Dakar Sounds: Mbalax music and brawling cats. Names like Marie-Therese, Francine, Khadija and Binta, Pierre, Karim, Madame Sow, Mohamed, Jean-Jacques and Jules. Wolof, Pular, Seerer, French.
On top of your roommate’s Moroccan boyfriend’s high-rise apartment at five in the morning, you can hear the mosques chanting in surround sound from five different places in the city below you. It's both wild and serene.
Dakar Smells: Raw sewage flows. Freshly baking bread. Trash. Bougainvilleas. Burning trash. Grilling fish. Goats. Super sweet frying doughnuts. Stuffy sweaty post offices. Car exhaust. The sea.
Dakar Flavors: Hibiscus flower juice. Spicy burning hot ginger tea. Hamburger complete, complete with eggs, fries and hot sauce. Sometimes they’ll even throw coleslaw in there, no rhyme or reason. Peanuts. Biskerem cookies. Fanta cocktail, Fanta Light, Fanta Orange and Fanta pineapple. Ceeb u Jen. The Janelle: Baguette, avocado, tomato, Camembert ($1.25).The Karie: Baguette,banana, Chocomousse (fake nutella) ($.55). The Lani Oshima: Baguette, hard-boiled egg, mayo, French fries ($.40). We go to the grocery store and invent sandwiches during our five hour lunch breaks.
Dakar Pleasure: Cold saltwater splash. Hot sun beating down. Cool ocean breezes.
Dakar Pain: Inhaling sand and smog. Sinus infection. Begging barefoot boys. Dogs with missing ears and tails.
Dakar Sights: While I'm loading pictures, enjoy this Manu Chau video. It's what life looks like. For super real.
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