Morning Commute

Every weekday morning, I head out into the dawning light of the new day to meet up with other students on our two-mile walk to the West African Research Center (WARC). At WARC we will spend seven hours taking classes focused on language, development, and Senegalese culture. However, in these thirty minutes together with the bustling city of Dakar as our backdrop, we take the time to debrief and support each other. Embracing the rare opportunity for unadulterated English we share funny or confusing anecdotes from the previous night spent with our host family, or get advice on how to craft difficult sentences in French. A walk that once felt so new and confusing has now grown to be comfortably routine. These few landmarks along the way have helped shape the parts of Dakar I think of as my second home. All that's needed to complete this e-walk is the constant honk of taxis, as a group of white girls with backpacks just screams "tourist" for some reason and every hopeful driver thinks we might be lost and need a ride somewhere. Little do they know just how confident we feel!

-A Walk in Pictures-

This apartment building is one of the first things to greet me on my walk. As I adjust to the morning glare and sandy breeze, I always walk a little slower past this recently renovated set of apartments. I pause and imagine a life I could lead in the rooms behind one of the sunny balconies. I see myself a few years from now going about my morning routine. I picture myself with the radio on, oatmeal in my bowl, and a cup of non-Nescafe coffee in my hand as I sit out and look out over my adopted neighborhood of Mermoz.

As we walk, we pass this beautiful mural on the wall outside a Muslim Elementary School. I especially get a kick out of the little cafe that operates out a side window. Its permanent menu offers dishes as complex as sandwiche aux frites (chips on a sandwich) and sandwiche aux petits pois (pea sandwich), both of which can be washed down with the classic Senegalese coffee, Cafe Touba which tastes like a heavily sweetened Dirty Chai latte (minus the milk...aka coffee with sugar and spice).

Next up is the corner boulangerie, which in the morning has a steady stream of housemaids and mothers picking up the day's bread. The excess fresh loaves are just stacked outside and when the baker's are hard at work I think it smells like heavenly, carb-y, fresh clouds (a scent which is proven to raise one's spirits by 283%).

These next two images are some classic Mermoz scenes. I no longer need to worry about split-ends in Senegal, because these little hairdresser stalls are quite ubiquitous! The series of restaurants typically serve crepes and omelette sandwiches in the morning, and as the streets become busier everyone from school children to businessmen pause for breakfast on the go. No need for McDonald's 24/7 breakfast!

After moving out of the neighborhood we hit the main street we walk on to get to school, Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop. As you can see, it is a bustling road of taxis, buses and pedestrians and sometimes the layer of smog is stiffling. We also pass one of the great little Dakar gems, Citydia. Citydia is a Spanish brand of supermarkets and so it supplies a wonderful mix of white-person hair products, semi-legit granola bars, and Oreos.

After leaving the busier road we walk down the main street in the lovely area known as Fann Residence. All along the way are small fruit stands, carts selling oranges, men selling phone cards, and also Nescafe coffee carts. For the equivalent of 10 US cents one can buy a shotglass size of Nescafe coffee, which can be complemented with the addition of sugar cubes and powdered milk. If you don't have time to stop for an omelette sandwich, you can also pick up a packet of unexpectedly tasty cookies to tide you over until lunch.

This is not a classic Senegalese tree (for that I would have included a picture of a Baobab tree), but this is a tree we have lovingly come to call "Yoga Tree!" Right before we reach out desination, we get to pass this natural wonder which is a tree that looks like a person doing Dancer Pose (for reference: https://www.google.sn/search?q=yoga+dancer+pose&rlz=1C1GPCK_enUS450&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi7mJjzwfLKAhVFOBoKHSp9BEoQ_AUIBygB&biw=1218&bih=715).

And now we have arrived at the lovely WARC! We are almost likely anywhere between 5-10 minutes late for our first class, but that's ok because we are on Senegal time. We will now settle in for a day of language, development and culture classes and at 6 p.m. will do our walk here in reverse. On the way home, no longer clouded by the fogginess of sleep, we will debrief from our long day while practicing our broken Wolof phrases much to the amusement of every Senegalese person who hears our attempts.