My friends, I will now attempt the impossible: namely, to sum up my first almost-week in Senegal in my few remaining minutes of internet time, on the horrendously illogical French-layout keyboard, with everything still a jumble in my head and without the benefit of pictures.
First, January 3 departure from Berlin, a sudden and complete cut-off to the weeks of hectic preparation that preceded it. Train to Hamburg together with Kap (American) and Graham (Irish), my travel companions for the next three weeks. Lugging eight suitcases and backpacks (Kap brought tons of clothes and useful things to give to people she knows in Senegal, which I thought was great of her) through wet Hamburg streets, where a friend-of-a-friend very kindly put us up for the night.
Flight the next day with a layover in Lisbon, where we had time for a lovely afternoon of wandering the Alfama (convenient - only part of the city I'd heard of beforehand) and sampling many of Portugal's pastries, with a crash course delivered by a proud employee at an upscale bakery.
Landed in Dakar after 2 a.m., getting through passport control and out of the airport uneventful, despite the airport's reputation as awful and hectic. Friends of Kap's had sent a taxi to meet us. The driver was someone she had only a passing acqaintance with, but was effusively friendly like everyone here. Kap was so excited to be back, too, (she's lived in Senegal at points in the past) and she was up front next to the driver, practically bouncing in her seat as he fired questions at her and she answered, "Wauw wauw! Wauw wauw!" ("Yes yes, yes yes"; I asked afterward, and his questions were mainly variations on, "How are you? I missed you! How are you? The city missed you!")
The next days were a whirlwind - we tried to take it slow, but just kept getting invited places. We stayed with some friends of Kap's in Ngor, a village on the beach at the tip of the peninsula Dakar more or less fills, and visited other friends of hers, and of course every jaunt through the village to buy a bottle of water or a pastry turned into a social event, with so many people here who know Kap.
People are so friendly, and there's that whole culture of having to give a lot of appropriate greetings that you've maybe heard of as typical to Africa. But rather than being overwhelming, as I halfway expected, it's easy - you basically just say "How are you?" over and over in different languages (mainly Wolof and French). Caitlin (who I'm visiting now) says she thinks people here don't like silence - even if you've already been there 15 minutes, if they run out of things to say, they'll ask again, "How are you?"
Our very first evening, a friend of Kap's invited us to his father's birthday, where we ended up being invited to join a Thursday evening Muslim prayer meeting in the street (everyone is Muslim here, but in a way that seems pretty laidback and tolerant, and everyone belongs to a specific "brotherhood," which I think just means a certain branch of Islam -- UPDATE: Islam here is specifically Sufi, and the brotherhoods are the branches that follow different spiritual leaders) and then fed birthday cake and a sampling of Senegal's amazing fresh juices, complete with explanation of names and source fruits.
Everyone was impressed that we weren't more overwhelmed, in our first 24 hours, but it just wasn't overwhelming. Friendly and easygoing.
Next day, early morning swim at Ngor beach, exhausting trek to downtown Dakar to do some errands. Kap keeps reminding us that if you can get one thing done a day, it's an accomplishment. Lots of ice cream, lots of pastries. This country is bizarrely full of French patisseries. Dinner with friends of friends, an expat world that felt surreal, stepping into an apartment that could have been in Europe, in Dakar.
Then a lazy day, where all we "accomplished" was walking to the other side of the peninsula and watching the surfers, then in the evening met up with Couchsurfer friends of Kap's, somehow ended up at a party at some random Spanish guys' house, then went out dancing to fabulous mbalax music with one Senegalese friend of Kap's and one random traveling Irishman.
Got back to Ngor about 4 a.m., grabbed a pastry, then I got straight in a taxi to St. Louis (four hours north) to visit Caitlin, an acquaintance from Ithaca.
More anon about that, and the thousands of pelicans. Right now, headed to a major religious pilgrimmage in Touba!
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