La Corniche

Unfortunately, I've been doing little other than working these past few days (amazingly we had consistant electricity all day yesterday and today), but rather than tell you stories about my frustrations at the office (which are many) I will take this opportunity to tell you a little about Dakar (although I really have only been downtown twice, so I'm sure I'll have more to say in the coming weeks). As far as I know, Stephanie is the only person who is likely to be reading this who has been here before, so this might be the most interesting for you, Steph. But even if you haven't been here, it tells you something about the way things work here...

So, La Corniche is the main road that goes downtown along the coast. I'm told it was the best road inthe city, two lanes, straight and direct...and made getting downtown (relatively) easy. Last month, President Wade decided to close the road for a major construction project - to build several hotels along it in addition to overpasses and a number of other additions in preparation for some big event here next year. So, the road is closed and will remain closed indefinitely (with plans to reopen it next year, but who knows). It reminds me a lot of "the big dig" in Boston, and has made getting downtown (at least from where I live in Mermoz) pretty difficult. Because of the closure of the Corniche, the main movie theatre is closed for construction as well. My host mother was in charge of film distribution there, so she's out of a job for awhile, as is my host brother Papis, who was the projectionist. Not to mention the fact that it means that there's nowhere to go see movies in the city now. Apparently some people have makeshift movie theatres in their homes, but the movie quality isn't very good (i assume they're bootleg copies).

Besides that, I'm not sure what else to say about Dakar. Apparently there aren't any mailboxes, so I had to walk all the way back to the post office to mail post cards after walking there a few days earlier to buy stamps. It's not too far, but isn't exactly a plesant walk, so I hope you all weren't expecting too much mail from me. Actually, the city in general isn't very conducive to walking. A lot of the sidewalks are torn up or under construction and the streets are very narrow, so cars park up on the sidewalks anyways. Also, whenever I walk (I walk to and from work, it takes about 10 minutes) taxis honk at me. And there are a lot of taxis, so I feel like I'm constantly being honked at. I'm not sure if they honk at everyone to indicate that they're available, or just white people (or women). I actually have that question about a lot of things I encounter here...