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.
Read MoreSurf’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.
Read MoreDozing 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.
Read MoreHi Jacque, Welcome to Dakar!
Six in the morning and I’m standing outside Senegal’s main airport, Dakar International, with my bags at my feet and an ache in my head. Its been seven hours and two Tylenol PM’s since I left Washington DC in a mad rush to make this flight. I am still kinda shocked at the mileage of this week. Monday was a DC workday before I caught an evening flight to California. There I pitched Geekcorps to HP on Tuesday for a $1.2 million. Yes, HP as in Hewlett Packard, and yes, I was nervous as hell.
Read MoreWoohoo, I’m going to West Africa!
I really don’t know how I go this lucky. How I could find a job that (so far) I love so much. Not only do I get to talk technology all day long to people excited about it, but I get to send hard-core geeks on all-expenses paid trips to Joe-cool countries. Yeah, its not hard to convince that nerdy IT guy lurking in the depths of your company’s server room to spend four months in sunny Senegal, talking to other geeks who will hang on his every word and copy his every move.
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