Another Birthday Abroad

Looking at the clock I see its 10pm here, 5pm in Washington, DC, and I am about to run out of time at the cyber cafe and battery power on my laptop. This would be a good thing since I’m still working on Geekcorps stuff, after a full day at the Geekcorps Senegal office. So another 12-hour day ends for me, just in time for dinner and a shower before bed. Oh, did I mention this is my birthday? Or well it kinda is and kinda isn’t.

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Senegalese Sprinting Society

Ever wonder how to attract the attention of kids in Africa? Well I can tell you exactly how to captivate an entire mob of kids in Senegal: run by with a GPS and a digital camera. Now you can just run by and they’ll call and maybe run with you for a bit, but if you have toys, preferably cool toys, you now have an instant fan base.

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A Little Russia in Ngor

At first I was a little confused. The lady behind the counter would not take my money. I wanted that fancy little Danish, or since it was a French bakery, the pastry, and she had it in her hand, but she refused the usual cash for product exchange. Slowly, I realized I should pay her friend at the cashier. So I did and a receipt I received. That’s when the lady snapped the receipt out of my hand and gave me my dessert, and I realized I was dealing with the Soviet three-line system. Devised by some customer-hating apparatchik, the three-line system strives to laborize and extended what should be an efficient and quick purchasing system.

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Surf’s Up in Senegal

In ‘The Endless Summer’ two surfers travel around the globe looking for waves while California is deep in is doldrums. The first stop for these world-wanderers: Dakar. In the movie, they surf some crap beach break, which made me think that I shouldn’t expect much from Senegal. With tiny swells breaking on miniscule beaches, I wasn’t impressed enough to even get my toe wet in the ocean. This afternoon, I switched hotels, and when I opened the French doors (of course!) to my balcony(!) and looked out, I couldn’t believe my eyes. There, just in front of the hotel was a small island with the most amazing and heart-stopping long waves breaking around it on both sides. Like a pear wrapped in gold, or a diamond incrusted with emeralds, the view stopped me speechless and dumbstruck.

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Dozing in Dakar

Now I wanna say that I like Dakar, really wanna say I love it, but actually I don’t. I don’t dislike it either now, it just is, I guess. It is a tropical African city, exciting and amazing if you happen to speak French and or happen to be a woman. As a non-Frenchie guy, the place isn’t what Yana, a French-speaking black woman, would make it out to be. For me, Dakar, with its French + Muslim culture is… well it’s a bore. And I day this with a heavy heart and much investigation.

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