Dakar first impressions

Dakar is much poorer than I expected.
In truth, I didn't have any idea what to expect, but Sénégal is by far the worst of the third-world countries I've visited. I would say it is slightly worse than Haiti, the poorest country in the western Hemisphere. Nonetheless, the people are proud to be Senegalese and are so happy to share their culture with others. Senegal is the land of terranga, or hospitality, and for the most part that is felt throughout Dakar.

Far from being a busy cosmopolitan city, it is definately bustling but retains that small village feel. It is divided into quartiers, and is hardly centralized, though there is une place central at the southern tip of the city. Foreigners stand out here. They call us les toubabs (the Senegalese equivalent of a gringo in Latin America) One kid I met in the street almost had a fit when he saw me and the two other volunteers: he started screaming and pointing at us. Les toubabs are so rare here. I literally haven't seen a single tourist since I got here, just a few UN diplomats at the airport.

Asphalt doesn't really exist here, and the streets are all sand (which really lets me imagine the famous Paris-Dakar car race) and mostly littered. We took la route principale through Dakar, which was more like "off-roading". All along the roads are cinder block buildings, many of which are unfinished, and probably won't be for some time. My host father explained: whenever people make the slightest bit of money they start building. But they inevitably use up their resources before finishing the construction, and thus abandon their project.

People live off of practically nothing. My bathroom is a hole in the ground, and my shower is the water pipe directly above the toilet. But they are happy to be together, with family and friends.

Electricity is spotty. Actually, it'll probably go off in a bit because I've been on the computer too long. So on that note, à la prochaine!