Disjointed Thoughts and Observations

I was invited to a colleague's house for dinner with her family. The father was talking about the recent French election, and the bigotry of one of the candidates. A candidate who had equated Africans with primates. Obviously awful. About ten minutes later, someone at the table said something about China. Then the kids pulled their eyes back in their imitation of a Chinese person and started talking in a ridiculous fake Chinese accent. This was encouraged by the parents with fits of laughter. I found this act racist also, and was surprised that it was fine after we had just been discussing the French attitude towards blacks. Then I wondered if I was being too sensitive? It's hard to tell sometimes.

There are no stoplights in Dakar. Why? I don't know. I find it bizarre. There are beaucoup de roundabouts, but they don't necessarily work the way they are supposed to. Often, the police are directing traffic, but with no regulations on emissions (or unenforced regulations), I imagine they'll all have terrible respiratory problems in no time at all. The pollution here is pretty, pretty, pretty bad.

People here almost unfailingly call me either "Kathy" or "Cat-ee". Somehow, these said with a French accent are much more bearable than said with an English accent. No offense meant to the Kathy's and "Cat-ee's" out there; they're just not my thing. When people introduce me, they typically say my entire name in such a way that it sounds like I am the leader of a successful military coup and am addressing my adoring public for the first time: "Now introducing CAT-EE STOCK-TON!!!!" (The crowd goes wild. In my head.)

Unfortunately, as a single female traveler/worker for the most part, it is all too easy to attract unwanted male attention. So far, I have three expressions of love under my belt. Especially unfortunately, two of them come from the young males who live in my guesthouse. This makes my daily life slightly awkward. Though it is nice to receive compliments such as "you are cool; funny; simple; not very hard" (uh...I think...) not to mention my favourite, "irresistible"!

Off to Mali for a quick four day jaunt.

Live-ish Blogging

Continuing the post from hier, j'ai demandé a mon amie 'puis-je manger avec toi aujourd'hui?'. She replied 'I'm fasting', then told me to call extension 7738 when I wanted to eat. I thought she was pointing me in the direction of someone else who would eat with me, mais quand je suis revenue a mon bureau, le extension était pour le 'cafetariat'. Hahahaha. Mon dieu. Luckily, someone else overheard and offered to eat lunch with me at 1:30.

Update: The reason I was told to call the cafeteria is because you have to pre-order your food. Luckily someone pointed this out to me, and I ordered 'salade kubata' et 'C bon'. Huh? Me no know. Turned out the salad was fairly close to salade Nicoise, and the C bon was fish, rice with shrimp and various other sea creatures, and something spicy. It was Senegalese; it was ok. It certainly wasn't as good as injera! I ate with colleagues and we spoke French. When I was busy chewing or not paying attention, they spoke Wolof. Waaw. I now have enough for dinner tonight, as someone was kind enough to lend me their tupperware when I asked Puis-je prendre le riz et poisson emporter?

Pathetic

After writing an email to a friend about my lunch experience today, I felt it worthy of sharing with a wider audience.

I am in Dakar, Senegal. (I know, right!?) Je suis arrivée hier. After landing in the morning, I slept for a few hours, then came to the regional office, where I will be working pour les six prochaines semaines. See, Senegal is a French speaking country. My French is not great, though j'essaie de practiquer.

Now, yesterday I was told that lunch typically happens from 1pm - 2:30pm. Alors, aujourd'hui, j'ai attendu pour quelqu'un to come and get me. No one came (tear). So instead of just sucking it up and investigating the café myself, I sat in my office and thought of various ways of saying 'May I eat lunch with you' for tomorrow then looking them up on the internets.

Excusez-moi, puis-je manger mon déjeuner avec toi? (Je suis très pathétique!)