"Every day in Dakar is like a punch in the face" the remix

(I was seconds away from finishing and saving my huge blog when the power went out (thus this is the new and improved and slightly pissed off version). That will teach me!)

While I am generally loving my time here in Dakar and am learning so much each and every day, it is very difficult. Yesterday for example, I was suppposed to meetw ith a guy at 9 and he didnt end up showing up until 10:30 which wasnt a very big deal and he was very very generous with my time. But I had told him that I wanted to meet with a traditional healer (someone who uses plants, prayers, etc for healing). Thus I thought thta that is who I would be going to meet. Turns out he took me to a rahter shady neighborhood in Dakar to meet with a man who made fake silver teeth for people... not exactly a traditional healer. While this experience ended up being very useful because it showed me an aspect of Senegalese "dentistry" that I had not been familiar with, I hadnt exactly prepared for that and essentially had no idea what to ask him... uh can you chew with them, how much do they cost? naw I came up with some better questions but I dont like to be unprepared like that. Its always intersting what one asks for and what one actually recieves here. So this same day it was approaching 12:30 and I was starving, thirsty, tired of walking in the midday sun, pissed off about the huge blister from my crappy sandal and sand combination, and tired of trying to understand French (because you see its not yet second nature) and I had just had enough yesterday. Dakar gave me a good swift kick in the butt.

"Every day in Dakar is like a punch in the face" - Stephanie, TX

This was the quote of the week from my friend Stephanie who accompanied me to the most beautiful place on earth this weekend, Saly-Portugal. I could go on and on about the best aspects of this place. It was a 5 star hotel 1 1/2 hours south of Dakar and had the second best beaches in all of Senegal and only cost 72 dollars which included a 3 room suite and 3 3 course meals. This is the place where European toursist come for vacation. They fly into Dakar and go straight to Saly. Ill keep my list of faboulosu things about this place brief (oddly enough many of them wouldnt seem that great back home): a toilet that i wasnt afraid to sit on, bath tub, hot shower, blow dryer, beautfiul huge bed, private beach and pool where we didnt have to worry about theft, pool boys who brought us fruity girly drinks, nutella crepes next to the pool, AIR CONDITIONING, no vendors hasseling me, etc etc etc. It was the most romantic weekend I have every had with another woman and I have never pampered myself so much. It was a beautiful thing and I did not want to leave at all! (check out the website for more beauty)

The only things that I had to worry about this weekend was getting rid of my tan lines (which I accomplished thank you very much) and what dessert I wanted to eat with lunch and dinner. If I would have taken the patissier's (the guy who makes all of the hotels pasteries) offer to return and stay in a room for free I could probably have had many more of these delish desserts. Unfortunately I worry about the strings attached to a request like that so I turned him down.

Stephanie and I met the beach boy when we arrived and he offered to take us to a great place for dancing that night and we accepted. But first we had to go to his home where he proceeded to show us pictures of his brother and sister who had married Tubabs (white people). Im not sure why he did this, maybe to demonstrate that he was down with that sort of thing. I wonder what he told his family before I came over. Something along the lines of "be extra nice to this one. Shes the next white person in the family and my ticket out of the country" essentially.
After meeting the fam (which was enormous by the way, there were atleast 20 people there and they werent having a family reuninon) we went dancing at this really fantastic place. Essentially it was a courtyard with a stage and a platform for the dj with lots of tables around the stage. It was outside and the weather was beautiful with a full moon. I learned a couple of new dances and generally had a lovely time (aside from trying to fight off the advances of my new beach boy friend who claimed he would die for me). Highlight of the evening was speaking French, Spanish, English, and Wolof within 5 minutes.

The best part of the night though was when we were taking a cab home. I felt as though I were in Minnesota in the middle of winter even though I couldnt have been further from it. You see, on many roads in smaller senegalese towns there is very deep sand. THe cab driver made the mistake of turning onto one of these roads which turned out to be impassable for a cab. It took 6 men 20 minutes to dig the car out of the sand because the driver had gotten himself so stuck. while I probably shouldnt have been lauging as they were working to get the car unstuck I couldnt help myself.

And then we returned to this in Dakar... I tried to get a picture of the neon green stream but I missed it.

Random thoughts: I was just at the "cobbler" ie a stand on the street which repairs shoes and just got a leather shoe repaired to the tune of 150 cfa which equals about 30 cents... At Bear Shoe Works in Souptown that wouldhave no doubt cost me 5 to 10 dollars. I should have brought all of my broken stuff here.




Im going to a conference for Senegalese women dentists this weekend and am pretty terrified actually. I think thta it will be a rather intimidating experience. The biggest thing that I regret about which I can do abslutely nothing is the fact that I havent had any dental training yet. It is very hard to work in such a specific field when i dont have a very solid base of dental knowledge. I wonder what people think when I tell them Im studying dentistry but have yet to even begin any training? OH well. Another intersting note, and something which actually kind of pissed me off. There were two prices for the conference tickets: one was 40 dollars for dentists and the other was 30 dollars for students (ie me), assistants, and other (ie me). I asked the woman whom I purchased the ticket from if I was considerred a student and she gave me this questioning look and said oh no I think its better if you pay the 40... okay, I didnt really appreciate that. I feel selfish saying this but granted while in comparison to the majority of people here I am very very wealthy, I am really not. I hate how everyone assumes thta I just have money to throw around because Im American. Yes clearly i have to have the means to actually be here but that doesnt mean that I didnt work my butt off to earn money to be here and can pay whatever sum of money necessary. Sorry I needed to vent.