Looking back

Sorry to keep you waiting... in case someone was actually waiting for my news. Well, anyway, here's something about the four weeks in Dakar...

Dakar was crazier than ever, firstly because of two of the main roads leading into the city being improved (which is nice and all, but do you really have to do the two at the same time?) and because of Tabaski falling on the 31st December. Tabaski being the biggest Muslim holiday of the year, meaning that everything cost more than usual and all roadsides were filled with sheep.

So for the two first weeks we spent hours and hours in buses, car rapides and taxis... and paid way too much for the taxis, of course. And we didn't always get to our dance lessons on time, but neither did our teachers... In any case we did dance quite a lot, besides the dance lessons in several clubs at night. We even ended up on Senegalese tv, just because we happened to go to see Youssou Ndour in Thiossane on New Year's Eve and ended up standing right in front of the stage, which maybe wasn't such a bad place to be, when the place was so full (despite the tripled prize of the tickets). Well, in Thiossane you could really dance, although these girls next to us kept trying. But on Christmas Eve we did dance in the (very hot) Kily, Thione Seck was playing there as usual, and on other nights to Ceddo and Fallou Dieng in Alizé. And to Mbaye Dieye Faye in the new Papayer, which really wasn't my kind of a place, rather something for skinny young people with too much money. And there are such people in Dakar, more than one would imagine.

So, besides dancing and lying on the floor in our huge (and very empty) living room, we did see some sights and even went to the beach on Ngor island once, although it was a bit too cold for that already. But Gorée was beautiful, and there were lots of well fed cats - not like the poor one who came in to our house several times, looking for food I suppose. I had not been on Gorée since 2000, but as I remembered, it really is a different world compared to Dakar, calm and colourful. Even the souvenir sellers are a lot less aggressive than in town. And there are no cars!

Well, after all the holidays the city was a lot more bearable, except that we had some trouble finding places to eat as most of the less expensive restaurants were closed for the week following Tabaski. Lots of shops at the markets were closed, too, but we managed to spend a lot of money shopping anyway. Obviously all the sheep were gone, and the streets seemed consequently a bit empty.

I didn't do much for my research, except going to some sabar parties. And the dance and drum lessons, of course. But I didn't film anything and didn't do the interviews I had planned, so I quess this was more vacation than work, which was the plan, anyway.