

(Pictures above & below are of street scenes in Dakar & unrelated to post)

Visiting Gorée Island…

Gorée is a little, picturesque, Island off the coast of Dakar, what more is there to say? It took us 20 minutes to get there by ferry and we spent all day Saturday (Sep 25) there. All the other pictures are on Cris’ facebook profile. Of course, Gorée also has the dubious reputation of having been one of the ports from which slaves were picked up to be taken to the Americas, it was really moving to see that part of history…

(click on each picture to enlarge)