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.