The huge monument of La Renaissance Africaine in Dakar, which is supposed to display the power and hope for a great future of the African (west African perhaps) nations, was built by Koreans. Only 9 Senegalese were involved.
As I lean outside my window this morning, I see that the whole paved road being renovated along the river is being managed by a Korean.
West Africa is quite a poor region of the world, but if the governments prefer to outsource the massive infrastructure labor work to Asia instead of hiring locals to boost the economy it definitely shows how corrupt the leadership is in pocketing as much cash as possible during their term, and also how they have no intention to help develop the countries they have been elected to govern. But it also shows that the local population doesn't really give a damn either.
It is really sad when you think about it. The locals don't seem to bother all that much. Would something like this happen in France or the US, we would have massive national strikes and revolts. The other question I am also asking myself is: does the local labor actually have the technical skills required for such infrastructure work? If not, why not?
Anyhow, today was quite interesting. I was super tired this morning. The pasta I ate last night kept me awake and sick for part of the night. I should have known better. Oh well..I can't wait to be in morocco to do a full deep intestinal cleanse. Probiotics and heathy mom's food!
I went back to the restaurant where I had had my first dinner when I arrived/ I knew they had wifi and I needed to use the internet to book my Permaculture course in morocco as well as send some emails and get on Skype if possible. I had previously found my supplies to have my usual banana sandwich breakfast, can't go wrong with that. And I went to sit down at one of the bistro table of the restaurant. I shared a table with this engineer from morocco who was on a mission here for a year. So we chatted for a good hour about Morocco and the things we missed from from there food being on top of the list. Lol. Then he left. I ate my sandwich, and spent most of the morning and early afternoon there, online, and an hour later having lunch. They had a good thiebudjen for a decent price. So why not? I didn't want to have the same cream cheese sandwich I had yesterday.
I slowly made my way back to my room to hide from the sun and heat and take a little power nap.
When I woke up I wanted to charge my tablet with the new charger I bought yesterday. Lucky me it didn't work. Hahaha! I say lucky, because thanks to this incident, I had to get up and go find the shop to exchange it back for one that worked. But best of all is that once I had gotten it, and since I was on the other side of the bridge, on the Langue de Barbarie, I decided to go hang out and walk along the beach side. One of the most colorful, vibrating and lively place I have seen on my trip so far. Gosh! What a magical spectacle of a sunset. I couldn't believe I would have almost missed that.
Kids wrestling in the sand, or making fake races with small tin pirogues they built on the model of their father's real one. Other kids standing atop the tip of their daddy's large pirogue and flying tiny hand made kites. Groups of men hauling back their big pirogue filled with fish. Women preparing food. Teens playing soccer. Men fixing their fishing nets, blue, green or red, spread all over the beach. Sheep's of all sizes spread all over the beach and having their dinner from bowls given by their owners. Groups of men of all ages sitting under a tent and having their weekly gathering. Little girls dancing. And the sun slowly making its honey like smooth decent towards the water. And despite the fact that the beach was a total garbage dump site, the scenes were so overwhelming of beauty. I walked while playing with kids and saluting adults all along. I got to a halt when a large group of kids and mostly little girls surrounded me, asking for money, candy, gifts, anything...more so by reflex than by real necessity. And so I kept on asking the oldest one "why?". If i give you money who will give me money? If I give you food who will give me food? Ha! It was so funny to watch her confusion and frustration in not being able to give me a good answer. All the while the smallest kids were trying to climb on me, or playing with my leg hair, and then running away as fast as possible as soon as I would tease them and look at them with mean eyes. Hilarious!
I was magnetically stuck to this little group. But I went on...still more of the beach to explore. But soon after I had left, I decided to get on a mission to buy a big bag of candies to bring back to this group. I just wanted to spend more time with them. It took me a while, especially since shop owner think "bomboms" means cookies, and thus most of the time told me they didn't have any when the front part of their shop was covered with candy boxes. Funny frustration. But I bought 30 lollipops. Wink wink to my favorite Lollipop.
And so when I got back to the beach, the group of girls was just about to start a little dance show, where the youngest ones were dressed with these red dot dresses, all made up as adults and dancing according to some special traditional songs telling stories of married couple. It was adorable. I gave the whole bad of candies to the woman I had spoken with earlier and told her to give the candies to whoever she wanted. That way I am not myself making any jealous or sad kids. And I went to sit down on the little cement wall to watch the rest of the show. The boys were annoying, always trying to divert my attention to anything they could find. Really annoying. "Hey, hey, hey, hey!"
The sun was almost set. The light was most gorgeous. I saw afar scenes with that light that would have made the most amazing photos...but I decided to stay. Deepen myself into the moment...my last sunset in Senegal...magical and well worth it...encapsulating the beauty of this country, set atop a garbage dump.
The more places i see, the more I realize how garbage is impacting me and how without a doubt, this issue of garbage disposal and recycling potential will most certainly play a big role in my future. It really has been a common thread of my adventure so far, country after country.
When I left the beach, the older girl who was so frustrated and upset earlier ran after me and told me: "monsieur, toi tres gentils, Merci!". I was moved. I didn't do much. I just gave the a few candies, and barely took any photos. I didn't want to ruin the moment. I just spent time with them and appreciatively sat there enjoying the moment.
People are most definitely what makes this life and world so interesting. People often wonder why we are on this planet, why we exist. I tend to think, that it is simply because our existence is what allows to diversify the pool of beings and the interactions between us all. The energy produced from these interactions, the continuity of this magical flow of diverse emotions and feelings is what makes the presence of each additional being well worth it. It is incredible to see how we tend to spend more time and energy in our life trying to find out why we exist, rather than to enjoy our existence. What a shame...
No comments:
Post a Comment