The third's a charm?

After a great night's sleep under the net (I didn' get bit) my host father and I headed to a bank to convert my traveller's cheques into CFA (local francs).
First bank: the person who is trained in exchanging travellers was out.
Second bank: no more electricity so the bank was out of order for the morning
Third bank: the security guard looked at us with his AK47 and told us to try elsewhere because he didnt know what we were talking about
Fourth bank: No success either.

We walked and drove for probably an hour and a half, remaining optimistic despite the numerous failures, and finally decided to go the the airport. So we drove back to the airport, I did what I had to do, and that was that. I'm glad things ended up how they did because I got to see the preparations underway at the airport for Sarkozy's arrival. He is in Dakar, after his stop in Libya, to give a talk on France's ties to Africa.

Time doesn't matter here. As witnessed, you can easily spend hours trying to get something done, and that is normal. My host father warned me that if I have rendez-vous with a Senegalese at 8pm that means at earliest 9, and probably 10pm. I think this attitude towards came about partially out of desperation for things taking so long and needing justification for it, but also out of the Senegalese idea that every moment must be savoured and cherished. Life is too short to stress, my father assured me "Dieu nous a pas mit ici pour stresser". I have a feeling its going to take me a while to shake off the New Yorker in me.