Jet-lag has still got the best of me but this morning I forced myself to get up a little earlier wanting to be able to get the most out of the day. Tom called me out of my room for breakfast and today with our baguette instead of fluorescent red sausage we had canned chicken, basically SPAM! Vera Forman, Bobby Warren and my dad would be extremely pleased to know that I went ahead and put two sizable slices in between my bread and swallowed down the whole thing. It's funny because back home it is so easy to pass over a meal or part of a meal that does not seem appealing but here I eat everything that is placed in front of me. I don't know if it's more because I feel rude for not giving their foreign foods a chance or because I would feel ignorant for not eating the food they give me when I know that they don't always have food available to them. Food for many here is a luxury, Abda was telling me that there are plenty of people here in his neighborhood who will go two days without eating. It's unbelievable that at home, in Arizona and in Eugene, there is almost always food yet sometimes I open the cabinets and refrigerator and find "nothing" to eat. Here, the refrigerator holds butter and mine and Tom's water. In fact, the refrigerator barely works; I haven't had something cold to drink in over a day which might not seem like a long time but let me know the next this happens to you, deal? Also, they don't have kitchen cabinets. There is a small counter that has a sink and a tall table where the keep their three serving platters, two coffee cups, six drinking glasses, two knives, four forks, and eight spoons. I cannot even count how much silverware, cups, etc. we have back home. Notice that I did not mention plates or bowls? When meals are eaten at home here, everyone eats from the same platters. If there are not enough forks or spoons for everyone eating the meal, those without use their hand- this happened to me last night, I was last to try and pick up a fork and therefore at my dinner with my fingers! Today my meals were eaten quite a bit differently but I'll get to that later, first I must tell of my adventure!
The destination was Le Lac Rose, the transportation was a twenty year old four-door, the driver was Moussa, and the adventurers were me, Abda, and Tom. A drive that in America, on smooth highways where you can drive 60-70 mph, would take maybe twenty minutes, took us about an hour. The roads are narrow and packed with car rapides,horse drawn carriages, and everyone walking along the side. Tthere are no sidewalks, so there is really no difference between the road and the walkway making it easy for people to just walk right in front of cars blocking there way which leads to honking which has all lead to my extreme dislike of driving anywhere in Dakar. When we finally arrived, I realized I was about to have my first real tourist experience since being here. As soon as we got out of the car, a man rushed up to us wanting to give up a small tour of the lake side area which had been developed specifically to cater to tourist. There was camel tours, live music, a pool with clear water, toilets, and even cabanas set up so tourists could order a nice meal.
Before embarking on anything too touristy, Tom, Abda, and I took a dip in Le Lac Rose. The lake is anything but pink, it's more of a yellowish brown color. It is also EXTREMELY SALTY which I had the pleasure of personally tasting as soon as I laid down in the water- it was like sticking a handful of salt in my mouth but ten times worse. Did you catch how I said "laid down in the water"? The water is so salty that it makes it pretty much impossible for your whole body to not float straight to the top (apparently something similar happens at the Dead Sea which is supposed to be saltier, but how I do not know!). When you get out of the water, they offer you fresh water to wash all the salt off your body for a small of fee of about 20 cents. Then, it was time for lunch! I ordered a coffee to drink in hopes of it being higher quality then what I have been drinking but unfortunately I paid what's equal to $1.25 for a cup of Nescafe, not to mention it was a very small glass. Don't the Senegalese people know that I need my coffee in large quantities?! Oh yeah and there is no half&half here so I've been drinking my Nescafe black....BLEH! Looking at the menu, I realized everything dish had the option of being served with "frites" or french fries. Now, when I was at JFK waiting for my plane to Dakar I decide that my last meal was going to be chicken strips and french fries, thinking it would be months til I could get my hands on more. SO WRONG WAS I!
When lunch was finished, we decided to take a small boat tour where we sit in this small wooden boat and the man moving the boat is not using and oar but just a long strong stick to push off the bottom. I had learned a bit about Le Lac Rose in one of my french classes sophomore year at Oregon but one main fact that was left out, besides from the lake never being more than a few km deep, I learned from Moussa, our driver who accompanied us at lunch and on the tour. Apparently, the native people come to Le Lac Rose to collect the water and bring back for their families who do not have a chance to bathe in it as we did. The water, they believe, creates a sort of shield around you preventing the evil spirits from being able to enter your skin- kind of like Dove body wash, no?
Le Lac Rose is also my first real encounter with hagglers. The second we left the resort area they started coming up asking lady you want to see what I have, you need this, you need that- it's verrry overwhelming. The thing is is that I need a bag. I did not bring a purse with me having been warned it was a bad idea but after being here a bag is definitely necessary and not as likely to be stolen as one would think. I informed them I was in the market for a bag, or I should say Tom parlayed that information on to them, and they came rushing up to me with about 3 each of multiple types of bags. I found one I liked, a long cloth "hippie" bag, and they said "25.000 cfa" (this is the equivalent of $50!). YEAH RIGHT! In American I would have maybe paid $15 for it. I was able to schmoogle the price down to 10.000 ($20) but still felt like that was a little too much- at least I'm helping their economy, right?
When we returned back to our apartment, it was time for my first Pulaar lesson. Ummm as if trying to learn more and improve upon my French wasn't hard enough, learning a native African language too is ridiculous! The lesson actually went fairly well and now I can greet people at any time of day using their respectful titles. Pulaar has four main ways of greeting people and the greeting you use depends on the time of day. If its before 10am, you use "jam waali", between 10am and 12pm "jam weeli", between 12pm and 6pm "jam nalli" and anytime after 6pm "jam hiiri". Hopefully when I need to start greeting people in Pulaar I am wearing a watch!
We ended the night by Abda, Tom, and me just hanging out in the living room, on our separate laptops, sharing some of our favorite music with each other- one of my favorite ways to end any evening!
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