Dakar Song

Dakar Song

by Julienne

The colors here are brown and yellow and tan and gold

And the perfect blue of the sky,

And the solemn blue of the sea

But green is a rarity here;

It hasn’t rained since November

One piece of green came up over the wall between us and our neighbors-

A tree-

A tree!  Reaching out from their courtyard

And dangling thin, curved branches over our side

Painting a swath of green leaves

Punctuated with flowered jewels of red and pink and white

I loved that wild tree,

That song of green

*****

 They came quickly, the birds

They found that wild tree,

That song of green,

And loved it, too

Soon there were tens

Hundreds

Maybe one thousand birds

Living in that tree,

Nest upon nest

Babies hatched and dropped

And would rest on the ground,

Mamas feeding them,

Until they could fly

They sang through the night,

Those birds,

Sang of their green tree

Our dreams filled with birdsong;

Our thoughts formed in birdsong

*****

Until one day

A worker came and cut back the tree

To almost nothing

I guess the neighbors grew tired

Of their birdsong dreams,

Their birdsong thoughts

That wild tree tamed,

Where did its birds go?

*****

Waiting in line outside the bank

We glimpse a man,

Royal in his blue Bubu,

Negotiating with a peddler

The peddler with a small cage

Packed tight with wild birds

A man trying to live;

Caged birds, trying to live

In the Quran, says the man in line next to us,

It says you must help to free the enslaved

The transaction is complete

And the royal man

Opens the door of the cage

The birds,

In one long breath of life,

Fly from that cage,

Streaming the streets of brown and yellow and tan and gold

The royal man walks away

And the birds search

For their tree of green

Letter to an incoming teacher

I got an email from and incoming teacher and realized that it was a good overall impression of living and working in Senegal.  If you're curious, here it is!
-------------------
Dear New Teacher,

No problem - happy to help with anything.

There are a few cars that are in nice shape being sold.  Basically our mistake was to translate the age of a car into how well it will be doing.  With the heat and dryness here, rubber wears out a lot faster.   In the states, I drive a 1999 Honda Accord and it's in great shape.  When anything goes wrong, the part is the same quality as original and the work is well done.  Here, we drive a 2001 Peugeot and over the years, a lot of strange things have been done - like we just found out someone had changed out the dash board - odometer and all - at some point!  So, here, a 2001 car is in a LOT worse shape then comparable cars in the states.  The school gives you a loan up to $5000 for a car but expect to spend around 8-10,000 for a reasonable car.  We paid $4000, which was about the right price.  Turns out for $4000, you're buying crap.  

So, you should be fine buying a car if it is much newer - 3-4 years old.  Cars get old here fast, and they are more expensive for the same thing.

As for stuff, Marylene (in the business office) should be able to tell you the place you're moving into and how many bedrooms, bathrooms with showers, etc.  If someone was already there, email them and they'll tell you what stuff is on the house.  We took over a new house (it was a mistake and the school is not reusing it) but it had no curtain rods, no shower curtain rod, hand rails, kitchen cabinets, etc.  From what I hear, the places for you guys are much nicer!

That said, the school did make sure the beds were made and there was cooking supplies and such in the kitchen - like you'd expect in an extended stay hotel.  So you can count on some stuff as you either wait for your shipment to get here or start unpacking.

As for your list - any electronic thing that's not computer-like (tv, computer, dvd player - these just need the adaptor plug) will need the big (like 30 lbs) transformer to change the voltage.  They're easy to find here and one big enough for a blender or slow cooker is about $50.00  Lots of people have these big transformers because they also smooth out the voltage spikes that happen frequently as the power goes out.  (You'll have a generator on your place but they don't always work and anyhow, they're annoying to have running all night.)  We opted to buy new appliances and that has generally worked out also.

For other things, like dog food and candles and spices and stuff, you can basically get anything you want here but there are three problems a) finding it and b) finding it of good quality c) finding good quality you can trust at a price you want to pay.  I didn't realize this when I came but basically even the crappy stuff a dollar store sells in the states is relatively good quality compared to stuff here.  There's a whole level of low-quality manufactured goods that we simply never see in the states.  So, you gotta' search.

So, it's reasonable to try to ship everything you're gonna' want for the first month.  Might seem a bit over the top, but we shipped soy milk, cereal (my wife wishes we had sent more then 20 boxes of her favorite cereal), pasta and sauce, spices, all kinds of soaps and shampoo (5 bottles - more of a year's suppl, mouth rinse, tooth paste, etc.  It has been nice because as we slowly have run out of different staples, we now know where we can go get some more but in the beginning, it would have been a real scramble.

That said, we do have 2 kids, so we have less mental space for getting to know the city.

So, hopefully this answered some of your questions.  I would say that when in doubt, ship it.  Everything is basically a bit more expensive here, from like $1/box for cereal to $4/quart for oil changes for the car.  So, since the school is paying for shipping, every box of pasta you send is money in your pocket!

Plus, things taste different - and generally not as good - as the food in the states.  Except Mangos - they are really good here and a cheaper!

Also, on house help.  Are you going to have someone in your house to help cook and clean?  We have kids, so our helper, Madelene, is really a key part of us flourishing over here.  We pay her $400/month (which is very good wages - we're basically the highest paying on the staff) and for this, she shops and cleans and cooks all our dinners and helps with the kids when we need.  Well worth it.  Not sure your thoughts on this but having a local in the house is both very helpful as well as adds greatly to the experience.  She came at the recommendation of a family who was leaving.

Marc

Impressions on the bike ride home

Just finished a Strategic Planning meeting with a diverse group of parents, teachers and students on a special Saturday meeting at school.  I wanted to note a few of my impressions on the bike ride home.

I leave the property of the school and immediately there are people sitting around.  There are often people sitting around in Dakar.  Mostly, they are either guards, friends of guards (if male) or propriaters of small stalls / small overturned boxes trying to sell something.

I bike a short distance down a bumpy paved road and take a right as I hit the main coastal road.  About 1 out of 4 cars are painted yellow and black - the official taxi color.  Almost all of them are in bad repair but move along quite nicely.  Besides those taxis, the rest of the cars are, for the most part, nice shape and newer models.  I ride along this coastal road for about 1 block.

I pass one stall that has a variety of local food - mostly kinds of nuts.  I stopped there several times for her sugared peanuts between my generally crummy health and the time she hand-ladled the peanuts into a whisky bottle without first washing her hands, I've decided the treat is not worth the risk.

A bit further up the road is a new wall.  This wall surrounds a large housing complex that, I have been told, was finished several years ago but still not occupied.  For several weeks, as I walked home with the kids, we watched the men first make the cement bricks (about 1 minutes per brick for 2 guys working) then dig a foundation then lay the wall.  Now, the wall has been plastered and we can't see inside.

I quickly crossed the only major road between school and our house, passed a few more vendors squeezed onto the sidewalk, and was on the main side road.  This secondary road is in bad repair but is generally covered with pavement.  I slowed and watched the continual progress of a building that was, when we got here, only 1 story tall.  It is now 6 stories tall.  Every bit of cement or cement block has been lifted up the building by a guy pulling on a rope.  Lucky for them, they do have a big machine in site for actually mixing the cement.

I turn right at the outside edge of the junk yard and am greeted by that most iconic of African scenes - a woman in brightly colored clothing carrying a large basket on her head.  We see this on a regular basis.  I want to take a photo but can't think of a good way to pull it off.

I decide to cut down a dirt side road.  The middle of the road is solid earth that is a mix of dirt and construction debris.  I used to wonder how ancient cities would be built upon other, even more ancient cities.  Now, I watch the general process of construction debris and understand.  If you don't have a truck to haul garbage away, anything you can get rid of by piling on the road is fair game.  Over the years, the road slowly gets tall and taller and the buildings, I assume, follow suit.

I notice some men painting a new house.  I see one man on a short step ladder.  I see a second man on a tall ladder that is tied well with a series of ropes in the middle of the two extension sections.  He is working on the 2nd floor.  I look higher and see another man working on the 3rd floor on a different extension ladder.  I soon realize that his ladder is suspended from the second floor.  He is very high up and has no safety equipment.

I notice this lack of safety equipment.  I see many expats in their nice cars with extra kids, unbuckeled inside.  We are willing to put our own family into taxis with unknown drivers and no seat belts.  It is interesting that part of the reason as a family we use our safety devices is that we know they are safer.  Part of the reason (and lacking here in Dakar) is that we use them so as to not get in trouble.

I put my attention back to biking and quickly my attention goes to the sand.  We are in the end of the dry season, which means we are in the middle of the windy season.  Sand is constantly shifting on the roads of the neighborhoods just like mini-dunes on the desert.  For construction projects, sand is simply dumped on the street in front of the house and inevitably, not all of the sand is used and some is either left or blows away to collect somewhere else.  I my ride home, I have to dismount about 5 times and walk a few steps because of the deep sand.

I get back on my bike and am greeted by 4 large cows slowly walking down the street.  There is no obvious owner near by nor obvious marking (brand, collar) on the cows, but they for one seem to know what they are doing.

As I near the house, I pass several dogs lying on the street.  One female is obviously the mother of several litters and they all look the worse for the wear.  This said, they never give the slightest notice to me or my bike.  They are well socialized if not well cared for.

I reach my house and our regular guard is not there.  Instead, two local guys, one a high school kid I have seen around and another is the day guard for a house just up the street, are sitting on our little stoop.  One of them, I know, has the key to our parking space, should I want to bother him to open the door.  I call down the street to another guard we are more familiar with and he answers that our guard is out to get some coffee.  This is not unual since Joseph is taking the week shift.  I do not mean the day shift.  Joseph will be sitting or sleeping in front of our house for about 5 days straight.

And that is my ride home.