Am I the hunter, or the hunted?
If you look at my last posting, you will see that the public works professionals are digging up every inch of dirt in Point E (that’s the area where I live). This inconvenience translates into irate taximen who just love when I lean in to their passenger side window and tell them where they get to take me. People really don’t swear here, but if they did I am sure they would call the whole area of Point E un bordel. For your benefit, let’s just say that it’s a catastrophe of dynamic proportions- and you never know where the road is going to be blocked off or if there will be water- or worse sewage- spouting uncontrollably.
So if you examine the photo of the “construction site”, you won’t be able to miss what is probably the greatest hazards to my constitution while living in a developing country. That’s right, I’m talking about the ditch.
“Alpiner is a side-scrolling climbing game for the Texas Instrument 99/4A where the aim is to get the protagonist to the top of the mountain while avoiding environmental hazards (falling debris, fires, snakes, bears, lions, etc.)”
I have become the protagonist: the unwitting embodiment of a fondly-recalled Texas Instrument game, circa 1982.
This country is not like our country. When the smallest of construction projects are undertaken, in the U.S. we cordon off the area with blinking lights, traffic cops (who are paid waaaaay too much) and other buffers in order to keep Darwin Award nominees from wandering in and killing themselves- thus precipitating a lawsuit.
The video quality may have changed, but times sure haven’t…
So the trench here is literally an open deathtrap that is not covered or even blocked once night falls and Dakar is thrust into blackness. I walk by this thing twice a day as I commute to class. If it weren’t for the handy pocket flashlight that was my father’s Christmas gift to all of us kids (doubtless a three dollar Job Lot bargain), I’d probably have seen the inside of a Senegalese hospital by now.
You never know where the Wumpus will be hiding here in Dakar- especially since every manner of crater, cavity or ditch pops up without notice and makes you pay dearly for your lack of situational awareness.
But as of right now, I am home and live to fight another day. You people who have sidewalks and can take each step with a greater than 10% certainty that there will be smooth concrete underfoot? Count your blessings, and remember that not every corner of the world has managed to fully move on from the land of bad 1980s game systems.