The french! and friends.

So again I find myself in a Francophone country and again I find that I have a somewhat difficult time enjoying myself. Morocco was different as I was travelling with Sevtap, who speaks excellent French and moderate Arabic, but Tunisia and Senegal both leave me feeling somewhat alone and anxious. In Tunisia, I honestly think that the tourist economy created an atmosphere of deeper distrust than would ever allow me to feel included in the local scene. But Senegal, I must admit, is probably limited most by my own fear.

I find it difficult to really put myself out there as much because I have such trouble with the language.

Ok, a short aside: 175 in French is cent-soixante-quinze. Literally hundred-sixty-fifteen. And 195 is cent-quatre-vingt-quinze, literally hundred-four twenties-fifteen. No wonder I have such trouble with French numbers!!! Ugh.

So anyway I am holding back a bit and I need to stop. Sure I could wait for Julie (who speaks much more French than I do) but that seems a bit lazy. I just have to make an effort myself. All of the conversations I have had here have been just fine. A perfectly acceptable level of misunderstanding, sign language, embarrasment, and when all else fails consulting my pocket dictionary - nothing I can't handle. But I still find myself being shy.

I did manage to take the local bus into Dakar yesterday and when it was obvious that I couldn't understand the conductor, my neighbor spoke up and translated. Very nice. I have found the people here to be not overly welcoming but also not overly demanding for me to come look at their art. It is a pleasant level of people being friendly without being overly involved.

Dakar is DRY and HOT. The few trees that exist look as though they haven't seen water in years. And every surface (including me) is covered by the red sand and dust.

I have settled in to the Yoff-Layenne suburb north of Dakar and quite enjoy my little neighborhood of twisting sand alleyways filled with children playing soccer and stands selling little baguette sandwiches. It is, once again, a predominantly muslim area and I find that 'Salaam Aleikum' is the most common greeting and am again roused in the morning by the call to prayer.

I am eagerly awaiting Julie's arrival tomorrow morning. "Tomorrow," you ask, "I thought she arrived tonight?" Well yes, but Iberia Air seems to have cancelled her ticket without telling her. She arrived at the airport only to find that no seat awaited her. So she got to purchase a day-of ticket at the airport kiosk. She is now on her way a mere 14 hours behind schedule - a frustrating beginning to her travels but no real problem. So I have one more evening by myself.

This is the last evening of my solo travels so let me review a bit:

I set out on this adventure with a few goals and anti-goals:

The big 4 anti-goals are:
•  No African hospitals
•  No African jails
•  No abduction or involvement in international "incidents"
•  No getting eaten by lions (or by anything really)

So far so good.

But there were other goals as well:
•  Attempt to be part of the local scene as opposed to the tourist scene as much as possible
•  Take time to write (blogs, journals, novels, poetry, random thoughts, plays, etc)
•  Follow my instincts as I push myself out of my comfort zone
•  Eat great food that I can't find at home
•  See and experience things that I can't find at home
•  Meet people that I wouldn't meet at home
•  Hear and see lots of African music

I've done very well here as well.

And I had some accomplishments that I hadn't anticipated:
The biggest of which was meeting travellers with whom I hope to keep in touch. I have a number of new friends in Scandinavia, the UK, and Canada (Jakob, Gry, Richard, Symon, Sarah, Kristine, Lesley, Mattieu). I also have a few people in Tanzania and Malawi with whom I hope to stay in touch (Leonard and Mack).

And I am positive that I will continue to be close to my friend, Sevtap. I never would've imagined that I would meet someone on my travels who would then join me in another country a few months later.

So the looming end of my travels is a confusing moment in my mind. I am sad to leave this behind. Sad to leave Africa; sad to leave this experience. But also excited and happy. I am thrilled to get back to my house and to Julie. I want to see all of my friends from home - people I miss all the time. And I am happy to have some time to incorporate the lessons I've learned into my life there without the need to constantly learn anew.

I am looking forward to using a dishwasher and a washing machine (and having more than two shirts). I am excited for consistently fast internet connectivity and knowing where to buy toothpaste.

But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. I still have 12 days of travel to report. So stay tuned!