Back in Dakar: Visiting Badou's mother

Saliou reminded me again that it was not safe for me to go out on my own.   In fact, he went so far as to pull up videos of women being attacked on the streets of Dakar by groups of men.  Lovely.  So, anyway, I am officially banned from walking alone in Dakar as a single white woman.

I was restless the day we came back from Casamance.  Everyone was at work, and I was really hungry.  When a Senegalese person says "J'arrive", which we would translate as "I'm on my way, I'll be there soon", it only means "I will arrive ...eventually, maybe in an hour or two or three...". Thus was I stranded with no food for more hours than I wanted.  Saliou finally showed up around 3 p.m. and we went to the beach for some food.  While we were there, Saliou went on a rant about the "youth of today" and I had to laugh.  All over the world, the older people lament the lack of manners of the younger generation.

I had yet to meet Badou's mother.  It's very important here to meet the family, especially the mother.  We headed up to the "suburbs" (Guediawaye) of Dakar in heavy traffic.  Badou's mother owns her own house.  She is alone because Badou's father is living with his second wife in Casamance.  Men can have up to four wives here and it appears that money is no object.  This puts Badou into the situation of making the long (up to two hours each way) commute from her house to his work by the old airport because he is a good son (and only child) and feels responsible for her.  This, in the face of horrendous traffic, the necessity of taking three separate buses because a taxi is too expensive.

Transportation is relatively expensive here, and thus, lucrative for the drivers - even though the cost seems small to us.  To take a taxi to downtown (20-45 mins), that will cost 2000 cfa, or about $3.50.  You can buy a very good dinner in a small local restaurant for 600 - 1000 cfa, or about $1.25.

Badou's mom's house (I don't know her name, I just called everyone Maman) is the nicest I have seen.  The floors are tiled, she has furniture, a small patio, and two bedrooms.  The toilet is outside.  I gave her one of the three watches which I don't really use from the U.S.  She was very happy.  Gifts are a big deal here.  The meal was excellent, fish and rice!  We all ate from a single platter as is the custom but we did eat at a table!

Returning to Dakar, Saliou and I sat in horrendous traffic, literally gridlocked, for an hour, finally seeing the problem.  A truck had broken down in a narrow passageway blocking traffic for miles.