Clothes....fabrics and tailors..and more!

The fabrics are spectacular, custom clothing is not that expensive and buying from local tailors helps their economy as well.  Makale brought me to this shop to buy fabrics.  I had with me a dress from home;  I liked the style but the fabric was somewhat dull.  They will make me one like it, longer, with beautiful fabric.  I also ordered shorts, pants, pajama bottoms (short summer, longer for winter) and a tablecloth with four napkins.  I came to Senegal with very few clothes.  The beautiful skirt that Ines gave me is a bit long so I am having that shortened a bit, and am adding pockets.  Later that evening, Saliou gave me ten fabrics, 4-6 square meters of each with  specific instructions that some was to go to Tori, Karen and Mira.  

 

Tea is not just some hot water with a tea bag

 

The paraphernalia of Ataya.  A charcoal brazier, to heat the water, glasses, tea, a washing bucket.  This is an affair!   Friends drop by and we all drink tea. 

Starting up the charcoal. 

Ataya, 

Makale asked me I want to share an ataya.  Sure, I said, and I sat on the mat looking at the sea. I anticipated that he would arrive with two small cups of tea.  Oh no - that is not ataya!  

Moustapha, OWEN Project partner and always on time

 

Here we are at a restaurant overlooking the sea, drinking juices;  fruits I have never heard of.  Sooo delicious.  I also love the gingembra tea here

Moustapha!!  Highly refined young guy that I had met last time, but had met even earlier because I had purchased his Wolof class.  He works at a bank, and is my partner here for the OWEN Project.  He came by last night and I offered him a nice "plate" of fish from the beach restaurant. (Quite delicious, actually).  I wanted to get to know him a bit and we talked about science and religion.  People here are quite interested in science, and often, better informed than me, because they watch alot of videos!  He is taking 3 weeks off from work and we will spend alot of time together.

Later:  Moustapha is another amazing person.  He will likely be promoted to Manager of his bank branch, Bank of Africa.  One of the few punctual Senegalese  ; )))  He and I spent time reviewing all the applications for the OWEN Project as a first cut.  We picked about 4 that seem promising as an experiment.  I started to wonder if this was worth the effort, but it seems that my committee, Badou, Saliou, Moustapha and Djiby all want to proceed and see what happens.  So, onward.

Lac Rose

 Lac Rose on the internet is this beautiful, tranquil tourist destination.  I have to differ on that, as does the brother of my friend, Saliou, who lives there.  The Senegalese government does nothing to develop these areas.  There  was a slight rose tint at the edges of the lake, and few boat launches for a brief out and back on the lake.  There is a substantial salt harvesting operation and I bought two bags of salt to bring home.  

salt harvesting

the lake, see a slight pink hue at edge

one of the boats we took out;  3000 cfa for a short ride, about $5.

My friend, Saliou, is a dear friend and also my security.  Upon arrival in the taxi, we were swarmed by men yelling at us to go this restaurant or that hotel.  It was quite the scene.  I was also the last day of the Paris-Dakar race and the roar of motorcycles, trucks, ATV's filled the air. There was some impressive dune jumping.  

At the boat place, there was also a small spring where Saliou collected water to drink.  I, of course, stick to my filtered, UV treated water.

There must have been 20-25 small huts where we stayed.  We took a demi-pension which included dinner and breakfast.  Tourism has taken a huge hit in Senegal.  You can see below that the poolside is well appointed and calm.

You can also see below that there is no pool.

Makale, business of all sorts, athlete, a fish in the water

His name is Makale (which means "key", his real name is Libas Ndieye. He's the most mild mannered, sweet guy.  I met him on the beach, of course, and we have become friends.  He is helping me learn Wolof, is opening his own restaurant, works at the Paradise Beach where there are umbrellas with mats, and also will do combat in the Senegalese sport called "lutte", which is kind of like wrestling.  It works by someone paying for a challenge.  So, while we were sitting there, someone could  hypothetically walk up and say, "I want you to challenge this dude" and off they would go.  here he is in his traditional African dress.  Born and raised in Yoff (neighborhood where my hotel is).  I met him at the beach supervising the little straw umbrellas shading visitors from the sun.  We got chatting and I said that I was learning Wolof.  Everyone thinks that is so cool. 

Makale is a Lebou; fisherman, those who know the sea as well as the land.  I was afraid to go in the ocean, but with him close by, I can feel completely safe that I won't end up in a current going out to sea. 

Here is Makele, doing his fitness training.  Men here (and maybe women, but I don't see them on the beach).  Probably best not to get in a fight with him.... ; )

January 18,  we walked along the beach, and said hello to Mamadoo. Makale is trying to convince me that I should move to Senegal and just visit my family from time to time.  ; )

My phones: how to navigate different phone numbers and buying phone credit

 Having a phone with a local number and your home phone is nice, and is kind of necessary for on-the-go contact where there is no wifi and you don't want to pay Verizon $10/day!

In this case, my daughter-in-law donated her old iPhone 5 to the OWEN Project.  Djiby Seye passed on his old SIM card to me, so sometimes I get phone calls to him.  There was no phone credit on it, but I kept getting these promotional messages by text.  I wasn't quite sure how this all worked.  Saliou brought me to an Orange money kiosk. You hand over the phone number and they sell you some credit.  In this case, I bought 1000 cfa, about $1.75.  The promotion was a multiplier of 7x, so I have that much in credit for the next 7 days.  

I would never have figured this out.

UPDATE:  I gave up on the two phone arrangement.  If I ever texted on my U.S. number, even using Wi-Fi, Verizon would activate a 24 hour Travellers Pass.  Such a scam...I put my Senegalese SIM card in my U.S. Phone.

Karim, soccer star and amazing human being

 Karim:  Young man dressed in his soccer jersey, friendly, bounds up to chat. Where else? On the beach (tefas, beach; gej: the sea).  We chat. Turns out that Djiby Seye has known this young man since he was quite young, so he gets the stamp of approval.  Even without that, this is clearly a young guy who is honest, hardworking and doing what he can to help his mom. 

Noted later:  OK!  Karim and I spent time together yesterday, the 19th. Turns out that Karim is a top soccer player here in Senegal.  I would never have known except that after we did some Wolof-English exchange, I asked him to send me some photos.  Oh, boy!  He is amazing on the field and hopefully he will be picked up as a professional player and travel outside Senegal.  He is the oldest of his family, thus has to make sure everyone is fed;  that means his mother (father is deceased), and all his half siblings, all 9 of them. Yet, he, like all the Senegalese I meet, work hard, smile alot and are of endless cheer.  I loved his necklace and commented how beautiful it was, and he immediately took it off and wanted me to have it.  I was quite touched by this. I'm not sure what Americans have to complain about.

At my birthday party.  I received that beautiful dress. Karim gave me some beautiful traditional fabric to have some clothing sewn up.

Karim out on the field.

Top player in Senegal

Taking on Wolof, shopping...

I managed to shop for my breakfast items on my own, in Wolof.  The eggs here are stored at room temperature..in the U.S.  we wash them and so they have to be refrigerated.  An egg here costs 100 CFA, which is 17 cents.  A baguette is about 25 cents, an apple 17 cents and a small bag of yogurt is also 17 cents.  I have butter in my frig (part of a package, not a full package) and some cow's milk.  I forget what those cost.  I cook the eggs in the electric kettle.

18 january 2021:  More comfortable now and can even go to shop where they only speak Wolof. For lunch, I bought half a load of baguette, an already hard boiled egg, 8 single serve coffee packets, 750 francs, about one dollar or so...

 Makale has taught me to to get change - no, you don't go to a bank!  You just go to small businesses and say begg na wietiet (not sure of spelling).  If they have some, they will give you change, or they will respond "amul" which means there is not any. 

Djiby Seye, friend, celebrated comedian

Djiby Seye, friend, comedian, well known in Senegal. The original plan: for him to pick me up at 11 am to go to an event where he was performing.  The actual:  4 p.m .he showed up at the hotel to pick me up.  I hung on to him for dear  life as we weaved through epic traffic jams on his motorcycle.  He was a careful driver and I soon was able to look past the clouds of pollution exiting the exhaust pipes of the cars and buses to the surrounding scenery, the palatial government buildings and the beautiful, relatively new African History Museum (I definitely want to go there again).  

We had lunch at La Planche (the board, a buffet style restaurant) and talked about his desire to become a producer, not just an actor.  it's very hard to make that leap as capital is needed for a studio, cameras, etc etc.  We stopped a few places along the way to chat with his friends and admirers.  Stopped to talk to a famous (infamous) journalist, who was ejected from the station where he worked after inflammatory commentary on the President, Macky Sall.  

On the way back, we stopped to visit with a well known journalist, but perhaps more of a scoundrel, maybe it's hard to tell the difference sometimes?  Pape Alle Niang - ejected from a main news outlet, started his own on FaceBook, strong and vocal critic of Macky Sall, but also a heavy drinker.  What a mix.

I got the full lecture on taking things with the OWEN Project very slowly, with great caution.  Message received, and probably a change of direction/approach.  

Dakar! Beach, shaman, the room shenanigans

I met this artist/shaman/partially blind man on the beach (where else?) and I got a custom tour of his residence.  It is on the sand and contains several "rooms". He has an outside lobby, shown here, as well as a bedroom of sorts, a shrine of unidentifiable religious origin (animist??), and some other random spaces.  I was curious, and I could have taken him out using capoeira  ; )  He claimed to be from a long line of clairvoyants.  We talked about Owen, the afterlife, Dakar, Wolof....My friends are highly suspicious of such types, but I never felt unsafe.  That said, one never knows what combination of truth, lies or confabulations are mixed together.

(Later, I went back to see this guy with Makale, who knows him.  He is a very strange fellow, but I needed to see him again for some sense of seeing who he was.  I won't go back.)

The beach is beautiful. Very quiet this time of day.  Activity picks up significantly late afternoon as the soccer games start.  It's easy to find yourself in the middle of one as one of the outer boundaries is the surf.

Ah, yes, the never ending laundry.  Women hand wash clothing for their family, and for hire.  The amount of manual labor here is a way of life. 

This room has a stove and oven!  A first!  Note the propane tank to the side.  I also have a refrigerator and an electric kettle.  Even a few random dishes and silverware.  

Welcome to Dakar

 Taking a break from writing poetry to keep this travel blog while I am here in Dakar. 

I arrived yesterday at 8 am after an uneventful flight (the best!).  My dear friend, Saliou, was there to greet me at the airport - so nice!

Welcome to Senegal!  Where nothing goes according to plan ; )  

Glad to report that after initially being put into a room that smelled of raw sewage and mold, I was transferred to my current high end suite, room 502.  There are no elevators here and the first floor is our second floor, so I can get plenty of exercise.  See the next post for some of my initial adventures.  

It's time to go

I woke in the dark after tossing and turning.

The suitcase is zipped, and bursting with the Winnie the Pooh pillow,

and the one that goes between my knees, a silly one, really.

I can't believe I'm taking them to Senegal.

As expected, I won't be in the room I asked for, this is 

Africa.

Nothing goes as planned. 

Excited, nervous, all of the above,

I will look down on the clouds

and wonder what is below.

Owen

 

Owen,

so beautiful and precious,

a gift to us, to remind us each day of the power of love,

that life is fragile; we must treasure each day, 

and each other.

We have lost you, and grieve deeply.  We will always carry you in our hearts. 

Let us be in this world in a way that honors you,

our beloved.

Mira and Owen

 

If they cannot be together on this plane we call life,

let them sit side by side in my room with golden walls,

the room where I sit so often.

Let Mira look over at his tiny feet, and how his father cradles him in his arms -

as Owen looks over at her, in her silly birthday hat, her chubby cheeks.

She is growing and giggling, spilling words out.

we hear everything that is said, and unsaid,

spoken, and in the wind.