On Wednesday and Saturday we (Tad and I) go into town. Here is the fun that ensued.
Wednesday – Tad needed groceries, I knew the way so we walked straight into town and towards the market. One problem, Tad reminds me of my Mother. He talks to everyone and is way too polite to tell someone to buzz off.
Two guys manage to keep talking to Tad and we end up stopping just short of the market (Darn). One guy is selling things and is mute; the other is acting as a ‘translator’. First they want us to go to his shop real quick so he can give us his card, not going to happen. Then he hands Tad a bracelet (and throws one at me after I refuse to take it) and says they are gifts for being so nice and talking to him. Then something happens, did not catch the whole exchange and Tad is giving the mute guy money. The ‘Translator’ walks over to me and says that the bracelet will cost 4000CFA, I throw it back at them.
Downtown Dakar - Don't let the lack of cars fool you, Dakar is known for its horrible traffic (this was taken on a Sunday afternoon)
Place de l'Independance - Downtown Dakar
Saturday – We decide to just walk around town and explore a little bit.
Walked by the American embassy (only a ½ Km away from the Institut), it’s the only one I have seen so far that has the entire road blocked off. Woohoo for American paranoia.
As we walk closer to the center of town the more crowded it gets and the more I hear people shout after me “Hello my friend….”. Several groups of guys try to latch on and direct us to their shop or a ‘good restaurant’. All of them had a similar opening, “Hello my Friend, you are from America”.
Sidebar: I have found it interesting that every single person that has approached me in the streets in Dakar has guessed American right away. This usually doesn’t happen to me when I’m abroad (anywhere abroad not just in African countries). People usually guess a number of different European nationalities or Canadian way before they go for American. For some reason when I was in South Africa everyone tried to talk to me in Afrikaans.
Anyway, when you get rid of one guy, another one pops up without fail. Tad is talking to them while I’m walking ahead a few feet completely ignoring them. I don’t want to be shown around town, I don’t want to go to your shop, I know where the restaurants are, I just want to be left alone and walk around discovering things by myself. Some people (other Americans, white people, westerners, whatever they wanna call themselves) think I’m rude or not getting the full experience by taking to the locals. Guess what I have lots of experience and lots of knowledge as to how a vast, vast majority of these kinda guys operate. When you get to where you are going they will want:
a) money for showing you around as a self-appointed tour guide, even if you never asked them a darn thing and they just latched on without asking first.
b) For you to go a little further to their shop, not to buy but just to look or just to get their business card.
c) You to buy them lunch because they are so nice and you should be nice in return. They may also go for the sad story of how they have 5 children and are very hungry and you need to help them.
Now some of you are going to read way too much into this and think that I am over reacting or just being a bitch. I guarantee you neither are true. I’m not making wide generalized statements about an entire country, continent or ethnicity/race. I’m talking about a very specific kind of person (a man 99.9999% of the time) that if he were in the US may be called a con man.
Still think I’m full of it. When Tad and I decide to stop for a bit to eat, I turn around to the guy currently following us and politely say ‘Au Revoir’ and walked inside as his face had a mock look of hurt on it. I’m sitting just inside the restaurant watching the final exchange between ‘Brother Ali’ and Tad, there is the gesturing and the hurt looks and then Tad handing over some money. Mind you this is after Ali had repeatedly stated that “I don’t want anything, I’m showing my countries hospitality because we are all people, we are family”.
Hey LOOK! Harry Potter!! For three days only - but its dubbed in French
