I woke up to the sound of rain this morning.
It’s probably been this way for 3 of the last 4 days; it’s getting kind of frustrating.
As the rain poured down, Rich and I walked to Cresp where we found that our scheduled trip to
Dakar would not be taking place, due to flooded roads and too much traffic.
This was certainly a disappointment, and we proceeded to just hang around the Cresp building for a while, checking e-mail on the one or two computers that actually work, and drinking tea.
It finally stopped raining, and we decided to eat lunch, and then venture in to the city.
Having told my homestay family that I wouldn’t be home for lunch, I felt bad going home to eat with them.
So I walked to Kaila’s house with her, and then back to the Shell station where I got a lunch that really wasn’t enough.
We then met up with the rest of the group at 1530, we hailed some taxis, and set off for Dakar. Getting out of our taxis at La Place D’independence, we were immediately bombarded by vendors. As white people here, we obviously stand out, and people automatically think we have plenty of money and want to just spend it right away. We walked around a little bit of the city, fended off the vendors, went to the market, did some other stuff, etc. I really wasn’t impressed by Dakar, and I was surprisingly happy to get back to our nice little village of Yoff. Allison and I kept our beach streak going and decided that a trip to Dakar was not going to stop us from doing what wee really enjoy. Calm seas today, which I’m pretty sure means that the next couple of days are going to be very hot. After the beach, we went to meet up with the rest of the kids at Via Via, a restaurant, where we found that the “cuisine” or kitchen, was closed. Strange, considering it was a Saturday night…anyway, having once again told my family that I wouldn’t be home for a meal, we set off for Shell and maybe Mobil.
While walking to Mobil we were approached by a middle aged man, who asked us to help him. He spoke English, he said he was from Togo, and that he needed insulin, because he was a diabetic. He then proceeded to tell us that insulin was only sold in 10 day supply, and that he needed us to help him buy it. Basically, this guy was asking for $230 US, on the spot. He said he would inject in front of us, so we would know that he wasn’t ripping us off. While in America, this should almost immediately be dismissed as a scam, we felt bad and tried to help. A few of the Americans went to get Marian, and Allison and I went to the pharmacy with this guy, where he asked for insulin. At the Yoff pharmacy, all they had was “type II insulin”, which this man said would help him for an hour. Allison and I watched this man give himself a shot of insulin to his stomach, while he was visibly perspiring.
Now knowing that guy was pretty legitimate, we waited to see what the others would find with Marian. Marian eventually came out, and said she knew this guy, and that he was for real. After a lot of discussion, Marian decided that we should all give this man 10,000CFA, or $20US. So we did, and off the man went, to buy insulin. Maybe he was a scam artist, maybe he was just poor, we’ll never know. But hopefully we saved his life. Before you think to yourself, “Ross is losing his mind”, just try to take into account how different this culture is. Nonetheless, giving $230 to anyone on the street is not something we should make a habit of.
We then found some food, and went back fo Cresp for another night of chilling. In case you were wondering why we spend so much time at Cresp, we do so because it’s a place we all know, are located around, it has the internet (sometimes), and there’s a room with AC. Anyway, we stayed there for a while, most people left at around 2330, and I didn’t end up getting home until 0030, went out again to walk someone home, and got back at around 1. It’s weird, no matter what hour it is, there are people just kind of sitting in front of their houses or shops, just chilling. This is the first night I’ve really stayed up late, but its time for sleep now. Till next time…
