Will today be a day of positive encounters?

● As I see it, yes

● It is certain

● It is decidedly so

● Most likely

● Outlook good

● Signs point to yes

● Without a doubt

● Yes

● Yes – definitely

● You may rely on it

● Reply hazy, try again

● Ask again later

● Better not tell you now

● Cannot predict now

● Concentrate and ask again

● Don’t count on it

● My reply is no

● My sources say no

● Outlook not so good

● Very doubtful

I have slid back into the “daily friction” known as life in Dakar. How do you know you are back in the swing of things? When you are walking the city streets and overtake one of these guys wandering the streets, unanchored and unconcerned:

This isn’t a great picture because I was trying to be nonchalant and pretending to send a text.  I saw this roving road block about 30 minutes later, a quarter of a mile down the road, making his rounds in oblivion.

I find that life here often has a very staccato flow. One moment you are loudly being called a racist by a tout for not stopping to listen to his spiel while traversing a busy marketplace. Then, after you finally get to where you need to be going- all annoyed at a string of frustrations, your house security guards are motioning you over, telling you in Wolof to come eat some lunch with them. 

Picture stolen from the internet to give you an idea of how families typically eat.

Delete that vision of a brown bag lunch that is in your head. Here, lunch typically means food served in a bowl with people stooped near the ground. They handed me a spoon that had clearly been used, and motioned for me to eat next to an old man with cataracts.

Sound like the last thing that you want to do after a hectic day? Doesn’t matter. Even though you are tired, have a bunch of grocery bags, and you’re sweating from a half mile’s walk, you still stop and join the group. The payoff? I got my first taste of lakh– sweetened millet and soured milk (like a yogurt), a breakfast dish typically served the day after Ramadan. It was delicious, and this gesture of sharing totally turned my day around.

That’s life here.  For better or for worse, you never know what you’re going to encounter next.